Ah, Christmas!

The Whipkers are having a wonderful Christmas! I was lucky enough to have Christmas Eve off work and Tim started his vacation the 18th or so. The kids first day of break was the 23rd, which was nice, they'll go back on Jan. 3rd -- so they only have about a week and a half off. That works out better than getting out the 17th and having a whole week before Christmas. Plus, with the snow days we've already used, we don't need any other unnecessary days out! The "built in" snow days are gone, so any more will have to be added on to the end of the year. HOWEVER, Seniors have a "Hard" last day -- meaning, Max won't have to make up any snow days, so he is seriously hoping for tons and tons of snow and ice, LOL.

More later, and maybe even pix, but time to get to work and get the newsletter out!

Operation "Santa's Elves" proceeds ;0)

Oh it was a fun weekend! I was getting worried that although Ellen and her pal had a great plan for the needy family - there was still a mom across town worrying because SHE didn't know that Santa's Elves were coming. So, Saturday I told her we had to at least drop off the card with money so the parents had time to shop. And we needed to put in a note about the Wii so they'd know that a big gift was on the way. We got that done super-sneaky-spy-like and it was a hoot! Ellen got a FWD email from a friend of the daughter later and they were blown away. So excited and just befuddled about how anyone knew they were in need of some assistance, and who on earth did this! Perfect, just the result we wanted ;) We have all the other gifts now, and just want to find someone to impersonate Santa and deliver them. Or, maybe we'll drive in to town in the middle of the night (gee, after midnight mass would work) and tuck the bag in between the door and the storm door?? Oh, the plotting and planning of "Operation Santa's Elves"!!

By Monday, Ellen was sick - turns out she has bronchitus. No, don't get all sympathetic for her -- it also turns out she hasn't been taking her Asthma meds, like AT ALL! Lucky she still can breathe at all. So, she's got a Steroid, plus all her regular meds to take and she feels yucky too.

Tuesday, Marci is flushed and feeling yucky. She's coming down with something, the clinic couldn't really say what - it was almost like we got her there too early, not enough symptoms to make a difiniative call, LOL! Tylonal, fluids and rest for her.

Max made it to school all three days, and today, on the first day of break, he thinks he might be getting something. Poor kids, all puny for Christmas. I'm washing my hands, staying at work as much as I can, and not breathing in around any of them!

Presents are all done, needing wrapped and I hope to get some quiet time tonight to do that. I need to find a gift for Tim from me, because the kids report that he got me something -- we usually don't. Not sure what, but I'll nose around a little today after work. Well, that is, when I finally get out of here. It's almost 2:30, my regular quitting time, and the bulletins are still printing -- oops. Too much dilly dallying I bet.

Good stuff, yucky stuff, and what's left over

Well, the good stuff is that little Ellie-Belle has a plan. One of her friends shared that she found her mom crying over the fact that it was 11 days to Christmas and it looked like there would be no gifts or celebration due to finances. I know mom has been off work some for surgery, not sure of dad's work situation. But they are a good family who live modestly and believe in crazy stuff like, if we can't afford gifts, we'll just have to do without (instead of the 9,385,937,264 others in the world who'd say, heck, just charge it, I have room on this card!)

SO, she offered to take her Christmas money from Gr'ma (usually $100) and forgo a gift from Santa (thought to be around $50 budgeted) and buy the extra Wii I ended up with - then give it to this family! Looks like one kid was raised right!!!! YIPPEEe!! So I said. . . . . "No."



Well, I said, "No. We'll just give it to them. You don't need to buy it. Now, what else do they need?" She had a pretty big grin that's for sure! Her friend and co-conspiritor spent the night on Wednesday (we were 98 % sure we had a snow day coming, and we were right for once!) And that friend's mom will be able to get an extra set of controllers through her work (free, yeah!) and then that family is going to buy a new Wii family game for them. We are going to put some cash $$$ in the envelope (Ellen's and my Christmas money from Gr'ma - a nice amount X 2) so mom and dad can do some shopping for kids (there are 2, one is a Sophomore in HS, one is 11, so maybe a 6th grader). Tim wants to buy and put in a gift certificate to Jonny Corino's resteraunt using some of his overtime $ that he saves to take us out over Christmas, and I have a certificate for a meal from a local pizza place that the Cheer Fund gave us for helping there.

