It's getting to look a little like Christmas...and it is :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas, 

Happy Holidays, 

Happy Hump Day!

The holiday is here and it is a day off for me! 

My loving husband and I really enjoy having our own business, but these holidays are killlers. For the last week, I have been getting up at 3am in order to be at the store dipping strawberries, apples, bananas and pineapple reindeer shapes in chocolate by 3:30am so that our wonderful staff can get going on making the beautiful arrangements when they come in at 8am that look like this...

Or this...

And for Christmas...these was this bouquet...

Once the last delivery was made yesterday and the last bouquet was picked up, the store was closed and Christmas 2013 was in the books. And for the first time in over a week we were all home for dinner...Robert (older son), Matthew (younger son), Loving Husband and I. It was nice to be home all together and today it is nice to be lazy, to have slept in until 7:45am.

So, to you, my dear stitching friends from all over - I wish you a Merry Christmas...a Happy Holiday. May love and peace fill your hearts!

Until next time, take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often!

Lisa

I know what I really want for Christmas.

I want my childhood back.

Nobody is going to give me that. I might give at least the memory of it to myself if I try. I know it doesn't make sense, but since when is Christmas about sense, anyway? It is about a child, of long ago and far away, and it is about the child of now. In you and me. Waiting behind the door of our hearts for something wonderful to happen. A child who is impractical, unrealistic, simpleminded and terribly vulnerable to joy.

~ROBERT FULGHUM

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(below is a post I started on December 13 and never posted...

oh my, it has been a little crazy around here!)

Well, I suppose when the temps start heading back up to the mid-sixties it is hard to get into the Christmas spirit...and when you are a small business owner and have to work from sun up to sun down (plus organize your sons' carpools to and from the hockey rink), it is hard to get into the Christmas spirit.

So to help bring in some spirit, I finally took down the faux Christmas tree box from the top shelf in the garage and got it unpacked...

But wait...what are those things in the box with the 22 year old faux tree?

Could that be...Hockey Pucks?????? Guess I shouldn't be too surprised to find hockey pucks in the box...for that explains the nice hole that was ripped in the side of the poor old box. Nevertheless, the faux tree my DH and I purchased our first Christmas together as husband and wife, was unharmed and went up in no time.

A sprinkling of white lights...all of my wonderful Xstitched ornaments from many of you from over the years placed around the tree...Snowden the Snowman, lay underneath guarding the stockings. And to top things off...the styrofoam angel Matthew made when he was in preschool (he is now a freshman in high school). Now, it is beginning to look like Christmas!

And soon, I will have a new ornament to place on our tree. For last night, while sitting in a rink, watching my older son's practice....

I put the last final stitches into my Prairie Schooler 2009....

I hope to find time to finish it off and hang it on the Christmas tree...however, it is highly doubtful. Maybe it will be on the tree next year :)

Anyway, time to head off to the store. Until next time...remember,

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

And so it is feeling a little more like Christmas

It felt good to be home yesterday - didn't have to work at either store and was able to do some catching up around the house. As planned, the boys and I created a very nice family holiday meal which we all sat down to and enjoyed after my DH got home from the store. It was like the Thanksgiving we missed out on due to Robert being away on a hockey tournament and the Christmas meal that I probably will not have the energy to make next weekend due to working all week in the stores. We enjoyed turkey, mashed potatoes & gravey, stuffing, homemade rolls (a recipe I received from my mother-in-law but they never rise like hers do), homemade pumpkin pie with homemade crust and fresh steamed green beans. A very filling late lunch...but definitely made it easy to take an early evening nap :)

While making the bread and pie doughs, the boys helped out by bringing in the 20 year old artificial Christmas tree from the garage and putting it together. If you have an artificial tree, you know that they look scrawny before you "fluff" it all out. While the boys were totally aware of this, they had to make some snide remarks and compared it to Charlie Brown's sad tree...

The boys were funny, commenting about our poor tree and kept me entertained as I kneaded the bread dough. Yes, the tree is old for my DH and I purchased that tree for our first Christmas as husband and wife...20 year ago. The poor tree is almost an antique. They got the tree all assembled and strung the white lights around it without any arguing. Once done, Matthew (my younger son) went back out into the garage to get the bucket of ornaments. He separated out the ones he received over the years from those that belong to Robert so that they both would be able to hang their special ornaments.

Just like the tree of Charlie Brown and the gang...

Our tree, with a little love, was converted from the sad scrawny bush to something full and lovely (although there definitely are some places on the tree that could use some additional ornaments...just noticed that in the photos)...

The boys, even though they are much taller than I am now, decorated the bottom saving the top for my special ornaments from the ladies of the Ornament Swap group. Once done with the pies and the rolls, I gathered up my special 10 ornaments and placed them up on top..

Now it definitely feels more like Christmas and the holiday season! Hopefully, Santa finds time to go shopping...ugh.

Well, until next time...take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often

Lisa