This week's SBQ

I never do these when I first get them and then things happen and sometimes I forget. I'd like to start doing them each week, so I'll start this week and see how 2008 goes.

This weeks question:

Did you receive any stitching-related gifts for the holidays?

Kind of. I got 2 "felted bunny kits" along with the felting block to make them. The kits were from two different friends who had found the perfect "T" gift. Then they discovered they'd both found the perfect gift, they decided to send them both to me and not be responsible for the consequences of having 2 bunnies in close proximity. LOL! That's the closest I came to stitching-related gifts this year.

This is not about Christmas

I take time out of the season to say that I accomplished something tonight. For those of you who read this and are part of the Ravelry community, you may understand the significance of what I'm about to say. You see, I've been trying to get my stash all organized on Ravelry. If for no other reason then so I can see it. I store most of my yarn in these really pretty hamper-like things, which is great, but you can't look at your yarn when it's all in that. Now, I don't have everything listed, but I have all the really good stuff pretty much listed and with pictures on Ravelry. I'm so excited! I know I'm missing some things, but the bulk is there. I'm going to try and pick up the rest this week. So, if you're a part of Ravelry, feel free to browse.

In stitching news, I started a new project on Christmas Day. I knew I would. It's a small item, so I might actually finish it, plus it's a bunny. It's from Trilogy and called "Happy Bunny Bunny Day". I decided to do it 1 over 1 in the hopes it will be small enough to make a cute pin. We'll see how it looks when it's done. Not much to show, but I'll try to take a picture this weekend to give you an update. What I really need to stitch on is a super-secret item that I need to get done by some point in January. I'll probably work on that some tomorrow. Plus I need to get with Judy and get her ornament started for her prize. Once I know which one I'm going to do, I'll let you all know too. I really just want to spend the rest of the week stitching and maybe knitting, but it hasn't happened so far. I only got in 2 or 3 hours on Christmas day and an hour tonight. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Our office is closed so I really don't have to work until at least the 2nd, maybe even the 3rd! There should be some quality time available in all that somewhere to do what I want to do!

And the winner is...

Judy with "Frostless the Snowman". To be fair we put all the names in a hat and drew one. There were some really good entries for names. Have to admit that I loved "Sonny", "Rocky" and of course "Mr. Dazzle FSU (pronounced Fisu). "Gumbeaux"got a laugh as well.

Thanks for all who participated. I'll post the prize as soon as I make sure Judy doesn't have what I plan on stitching.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Day!

Contest deadline extended

Mainly because I'm obviously crazy if I thought I'd have time to pick the winner today. I'm making food for our open house tonight between Candlelight Services at church. So, you have until tomorrow to submit your ideas. Let' s say by 4PM eastern time.

Merry Christmas Eve!

It's an official contest and more decorating

Ok, it's official, "Name the Snowman" is a real contest. I'll tell you that the winner will be getting a hand-made ornament of my choosing and if I were you I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with the contest. So, you have until Christmas Eve morning at 9 AM to post a comment with your suggestion or suggestions. I will then put all the names in a hat and have my mother choose the winning name. That seems fair. This means that multiple suggestions gives you multiple chances to win. I'll post the winner's name Christmas Eve and will send you an email as well.

Ok, that's out of the way, now for pictures of decorations. Yesterday mom and I must have thought we had all the time in the world because we decided to head outside and cut some branches from one of the magnolia trees and use them on a table in the Family room. The idea was simple, but we got a little carried away with our cutting and ended up with lots of branches and leaves, much more then we needed for this.It doesn't really show up that well, but some of the leaves I painted silver, so in person it looks much better. (To the left is the snowman who shall be named later.) To the right of this table is the fireplace.
I liked this picture, even though it's kind of dark, because you can sort of see the lights.

You may be wondering what we did with the left over magnolia branches, since as you can see I didn't use all that many. Well wonder no more...There it hangs in all it's glory. I added in some boxwood, since mine needed to be trimmed a bit anyway, and of course painted some silver. Decided it would look wonderful hanging outside the Sun Porch. You can see my father inside enjoying a good book while I did work. Must be nice to be retired.

