A Late Christmas Recap

A few of my favorite things:

 I usually stamp my paper and/or tags but this year I had the Grandkids draw on it. I hated to cut it apart! Love how it turned out though. Start of a new tradition.

Put up my JOY banner again this year with a new addition!

Made a new advent calendar with my Tom's chip rack. This was so much fun!! Want to add pics to the back next year.

Most of us took frame pics for Christmas eve, they turned out really cute!

December was busier than usual. Besides a birthday added there my youngest son graduated from college. Really proud of him!!

A quick update

A crocheted owl hat for Avery for her Birthday invite....

 Christmas decorating and gifts...

The only handmade gift I made this year...

First Christmas for Ollie...

This silly boy Gabe...

Avery dreaming of sugarplums...

And Georgie girl...

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 Hope to get back to posting more regularly soon. November and December were so busy but really filled with fun and love. Moving on to the New Year which started with two parties on each of the first two weekends already. This weekend will be a quiet one so I think I need to start cleaning up my sewing room to get ready for whatever's next! Hope everyone had a Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year so far.

Linking to Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound. It's been such a long time since I've visited all the pinky goodness!

Teddy Bear Tea

You'd better watch out!

Santa Claus is coming to town!!

 Memories-loving them all!

Pink Saturday on Sunday

Posting a little late because of sickness (so sorry for anyone who stopped by yesterday). This old ornament was bought by my grandmother and brings back so many memories of Christmas' pasts. My mom has about 6 left and they're really fragile. I found a tree for her to hang them on along with some other old ornaments she still has. She doesn't remember where her mother bought them but it had to be so long ago. (My grandmother passed away in 1963). 

I love these so much! To me, the memories from our past hold us all so dear to each other. Christmas was always so special in our house. With ten kids we really didn't buy much. My mom helped us make decorations, we held our Christmas plays (see post down), we pulled names and we had each other. Now we still gather at my mom's house, and our family has grown to over 50. We still sing Christmas carols, pull names and eat too much. The love and laughter are there as always. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and a great pink saturday!! Please visit Beverly and share some of the pink-my new blog to visit is Laura at 52 Flea. She has some wonderful Christmas photos and I love the vintage items and flea market finds!

2009 Christmas Tree

                                                     
2009 Christmas Tree, originally uploaded by suesueb.

For some reason I'm having a hard time signing on to my blog so I'm doing this through flickr. My daughter gave me this aluminum tinsel tree one Christmas years ago and I usually put it up along with a real tree )which I decorate in vintage ornaments and red and green colors). This year I cut back on so much decorating and simply put this one up with its' pinks, blues and greens and did the mantel to match. I hope I can get on my computer blogs tomorrow to visit the pink ladies of saturday fame! Happy pink (and red and green) week to y'all all!!
Finally got here! Sometimes my computer won't load up my blog (or others). I really don't know how to make it go faster. Anyway, here's the link to visit for Pink Saturday.

Pink Saturday and Wonderful Memories

                         
Kellie,Suesue,Melanie,Homer 1962, originally uploaded by suesueb.

My favorite Christmas memories are the plays that we (myself with my siblings) performed every Christmas Eve for my Mom and Dad. My oldest sister would write the play and direct us. We often started in the summer and would make costumes out of any available materials and old clothes. I blogged about this play before and I thought it would great for Pink Saturday because of my costume ( and the bunny)! In this scene my brother is trying to steal the flowers from Spring. I love looking at all these pictures so much and remembering such wonderful times! My mom had all the Christmas pictures in one album and I scanned them on to CD's for everyone in the family. Thanks Beverly for letting us share another special time with each other during this holiday season!!

Today is also this little girl's 2nd Birthday. Rachael and Georgia have moved back home with us and while we're still figuring out where to put everything, the upside is seeing this adorable face more often!! She's so grown up and talks all the time. So much has happened in the last two years but we love having her around to brighten up our world!!

Swaps

Joined Amy's Christmas ornament swap again this year. I even started the ornaments!! It's always so fun, sort of like a secret Santa. Check out the adorable badge she made for us. Love, love, love.

Pink Saturday

Another Pink Saturday already and I hope you join me in visiting some of the pink blogs from here.

Showing some more dresses I made for a friend's grand daughters. Trying to do some Christmas early.

I love this fabric by Alexander Henry-so bright and fun! (trying to find some more) It's hard to see but I used some fancy stitches along the hem.

I hope you all have a wonderful Pink Saturday and will try to visit as much as possible this week. I won't be participating for a while with family matters and holiday and sewing obligations. Wishing y'all all some wonderful months ahead with family and friends!

Creative Spaces

I love checking out the Creative Spaces hosted by this lovely lady. So many great inspirations and really cute ideas!! Sharing my space this week with some Christmas ornaments I'm making for a swap. Finally joined all the quilters with their hexagon love. These little bitty things take some time! But they're really quite addictive. Maybe after the other holiday chaos settles down, I'll try to make some larger ones.

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Going visit the other creative ladies on the list-later!

Christmas 2008

i can't believe it's over----again. hope santa brought you all what you wanted! my tree this year below. i only had room for one and i like the traditional when i have to choose, filled with old ornaments (some handmade by me), candy molds, and soft garland.

the card i made for my brothers and sisters. inside is a Christmas picture of us all from 1976. i'd show it but i still haven't connected my scanner to my computer (it's only been 11 months)! i found this quote during the summer and knew instantly that i'd use it for my cards for them. 
this year my kids and i decided to celebrate together Christmas evening. i wanted it special for all of us so i used my sets of Christmas dishes and silverware. i won these fitz and floyd dishes one year (i think 1981). i had only bought one ticket from a friend to support the effort and when i got the phone call i was so confused. the caller said i had won some china and could i go pick it up in houma and go in a truck or large vehicle. there were so many boxes! place settings for eight including plates, cups, saucers, bowls, serving pieces, etc. i love them and i felt so lucky!!
these dishes i bought at target one year. i wish they'd sell them again so i could buy more! they're so much fun and match my kitchen so well i display them on my open shelves during the season. i think we all had a wonderful evening. the kids all enjoyed their gifts (especially the baby books which i need to take pics of and blog). they gave E a vcr/dvd player and we watched old home movies and laughed so much. i think it'll be a wonderful new tradition. the past couple of years we were sort of displaced since we lost our second home with one of my best friends' mom's death. we always celebrated with them and then last year we had lost my brother in november and rachael had georgia on dec. 5 (and was having a few problems) and the holidays were confusing and sad and happy all at once. i couldn't even find all my ornaments for the tree because i couldn't remember where i put them. this year was sad because of kellie being gone but at my mom's everyone made it through playing with all the babies (3 new) and enjoying being together. it was noisy and fun. i hope your holidays were merry and bright too!!

santa sacks

making these santa sacks for some friends and family Christmas gifts. i took old bank bags and stitched on fabric printed with vintage images. i embellished the images first and then added other trinkets and of course bells, one of my favorite holiday sounds. i still have to add some handles. click on the picture for a close up view!

hope i have time to make some more-i have such a to do list! happy holidays!!