Counting the hours until Christmas

Seems like it's been no time at all since I last posted when in actuality it was last Monday - five days ago. On the other hand this seemed like a very long week. Wednesday felt like it should be Friday already. Thursday definitely felt like it should be the end of the week. By the time it really was Friday it felt like I'd been working forever. I was supposed to start vacation after a short morning meeting on Friday, but various circumstances prevented me from leaving until mid-afternoon. By the time I'd gone to the bakery to order Christmas goodies that I had no time to make, stopped by a couple restaurants to get gift cards as well as the liquor store to get Peppermint Schnapps and rum it was late afternoon. I was going to stop for stocking gifts too but just went home to see if DH wanted to come along. I was so tired I was really afraid I was coming down with something. I set the alarm so I could be at Target when it opened at 8:00 this morning. No need to do so after all - my body clock woke me up shortly after 5:00 and I couldn't get back to sleep. I finally got up about 15 minutes to 6:00. I had 84 blogs to catch up reading, so I made coffee, added some peppermint Coffeemate and sat down at the computer.

I finished shopping finished by 8:30 and headed back home. Shortly thereafter I had the stockings all stuffed except for my son's and Chelsea's. I have to figure out a way to add our names to these stockings! This is the third year we've had them and I still can't keep them all straight. I know theirs are blue - but I don't know who has the Santa in a sleigh print and who has the snowmen. I've emailed them to ask but haven't heard back yet. We already have stockings for Joseph and Sophie, and I put things in both of them. Am I the only totally nutty new grandmother-to-be who stuffs stockings for grandbabies not yet born? All the things at the store were just TOO cute.

My daughter called about 10:00 to report that she still needed to shower and get dressed, so our morning Starbucks run didn't happen until after 11:00. Rick has been sick in bed with a terrible head cold since Tuesday, and his rough night sleeping kept her awake a lot. After coffee we took a run to Oregon City to pick up his paycheck, took it to the credit union, then headed for some groceries. It's almost a sure thing that Rick won't feel like coming over tomorrow, so it turns out I'll do the turkey tomorrow and save the cheese fondue to Christmas. Rebecca doesn't want either of them to miss out on that, and she'll probably just run over for a short time tomorrow. So the turkey is out of the refrigerator and in a cold water bath to speed it's thawing. Everyone at Rick's folk's house is sick too - that's where he caught this he thinks - and our daughter is doing everything she can to try to stay healthy. So many nasty bugs are making their way around town these days - there are lots and lots of people who are sick for Christmas. I feel so badly for Rick. I sure hope he feels better on Christmas.

I still need to wrap gifts but that's about it. Oh - there's grocery shopping first thing tomorrow also, so I need to make my list tonight. I'll pick up the goodies at the bakery at 8:00 a.m. then head to the store. Then I'll probably pin another quilt on the machine and quilt until Jeremy and Chelsea get here. I have two more Army quilts to do for our small quilt group - one of our member's son's is in Iraq, and he's requested an army quilt for each of his buddies in his tank platoon. I quilted one on Thursday in spite of my stiff back, and have two to go. Others are quilting the other 4 that the group pieced. Once I finish those two I can get back to working on Sophie's quilt.
My Tangled Threads group had a wonderful Christmas dinner at the restaurant at the Heathman Lodge here in town. I had a petite top sirloin that was one of the best steaks I've every had, with creamed fresh spinach and crispy onion rings. A glass of wine went will with the meal, then we all indulged in dessert. I had a chocolate pudding cake which was one of the most wonderful, decadent things I've ever eaten. I just did my best to forget all about Weight Watchers for one evening - and it wasn't hard to do! We took time to have our traditional Christmas picture taken - this time with "Santa". What a special group of women these are - we've been together almost 20 years. The season wouldn't be the same without our Christmas dinner together each year.

Here's wishing each and every one of you a wonderful holiday season whatever your beliefs. Hoping all of you have a wonderful time together with family and or friends, and wishing you the best in the coming year. Thank you for your online quilty friendships - I value each of them more than you can know.