I actually managed to send out almost all of my Christmas cards this evening. I have a couple that didn't go out. I ran out of cards with just a couple to go. That's just my luck. Went shopping for most of the food I'll need for Christmas Eve. We still haven't decided on what to have Christmas Day. I'm leaning toward either a pork loin or standing rib roast. I'm going to take a stroll through some recipes and then decide what might be the easiest.

Tonight more cookie baking ensued. I need to get up early and start back at it in the morning, plus do any prep work for Christmas Eve. I almost forgot that mom and I have tickets to see "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" in Jacksonville Sunday night. I can't imagine having a show that close to Christmas, but it's part of our series, so we're going. That means Sunday I won't get any cooking done. But I'm sure I'll enjoy the play!

A Snowman in Florida

That's right, we have a snowman right here in north Florida! He may not look like any snowman you've ever seen, but just remember, he's going to be different since he's a southern boy/snowman.
He's all decked out and ready to have a good time with some bear friends. (On a whole other note I realize that on some level it's kind of sad that I have no children and that many bears. Plus there's some you can't see scattered around. So, yeah, I like bears...and rabbits...and the occasional penguin.)

Mom says he needs a name. I've been trying to think of something really interesting, but I'm tired so nothing is coming to mind. Feel free to make suggestions. If I choose your name, I'll send you a surprise (but it will take a little while to get it to you because first I have to make it so bear with me. No pun intended...I really am tired.)

He's sitting in the rocking chair my grandpa B. gave me right before he died. I was just a little girl, but he wanted me to have it. The chair was his mothers and she rocked all her children, then he got it and rocked his kids and me. I had to have the seat rewoven several years ago and was lucky to find a man here that could recreate the original fairly closely.

Today was a lot of clean-up work. Going through a room and picking up things, sweeping and dusting one last time. I have some pictures of the lighted pieces on my piano. I realize that in the real London these three pieces would not be this close, but work with me here, this is pretend.
Tonight was the children's play/musical at church. They did a fantastic job. My friend's daughter L. had a huge part, in fact, she was one of the main characters. She did a great job. She's only in the 1st grade and she had a lot of lines to memorize. I was very proud of her and all the kids. No pictures, since I completely forgot my camera.

Tomorrow I have to finish those small details and then put together the menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I keep trying to talk my family into having pizza on Christmas Day so I can stitch and knit all day, but I don't think they're buying it. Oh well, at least if we do turkey there'll be leftovers and some good soup at some point!

What a weekend!

Seriously I had a really great weekend. It was busy, but there was some fun thrown in so it was worth it.

Friday evening mom & I went shopping for a few things we needed, nothing spectacular, but I managed to find some goodies to finish up my gifts for some friends here in town. Just in time too. Now I have to put everything together and hope they enjoy the combination of handmade and cool bought things.

Saturday I got up early and headed over to KnitWitz for class with Annie Modesitt. What a wonderful teacher. You can see pictures over on Yarnfinder's blog (or as we know her Kathe). I'm in a couple of pictures for the Universal Mitered bag class, but all you can see is my back or the top of my head. I love the project, but even more I love how Annie talked about making patterns your own. She shared some cool tips and tricks and encouraged us to take what we learned and put it in our "toolbox" to take out later. I like when that's the attitude of the teacher. For some reason I totally didn't get that I needed yarn that would felt. If you've taken a look at my Ravelry stuff lately (for those on Ravelry I'm GirlWithNeedles, and if you knit and you aren't on Ravelry or signed up to get on, what are you waiting for???) you can see I have some felting yarn. And that's not all of it. I have great scraps that would have worked for something this small. But that was not to be. I guess the yarn fairies wanted me to purchase more yarn. The colors I chose are kind of interesting, see...That color on the left, that's kind of more orange then I would normally like, but I was so drawn to the multi yarn above it that I thought it would work. It's actually kind of more like a coral color in a way. But still, not my normal color choice.

