I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We had planned to go to see my family in Broken Arrow this year but the turnpike was closed Christmas Eve. We ended up going to my in-laws house but they had plenty of food and we all had a good time. We also got to see the new baby again.
The snow has gifted me with many things this year: an interesting, drama-laden, knuckle-breaking drive home; the wonder of precipitating an indoor snow storm in my kitchen; the ability to create a snow angle when I opened my front door; the healthy glow of shoveling 13" deep snow; not to mention the calorie burn of shoveling so much snow not just at my house but at my 101 year old neighbor's house, too; the changing of a flat tire in snow; and the warm snuggles of cats and dogs.
Now, I get to enjoy a shoveled porch, walk, drive, and section of street; a heated sofa to ease the sore muscles of shoveling all that snow with a garden shovel - who needs a snow shovel in Oklahoma? - and a hot pot of lentil stew, fresh baked bread, and spice cupcakes with chocolate chai frosting. I don't have to go anywhere today or tomorrow or the day after, although the day after that, I'll have to get the flat tire fixed and put back on my car in place of the spare there now and go back to work.
I hear we're supposed to get an ice storm for New Year's.
Yanno, I think I prefer the snow we just had to ice.
In fact, I do prefer snow to ice.
It's snowing inside my kitchen!
I finally made it home from work (a 15 minute drive that took 2 1/2 hours of drama-laden, knuckle-breaking suspense and will result in nightmares and PTSD flashbacks) and put the kettle on for hot tea. And where the steam of the kettle meets the cold air, I have snow flurries - inside my kitchen. There's a snow drift building up between the dishwashing liquid and my Eggy Whip beside the kitchen sink.
It's not enough to have 11 inches (did you hear that - ELEVEN INCHES) of snow in the middle of my front yard, now I have blizzard conditions building up inside my kitchen.
I really need to speed up saving my money to get the wiring fixed in this house. It needs to have working heat if this cold weather trend keeps up around here.
That or I need to sell the house and move to a warmer climate.
I dislike cold weather. I despise snow. I loathe snow on top of ice. Those feelings are mild when compared to finding a snow storm inside my kitchen.
Of course, now that I'm home, I can set about warming things up some.
I turned the sofa on (what, you don't have a heated sofa? How sad for you.), set the stove to bake the bread that's been slow-rising inside it all day, heated water for tea (and was appalled at the resulting indoor blizzard), and set the space heater on. In an hour, it should be a toasty 50*F in here. Except the sofa, which will be much warmer.
I have movies, a remote control, books, notebooks, pens, my laptop, hot tea, and snacks all in reach, so I can camp on the sofa until it warms enough to go to bed.
Did I mention I dislike cold?
Every year my kids unwrap the Manger Scene and get it all set up. They put the three wise men on the far side of the house. Then they move them a little bit closer to the manger every day. Today is the day before Christmas Eve and the three wise men are nearing the end of the mantel over the fireplace.
What’s your idea of the perfect proposal?
Brought to you by Leap Year. In theaters January 8th.
In my opinion a proposal only needs one thing to make it perfect -- sincerity.
I've posted it here. It seemed the more appropriate location.
As the year comes to a close it's time to post my resolution for 2010. 2009's resolution was to complete 12 quilts for myself. I made my goal, but now have a big stack of quilts that I'm not sure what to do with. The vast majority of them are going to end up stored in a closet. What fun is that?
I have decided that 2010's resolution must be a bit more practical in nature. For the coming year I plan to finish up 12 of my UFO's. The only rule is that the project must have been started no later than December 31, 2009. [1] This time giving them away or selling them is absolutely OK. That will help to reduce the clutter around here. I've already started a list of which projects I would like to get taken care of in the coming year. This is, of course, subject to change as the year progresses.
1. Mike & Holly's wedding gift -- quilt, bind.
2. Double Wedding Ring -- finish piecing, quilt, bind
3. One Block Wonder -- quilt, bind
4. Embroidered Butterflies -- finish embroidery, design setting, piece, quilt, bind
5. Fractal Nine Patch -- quilt, bind
6. Old Thimbleberries shop sample -- attach borders, quilt, bind
7. Old Jinny Beyer shop sample -- attach borders, quilt, bind
8. Purple and Green Kaleidoscope -- quilt, bind
9. Paula Nadelstern Kaleidoscope -- quilt, bind
10. Haunted Houses wall hanging -- design setting, piece, quilt, bind
11.
12.
Quilts 1,8, and 10 are already scheduled to be given away and I have no particular attachment to 6 & 7 so will easily part with them when and if the opportunity arises. There are countless more UFO's around the house that I hope to make at least some progress on during the coming year and I have quite a stack of my own quilts just waiting for their turns on the quilting machine. But first I must finish up a challenge quilt that is due at the end of the month and finish up my guild's next raffle quilt. It needs to be completed by the middle of January. Oh, and I'm hoping to have a new book ready to go to press by the end of 2010. Guess I'd better go get busy!
[1] That means I still have some time to start some new ones!