I also turned their name and addy in here at work to receive a food basket from the church here - so, looks like it might be a happy Chirstmas afterall! Ellen is looking forward to her friend coming back to schoool after break and sharing this amazing "Santa came!" story as it is all going to be annonymous, and just from "Santa & Mrs. Claus!"

The yucky is that Tim is over his virus, but I threw up yesterday, so I might have it. And of course, I was in the car . .. . . . . . .driving! Yeah, moms can do most anything! I have a headache today, but that could be from lack of caffiene yesterday or the fact that I forgot my glasses at home today or the lack of sleep last night, no, I never sleep well, so I'm probably used to that. So far my tummy is only a little wiggly, and I'm going to finish up here and get the bulletin done in case I need to go home early ;)

Tim started vacation today, the kids get out of school after class on Wednesday, and I plan to take Christmas eve off. Should be a fun week leading up to Christmas (though the kids dooooo have some rooms to clean, oh, and maybe I do too, LOL)

I'm home free for Christmas!

I delivered the last customer quilt yesterday - yippe pippy!! Gabrielle loved it, which is a relief, because she is one customer that still makes me very nervous to quilt for, LOL. It was the 12 Days of Christmas panel, and I'll post pictures later. I didn't go with an allover in the middle, but did a loopy background fill, and added some gold thread touches to most of the blocks somewhere. It really did look nice.

So now . . . . . . I can do some sewing and quilting for me & mine ;0) First up, I MUST BIND ELLEN"S QUILT! It's only been done for, oh, 2 years maybe, and waiting on binding. How very sad is that??? I know, big crocodile tears sad! Plus, I have the cute matching doll quilt all done, washed and ready to give her - but it won't match anything if I don't give her the quilt, eh? Oh such a tangled web of UFO's!

I'd also like to get some coasters done for Seester - with leftover Jim Shore playing card fabric. They would be perfect for the family get-togethers when we play Shang-hi all day.

And, I'm going to make Max a cuddly blanket. The girls already have them, and it was easy peasy to make, so I found brown furry fabric and I'll hopefully whip that up while he's at work this Sunday.

OH! AND! There are actually FOUR chickens laying eggs right now - I'm so excited I can barely stand it! Turns out I'm not feeding a flock of complete free-loaders afterall! You know, the first year with chickens went so simple and easy, but this year has been full of little hiccups. Maybe next year will go back to easy.

Off I go to play with fabric and scissors ;0)
peace out and purring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

December is here!

How did that happen??

We've been having great fun helping at the Firemen's Cheer Fund. They collect toys and buy new ones, then prepare gift boxes for needy families. We've been helping fill the boxes for several nights and it is good work, though it does break your heart a little too. For some families this is all the Christmas that will be under the tree. I think the numbers for this year are 470+ families being served, and gifts given to over 1100 kids -- WOW!

The one customer with two quilts should be picking up today or tomorrow, I finished the last one last night. They both look nice, and I think her kids will be pleased with them as Christmas gifts. Next up is the 12 Days of Christmas panel - again. But I had a message from the owner, an allover is fine. So I'll keep my border ideas, which are looking great, and do a simple all over in the middle of the panel. It seemed like such an easy peasy one when I took it in, but boy! It's been super stumping me with that panel part. *sigh*

Ellen was home sick with a headache/migraine yesterday. All better today. She was pretty upset the day before because they tested for "chairs" in band, and she is the 9th out of 9 flutes. She says she got too nervous playing by herself and messed up. Poor dear. It's not fun. And apparently, missy #8 is being a bit of a snot about it too (maybe I can send some coal for her music stand???)