Saturday when I got home it was time to start cleaning the windows on the sun porch. That room is wonderful, and I love it, especially this time of year, but cleaning those windows isn't all that fun. Luckily it doesn't involve a ladder. The decision was also made to not put up the 9 ft. tree this year. It's getting late in the season and it's a bear to put up, so no big tree. Oh well. I also did some work on the mantle decorations. That carried on into Sunday before it was done. No pictures yet though, there's still stuff in the way so I can't get a good picture. Soon, I promise.

It's late and I'm tired...

but I thought I'd let everyone know that my dad's eye surgery/zapping went well today. He said this evening that he seems to be able to see better. Tomorrow we'll let the Dr. take a look and make sure it's all ok.

Decorating continued today. I can see the end in sight. Lots of little things to finish up, plus the BIG tree. (9 1/2 ft. is big in my book.)

Finally got around to signing up for an Annie Modesitt class that's this Sat. I decided on the Modular knitting class. I really wanted to take the cables and lace class, but it's in the middle of the day on Friday and I just can't do that. I think I'll be happy with the one I chose though. I have started a modular knitting sweater, but it's majorly stalled so I'm hoping this might help things along. The class is Sat. morning so it's another Sat. of getting up earlier then I normally do on a Sat. At least this week it's for something I want to do, not something I have to do.

That's it. Maybe, just maybe tomorrow I'll finish something up in the decorating department and have some pictures to share. Keep your fingers crossed, I know I've got mine crossed!

Feels like a Wednesday!

Well, it is Wednesday, but still...

Actually it probably wasn't all that bad, it was just another busy day. Between having to go do some major grocery shopping and still working on decorating and then getting ready for my weekly Wed. night meeting for church, well it all ran together and I'm surprised I got as much done as I did. (Of course my friend Bill said when I spoke to him at some point this afternoon that people like he and I find things to do when we don't have anything to do. Which is of course, why I knit and stitch and do things like that, so I'll always have something to do.)

Sorry though, no pictures today. I worked on things, but didn't actually finish anything to the point of being able to take a picture. Started work this afternoon on the mantel decorations. I'm adding in some stuff so I'll change it some from last year. Ok, so that's kind of what I do every year, I add something and take something else out.

I also came to the realization that I am not a minimalist. I'm probably far from it. Not that I can't appreciate the idea and even the look to some extent, but if given my way I like things to be a bit ornate so to speak. I think this shows up more at Christmas then any other time. I like lots of lights and ornaments and the more glitter the better! I'm sure a few of you already figured that out from the pictures, but in case there was any doubt.

Finally, tomorrow I may actually get to turn the heel on the pair of socks that's been traveling around with me for the last month. Daddy has his eye procedure in the morning, so I'm off to bed to get some sleep. It's another busy day tomorrow.

Random Tuesday

Maybe not too random, but there are a few things I need to post about so I can get a little caught up with my blogging so this is my attempt.

1. I should have planned better and had a cute little something made for Andy & Christina's new baby when she arrived last Tuesday. It's not like I didn't know the baby was coming, nor had I not thought about it. For some reason though that hadn't actually translated into an actual item made. Since I made Cheri's baby a sweater set when she was born I felt that I should do something similar. Here's what I have so far.Quick picture taken on the sun porch this afternoon. I'm using a skein of Yarn Bee I had in my stash. I love the way the colors are looking, so perfect for a baby girl, plus it's really soft and not too heavy, which is perfect for FL weather. I started it last Thursday night and just have 13 more rows on the left side to complete then I can stitch it together. I think I'll try to make a cute little hat and maybe some booties if I have enough yarn.

