Stay-cation Day 1

Actually, we didn't stay home today.

We took Christmas presents and cookies to Mother in her retirement home, had a lovely lunch with her and The Saint, and came home this evening. We are currently watching "Fred Claus" to be followed by George C Scott in "A Christmas Carol."

And I am working on this year's ornament from Barbara Jackson through Shining Needle Society.

Mary Otter is taking the week off. I had thought to work on one and only one project during my week off, but then decided I want to stick a needle in several things. So that's my Christmas present to myself--I'm going to play with different projects and then go back to plying my needle on Mary after the first of January.

Stay-cation Day 0.5

Well, the switchboard at work was turned off at one, so we were free to leave early today.

And I did a few minutes later when Baby Girl arrived in town for a long-awaited lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant.  She had Lunch A which had ramen in one bowl with shrimp on top and another bowl full of something else that looked delightful. I had Lunch B which was an assortment of nigiri and sushi and salads.

Originally we had made plans to go home and immediately start on the cookie extravaganza. We changed the plans over lunch, deciding that we both needed time to decompress.  She is knitting herself a sweater.  And Mary Otter has window frames:

We finally were hungry enough to have leftover lasagna for dinner and then got down to work. Well, we sort of halfway got down to work. I had made the cookie dough the night before so it could chill. We decided that we could do half of each recipe to take to Mother's tomorrow, then do the rest some other time over the week-end.

At one point in my past as a Domestic Diva, I would make ten or twelve different varieties of cookies every year. At the time, we had children in and out who would take care of eating them. Now that we don't have an easy cookie-disposal system--and Dearly Beloved and I don't need to eat hundreds of cookies--we have settled on the two recipes that everyone loves and make those.

Although I'm very tempted to stop by the grocery store tomorrow to pick up flaked coconut and apricot preserves because there is a new recipe I'd kind of like to try ...

No, I do not need to do that. No, I do not. I really don't.

I'll sleep on it.

Still Laying Bricks

and cooking and baking and wrapping and decorating and stalking the mail carrier and UPS truck and going to work every day.

That pretty much sums up the last few days.

Laying Bricks

We have reached the stage in construction in which we are laying bricks.

This is a quite unusual brick pattern, with very light, creamy bricks alternating with brick-colored bricks.

It's made me wonder--was this Mary's house? Or was it one she admired? And I wonder if the brick pattern could give a hint as to where Mary lived. It's going to be quite a stately house, high on a hill with a fancy fence around it and flowering trees adorning the property. And there will be a carriage driving toward it before this is all over.

But tonight I need to see if I can get the third bin of ornaments on the tree--or if I can persuade myself that there's enough and more would be gilding the lily.

Or overburdening the tree.

Up on the Rooftop

Mary Otter has a roof and chimneys. They are floating in mid-air, but the mansion is begun:

Meanwhile, in this household, The Great Christmas Tree Installation has begun.

We finally got our tree on Friday evening and have started decorating it today. Dearly Beloved is doing the light dance. He and the strings of lights get themselves all tangled about and then get untangled and he flails about and the suddenly they are wound around the tree.

I should not mention that there is a spot where the lights seem a little thinner than in other areas.

I should probably put more ornaments there and just not say anything about the light imbalance.

And on to the great event of today. Mother is 90. Dearly Beloved, The Saint, and I went to visit her in her retirement center yesterday. I asked her if she now planned to live to be 100. She said she wanted to.

Today when I called her to wish her a happy birthday, she very proudly told me that she is 100.

The Saint and I have decided that we aren't arguing with her about anything. She's very happy so why upset the apple cart?

So today is either Mother's 90th birthday (according to the calendar) or her 100th (according to her).

Raising the Roof

Home again, and back to Mary Otter. She did not visit Williamsburg--she needs her own special tote bag to travel due to her size, and we already had filled up the trunk and the back seat with stuff that Dearly Beloved felt was necessary to take--just in case the zombie apocalypse occurred and we would need a case of bottled water, for example.

Anyway, I have started on the roof of her house.

I'm assuming her house had a slate roof that had a blue-ish cast . . .

Hopefully I can add some more tonight, but it may not happen. Along with delightful memories, I seem to have brought a head cold home from Williamsburg. I woke up at about 5 a.m. Monday morning feeling like my head was full of cement--and it had hardened--and sniffed and sneezed all the way home. Due to better living through chemistry, I managed to avoid sniffing and sneezing (too much) at work, but it appears that pill is wearing off.

Oh, well, 'tis the season. If Rudolph needs a night off, my nose will be red enough so that I can substitute.

Williamsburg!!!

Well, I brought the laptop, fully intending to blog about this whole trip--but we were so busy and so much was going on that I'm finally putting words to computer on the night before we leave for home and reality.

We had what may have been the easiest trip ever--no wrecks, no delays due to highway construction, we rolled right onto the Jamestown Ferry without a wait, we picked up our annual passes at the Visitor Center, visited Haus Tirol, and checked in--everything smooth as buddah.

Early Thursday morning, we wandered around the Historic District for awhile--and found our favorite decoration for this year:

Here's the staff at the Weavers' Shop and their Sheep "Wreath." They were absolutely delightful to talk to, just like everyone else in Williamsburg always is.

That evening we had the opening banquet, where we received this year's special ornament:

Jackie du Plessis designed and donated the ornament--which looks incredibly complex. Looks are deceiving--it's another one of her very clever assemblies.

And the next day I had the first day of classes with two of my favorite teachers.

It occurred to me when I was taking pictures that I basically stitched squares for three days.

Catherine Theron designed a beautiful whitework sampler. I haven't met one of Catherine's samplers that I don't love, but I have to say this one has moved to the top of my list. Catherine goes over every single step of the instructions in her classes and she demonstrates the more complicated stitches. I'm looking forward to working on this one in the new year.

It was even nicer to have a good friend sitting beside me in class!

Then, in the afternoons I worked on another of Jackie du Plessis' lovely etuis--and stitched more squares:

This is going to become a pinkeep, also probably in the new year. Jackie also covers every step of the process in her classes and with every one of her classes I take, I'm more confident of my finishing abilities. And that is saying something.

Alas, we have to go back to reality too early in the morning. We have a stop on the way so we can take Baby Girl out for a birthday lunch--but then, it's the grind again.

However, I have already signed up for next year--something to look forward to.