I found cute earrings for Seester for Christmas, on clearance too! And finally found a coat for me. . . . . . after returning a second one that I changed my mind about, LOL! The one I am keeping is remarkably like the one I'm replacing - the pockets are just a tad lower which is driving me stark raving mad! But the color and fit are good so I'm happy - and both of my good pairs of gloves will still match, woo and hoo!

must get back to work now. If I finish the bulletin, I might be able to sneak out a bit early and that would be great!

Thanksgiving time :0)

You know, I really like to think that I'm a grateful person most of the time, I try to have that attitude of gratitude all through the year. But it is nice to have a long weekend with family be especially mindful of it!

We did have a nice holiday, the Deans joined us, but Grandma Tootie begged off for the day. No one can agree on her reason, though she said she just wanted to stay home, wear her jammies all day and get some things done - sounds perfectly plausible to me. We had plenty of food and enjoyed some Wii time after dinner. It is always fun to do the Kayaking one with folks who've never Wii'd - that's how I got hooked, LOL! Ellen went to a friends about 7pm for an overnight so they could go Black Friday shopping. All in all it was a nice day.

Today, Saturday, the kiddos and I are off to Gr'ma Bobbie's to play cards with the Stier side of the family. We are all bringing various leftovers for a real pot-luck meal to nibble at all day - but not get in the way of cards! The cards are the most important thing, LOL!

So off I go, hope the card Gods are on my side today ;0)

Just a quick post before Thanksgiving swallows me up ;0)

Gosh, it's sure been a productive stretch here! My batting didn't arrive over the weekend, so I took the "down time" from customer work and finished up the last Quilt of Valor, since I have a seperate roll of batting just for QoV's. Then I went to my leftover batting stack and found pieces large enough to use for both charity quilts for guild and got them knocked out too.

The batting came Monday and so the next customer quilt went on the frame and by last night was about 2/3rds done -- woo and hoo!! That customer came by yesterday and dropped off the next one, and visited her quilt on the frame. She likes how it's turning out, so that's great! And you know, she's just a doll anyway so a visit with her lifts my spirits -- a good thing! I told her that both quilts would likely be done by the end of the holiday weekend. She was shocked and pleased -- that gives her extra time to bind them before Christmas (they are both gifts.)

Marci is still coughing and then fainted this AM, so she's home waiting on the Dr's office to call about an appointment today (yeah, the last day before a long holiday weekend, we might get squeezed in about dinner time, LOL) Hopefully a simple change of meds will tackle it!

Max has been driving to school without incident, and taking Ellen along. It is fun to hear them be cooperative with each other in the AM. So nice, almost like a glimpse of when they were little and LIKED each other, LOL!

Tim is off on vacation for now. He always has a few vacation days that need used by the end of the year, so he scatters them around for some long weekends, and extends his T'givng & Xmas breaks too. Me -- I'm at work (supposed to be working too, and actually have a LOT to get done today!!) but once I'm done here, I'll be off for a long weekend too.

Dinner is at our house tomorrow at 3pm. Gr'ma Tootie isn't coming, but I'm ok with that. The DIL is going to try to talk her into coming -- but you know, sometimes you just want to be 74 years old and hang out at home and get some stuff done. You might not feel like coming over and eating with a loud, rambunctious group of people -- some of whom you might feel like you see too often anyway, HA! Besides, I think she may be starting to have some "stay close to the bathroom" or wear Depends type things going on. And it's less embarrassing to stay home, than to be out in public then, ya know? So I vote for leave the gal alone, she knows we're only a couple of miles down the road. If she changes her mind, she knows she's welcome to come over. We love her and will go with whatever she decides.

OH! And Marci found my camera!!!! It was on top of the computer tower, in the cabinet. Looks like I was downloading pix and forgot, oops! So I'll add a few photos as I get a chance.

For now, I've got a newsletter to write, a bulletin to write and both to get printed all before I can start my long weekend - so it's back to work for me ;0)