2. My dad has to go Thursday to have his lens implants "fixed". He had cataract surgery in '04 and apparently the membrane that holds the lens in can get thick and cause some blurriness in vision. It's easily corrected with a little "zap" from the laser. The eye surgeon said he wanted to do it before he left for Christmas on the 23rd. Thursday fits that schedule. Sounds very easy, no drops, no eye patch, no special food or lack there-of.

3. I finished stitching another ornament! YEAH!It's called "No Square Santas". Sorry it's kind of blurry. I didn't like the one with flash and this is what happens when you take a picture with no flash and no tripod.

4. Speaking of tripods, I want one for Christmas. I'm hoping that's what I'll get. Actually I think if I could decide on one I could just get my mom to get it for me for Christmas. I don't want a huge one, I want one that folds up small and isn't heavy. Especially since it's for my digital camera. I think my friend Ann told me about one, but I can't remember what it was. Any suggestions are welcome.

5. Decorating continues. Today mom decided she had to put the tree up that she "lost". It's on the wall that leads out of our kitchen/eat-in/family room (it's all one huge room so it's hard to call it just one thing) and into the sun porch.I tried to take one without flash, but it was way too blurry. I'm going to try again with the ladder to stabilize my camera. You just have to see the way the lolly-pops glow. Yep, it's kind of got a kitchen/candy theme going.

I've been working putting out my collection of lighted houses. I have some pictures, but honestly it's still changing. But, I'll give you a preview of the finished product.This is actually just a portion, there's more on top of my piano and to the sides. And, this has changed somewhat. But you get the idea. I love putting these up. It's fun to "build a town". These are all somewhat based on Dicken's stories, or at least are meant to be from that era. My favorite accessory type piece of all time is the flower cart you can see at the front of the square area. I love that it's named "Doolittle Flowers"! Ok, so it's not exactly Dicken's but hey, that's just perfect.

6. I haven't been keeping my reading info on the side up to date. I just finished books 4 & 5 in the Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson and now I'm reading a book called "The Sign of the Book" by John Dunning. This is the 4th in a series and I've read one of the others. I need to find the first 3 and read them in order. I enjoyed the other in the series that I read and when I found this one for about $5 in hardback I couldn't pass it up. I'm looking forward to a few releases coming up in '08 of some new favorite authors.

Well that about does it. Must get some sleep so I can return to the trenches for another day.

Cubie info update

I've received a few comments concerning the infamous "cubie" or as it's really called "All Year Squared". Let me see if I can answer some of the questions.

This was a class a couple of years ago at A Stitchers' Gathering in Louisville, KY. The teacher was Betsy Morgan. This is still one of her teaching pieces and I happen to know, since she emailed me and told me, that she's planning on teaching this class in the near future, I just don't know where. If you would like her email address to contact her, either email me at "fsutemb (at) comcast (dot) com" (You know the drill on how to make that work for you).

I hope this helps those of you who have been hunting where you could purchase it. I think contacting Betsy and seeing if you could just purchase it from her would be your best option, unless you are near where she'll be teaching and can check out a class with her.

I Saw Teresa Kissing Santa Claus

Well, I didn't see, I was doing the kissing you see, but more on that later in this post.

So last I typed you heard all about the first part of my little trip to WV, now for the fun parts, the PARTIES!

to get large amounts of ice for a party at a store where there are men in camouflage and trucks.Saturday was the big 50th anniversary party for my aunt & uncle. I could tell you this long story about getting ice for drinks, but I'll leave you with this thought...I will, from now on, ONLY stop (At least if I'm somewhere I consider the south.) I learned my lesson. Those are the places where you can walk in with your cute black jeans, great little top and wonderful boots; purchase your 22 lb. bag of ice and have at least 2 men offer to help you get it into your vehicle and ice chest. Now, one of my cousins says it doesn't hurt if you're driving a truck and have some curves to fill out said cute black jeans and top and smile nicely, but I think that's pretty much beside the point. I'm no model, nor do I have the perfect body, so I don't think it has anything to do with looks. I really think it's more about the whole letting men, act like, well, men. (If you want to think further on this subject of "real men" I refer you to this post about the latest People list of sexiest men, and this post about women, or this one. All written by one of my new favorite authors on her blog, which I also highly recommend as daily reading.)

