This and That

How are you all coping with it being December already? It doesn’t seem possible does it? I’ve been busy, busy this week. I put out most of the decorations during the week but waited to decorate the tree until today when Piper could help. It’s fun to have a grandchild nearby that can help with the decorating. We’ve never had that before and I’m taking full advantage of it.

This first photo is the string of advent stockings that I made for Piper. You can also see the Noel cups in the left hand corner. I love these cups because they have fun and happy memories attached to them. When our children were small I used to put them along the back of the stove top, spelling NOEL. Most mornings when I woke up, they were changed to say LEON. It was our middle child, Jamie, who did it after we went to bed at night. Oh, how I miss those days.

Here are the stockings a little closer together, so you can see them better.

I made another 25 stockings a few years ago and Mandy fills them for me! Piper has spent the weekend with Papa and I, so we’ve been able to open our stockings together so far.

Piper is loving her sweater. I finished it on Thursday and she hasn’t taken it off since Friday except to sleep!😂

It looks a little big on her but she’s getting taller pretty quickly so I think it will be good that it’s oversize. She’s happy and that’s the important thing. It even has real pockets. You can also see the snowflake blanket I made last Christmas on the back of the sofa.

Yesterday the two of us got pedicures and had great fun while there. Although it’s been getting into the teens at night, I still wear my flip-flops everywhere. I think I’ve just worn shoes twice so far this winter.

Piper’s toes. Aren’t they cute?

Mandy sent this picture to Piper Friday night. Piper thinks she took it on the plane as they were leaving Omaha. I think it’s a great picture of them both. I wonder how she filtered out all of the background? 

We also have Lizzie for the weekend. Zoey is VERY happy. Here they were both chewing on opposite ends of the same bone.🤣 They are seriously like two year olds. They love each other so much and we all love both of them.

This is the tree Jenny made for me when we were living in our camper in Spokane. Remember when we were planning to travel around the country for a few years to begin our retirement? The best laid plans and all. Anyway, she was appalled that we didn’t have a tree, so she made and decorated this sweet tree for us and Neal made a base for it with his 3-D printer. I think it’s beautiful. We used it last year in the apartment and it’s in our bedroom in the condo this year.

We got a new and bigger tree this year.  Piper and I just finished decorating it after church. It’s nice to see the ornaments after having them packed away for a few years. The star on top has been on top of Dennis’s Mom and Dad’s tree since before he was born. She gave it to me about 35 years ago when she bought a new tree topper. I love its history. It’s at least 68 years old! I made the tree skirt years ago when I gave Mandy the “family” tree skirt. She had always liked it and I promised her that when she got married and had her own tree she could have it. 💜 I had also made it with muslin, fold thread and candlewicking.

I hope you’re all having a great week in preparing for Jesus’s birthday! Hallelujah! Love to you all.

Blessings and hugs,

Betsy