So, I averted an ice catastrophe and finally made it to the party, which was pretty much in full swing when I arrived. Well, except for the fact that no one had heard from the caterer and no one seemed to have a number for her and some people were a little on the hungry side what with it being 1:30 in the afternoon and they apparently hadn't played Scarlett and had a little snack before going to the party. No fears, the caterer arrived and had everything in order and much eating happened. One of my cousins (technically my 2nd cousin once removed if you want to get really specific) has a beautiful and talented wife who makes cakes for parties and weddings. My aunt had Becky make the cake for the party and it was beautiful as you can see for yourself.What you can't tell is that both layers are in the shape of a heart. (The significance is fairly obvious, but also their last name is "Hart".) What you may not be able to tell is there was a candle in a holder between the layers. Also, it tasted as wonderful as it looked. One layer was chocolate and one was a white cake, both were excellent and moist and downright yummy! Becky can make my wedding cake anytime, well, first I have to get engaged....actually first I should probably have a "boyfriend". But it's not about me, it's about my aunt & uncle.
And here they are right before the cake was cut. Aren't they adorable?!?! As if that wasn't cute enough take a look at this....Yep, they danced together and were just too cute. The band was good and I think all in all everyone had a fantastic time.

I didn't take a lot of pictures. I mainly took some time to sit and talk with cousins that I don't get to see that often. And when I say cousins I mainly mean of the 2nd and further variety. However, my cousin Becky (not of the cake fame but a different Becky) got a picture that I want a copy of and when I get it I may post it. She took a picture of me and my cousins Dennis and Damon. Both are wonderful men and I don't get to see them that often. For those who don't come from huge extended families like I do, I can't imagine not having all these people in my life. Not that I talk to them all the time or see them as much as I'd like, but when we do all get together it's so much fun. Not to mention there's usually food, music and sometimes drink involved! Oh and lots of telling of stories, family stories. Those are the best.This is a picture of all the "Thompson" cousins at the party. (You can click on the picture to hopefully see a little larger version.) Some of the cousin's spouses and significant other's made it in the picture, while others did not, namely my father is missing.

Saturday was a great success so that left the Christmas party on Sunday. Sunday's party was for my uncle Jim's brothers and sisters and their spouses and SO's. Let me first say that my uncle has 11 siblings, of which 10 were in attendance on Sat. while 9 made it on Sunday. That's a fairly large group and they aren't too shy. They like to get together and talk and have a good time, which I think is wonderful. The best part of the night was this...Yep, that's me, kissing the big guy himself, Santa! I bet you all didn't know we were so close. Doesn't he look fantastic? Of course my mother was not to be outdone and this is what the result was...
She's such a crazy woman!
I think she left poor Santa a bit dazed. But then again, he's kind of used to her brand of craziness, so maybe he was just feeling a bit tired.

Santa was there to hand out the presents and help us all with the ornament exchange. As usual he did a fantastic job with giving out things. Kind of a warm up for the big night later this month.

So, that was the trip. We started home Monday morning with snow spitting at us and lots of high winds which caused us to go a little slower then normal and mean we spent the night on the way home. Well, that and I wasn't feeling all that wonderful and was to tired to keep going.

I am so glad we were able to go up for the party. It isn't everyday that someone can celebrate 50 years of marriage and still look at each other the way they do. Sometimes people ask why I'm still single. Most of the time I give them the kind of answer my grandmother would have called "smart", namely, "Because no one ever asked me to marry them." While that's true, there is also the other part of me that acknowledges the fact that I have been holding out for the kind of relationship my parents and my aunt & uncle have. Both haven't always agreed on everything, nor would they tell you that they have had it particularly easy. However, they all have worked hard to keep their relationships what most people today would call "healthy". For them that didn't mean they took vacations alone without their children. In fact, more often then not my aunt and my mother would take us kids on vacation while my uncle and my dad worked. Many a summer we all went on vacation together that way. For them it was about their family and each other and giving time to all of those things. And perhaps that's why I'm still single, because I've never found a man who shares those types of values. Not that I don't think they exist, I'm fairly certain there are still some out there like my father and uncle. Apparently I just haven't met the right one. But it was amazing to celebrate not just 50 years of marriage, but 50 years of their life together, moving around, family and all the things that go into being married.

Decorating skills in demand

Maybe not "in demand", but they sure got used while I was in WV. My aunt Nora took advantage of my arrival to have me finish her decorating. But let's start at the beginning shall we?

The trip up to WV was fairly uneventful. We left early enough and the weather and traffic managed to cooperate, so we made it in one day. I think we managed to leave Cracker Barrel at the airport exit in Jacksonville at 8:45 AM and pulled into my aunts around 7:30-ish maybe. I don't know what time it was, I was driving, it was dark and I was dang tired by that point. All I really wanted to do was sit quietly and maybe have a nice drink. That completes Wednesday's activities.

Thursday I slept in. I mean I really slept in. I didn't manage to get out of my nice warm bed until around 11:30 that morning. Just in time for my aunt to return from her hair appointment and a few errands with some makings for a sandwich. That was a nice surprise. After she left again mom and I went downstairs, to where I usually "live" when I visit, to start the decorating we had been tasked with the night before. To my aunt's credit she normally does all her decorating, but this year she needed some help. Our cousin Kathy helped her decorate upstairs and for some reason I didn't manage to get pictures of that. Let me say it is beautiful. Nora's living room is mauve so her tree there is a pretty white tree with pink lights and all pink and mauve and gold. Very pretty. In the dining room there was a lovely arrangement on the table, her big Bethlehem nativity on the sideboard and some trimmings on the china cabinet. Then in her "family room", or as we call it, "the room where we watch t.v." she has one of those fiber-optic trees, that turns colors. Anyway, she has all this red and white, candy-cane stripped ornaments and stuff in there, so the tree was all in red ornaments with about 4 white birds and some red & white stripped ribbon with bows at the top. I kept looking at it, and decided that I knew what I thought it needed....white ornaments. (You'll hear more about this on Friday.)

But, back to downstairs. My aunt basically has 2 houses stacked on top of each other, it's very nice. Downstairs there's a "game room", or more likely a music room since there's a really nice old upright piano and an old pump organ in it. That's where I had to work my decorating magic. The tree was set up, but nothing else. We finally got lights on it that managed to stay working, then of course came the decorations. Like us, Nora has lots of decorations that are just all kinds of lovely Christmas goodness. So that's what I put on this tree. My uncle had stacked some boxes of floor tiles under the tree to elevate it off the floor so we could then put her lighted houses under it. The result was pretty cool.
Sorry for the picture. I was really trying not to use flash, so you get that yellow incandescent look too. But you get the idea.That's a little better looks at the left side of the "village".
Right side look, with a bit of the piano showing.

So, that was my Thursday, and some of my Friday since in putting all this together I figured out she needed some lights and a couple of strips to plug the lights in to. That brings us to Friday when mom, Nora & I headed out to pick up the things needed for decorating (remember the white ornaments I mentioned?) and for her 50th Wedding anniversary party on Saturday.

First, JoAnn's Fabrics. Unlike here, the JoAnn's there is not one of the huge mega-type stores. It's small. But we did manage to find some pretty white ornaments and the strips to plug the houses in to, as well as a couple of multi-light strands for the houses. That was a good stop. Then we went to the dollar store to score some pretty, and less expensive, gift bags and tea lights. Another good stop. Then lunch. Yummy! We went to Bellacinos, it's a franchise, owned by local guys and is excellent. I opted for their house grinder (and for those who don't know that term, it's basically a hot sub). And the scenery in there isn't too bad. (The owners are twins, and as my aunt said, "There's living proof of a God right there walking around, and not just God, but a loving God because he gave us TWO of them to look at!" That's right the owners are basically identical twins and very nice looking men at that.) So, score again for lunch, both for the food and the scenery. Then they dropped me off at Lowe's to try and find these candles, and that's where it started to go wrong, but luckily not terribly wrong.

Let me back up a little. My aunt and our cousin Kathy, mainly Kathy, had made these beautiful centerpieces for the tables for the anniversary party. They were all pretty gold, pink and garnet poinsettias. Lovely. Nora, my aunt, had found these really cool, battery operated (I guess) tall, slim candles to put in the middle of the arrangements. This was good, she bought them somewhere in VA I think at a Ben Franklins. She bought enough, or so she thought. However, they ended up breaking one and needing at least 2 more. So, here we were, hunting these things that all I knew were what they looked like and that I think they were called "candleiers" or something like that. So, back to Lowe's (which BTW is not my uncle Jim's favorite place to shop and he builds cabinets for a living, I think he's jinxed the place for me). Mom and Nora drop me in front of Lowe's while they park the car in front of Sam's Warehouse, which is right beside Lowe's. I'm tasked with going to look for the aforementioned "candleiers", purchasing them if found and then going to Sam's to meet them while they start getting the many food and paper items needed from there. To make a long story short, not only did Lowe's not have said "candleiers", but they barely had any Christmas decorations left at all. It was kind of depressing.

But a trip through Sam's trying out all the food they were handing out helped my mood. Yeah, I know, I'd just eaten a nice lunch, but hey, it was good and they were handing it out and we might have wanted to buy some of it. We did manage to get the stuff we needed from there and headed for our next stop....Wal-Mart.

You see, a few days before Nora had been in the big "Mart" and had spoken to some man about those pesky candle things. He assured her he had them, but that they were in a box up somewhere near the rafters and he didn't have his machine-thing to get up there to get the box down so she could buy them. Now, here's a little thought, if you have something to sell, and you want to sell it, shouldn't you have it somewhere so people can get their grubby little fingers on it and take it to the long lines at the check-out counter to hand over some form of payment??? Is this really too much to ask? But I digress. So, this kind employee said to give him a couple of days and he'd get them down for her. So, we head there thinking we're sure to find them. First, nothing in the Christmas decorations, which for some reason is where these little monsters pretty candles apparently like to live in stores. Then we make our second mistake of the trip to "Wally World", we ask an "associate" for help. They don't know anything. So they finally ask their "manager", who looks to be about 19 and barely able to think (not that all 19 year olds can't think, but this one wasn't looking to swift in my eyes). He said he'd check. Now I'm fairly certain that 1) he had no idea what my aunt was talking about and 2) could have cared less if he found the item for her or not. In no time he was back to say they didn't even have them in stock. Now, somebody's not telling the truth. Either the 1st man who said he could get them if he had his little machine was full of it, or this "manager" was, but either way we walked away with no candles. Well, we did get candles, those kind you are used to seeing, but that run on batteries and one of them was defective when we got it home, but they made it work. The rest of the trip there was spent hunting stuff to make "hammy sammies" as mom and I call them, for the Sunday party. We didn't have any luck finding the right rolls, so thought a stop at Kroger would fix things. It did and it didn't. We found some rolls to use, but they aren't the kind we normally get. Sigh, sometimes I just like to be at home and be able to walk into my favorite grocery store, Publix, and find what I want, or have some nice person ask can they help me find something or order something I want that's not stocked...sigh....

So, that's Thursday and Friday. Tomorrow I should some of the party pictures and a slightly compromising photo of me and the "big guy". Stay tuned!

I'm Back

...but no time to post about the big party. I promise I'll do so at the first available opportunity. Plus I have to share what else I did while I was at my aunt's. (Here's a hint, I was doing it at home too.) Oh, and I have a picture of me and the big guy, Santa somewhere on my camera. Stay tuned.