Santa's Big Reveal

Christmas this year was a whirlwind of family celebrations...

We had the traditional cookie decorating at my mom's house using my grandmother's cookie molds.

Mom is not really that strict about the decorating!  ;-)

A few years ago we had an almost crisis.  The 1940's - something plastic Santa cookie mold had begun to crack and the company was out of business so there was no replacing it.  Apparently the same was happening to others families who share the Santa Cookie tradition.  One day a random ebay search revealed Aunt Chick's Cookie Cutters.  A fellow nostalgic baker started making the molds again!  Tradition saved!

I bought a new set for my mother and one for each of the 4 siblings in my family.

Right after Christmas, my parents celebrated their 50th anniversary!  What a great example of love and faithfulness.  

Renewing their vows
50 wonderful years together!

The day after the anniversary party, we headed to Florida to visit with the in-laws and to swim with manatees - one of the many crazy items on my bucket list.  I'm waiting for my daughter to send the pics of the manatees from her underwater camera, but here is one of us on the beach in Pensacola.  Don't be fooled - it was NOT warm!  

The holidays were amazing and full of family, love, travel, adventure...Not much blogging.

Despite my sparse posts, I have been busy cooking and sewing (mostly before Christmas!).  Now that the gifts have all been exchanged, I can finally reveal the little goodies that I made for everyone this Christmas.









The biggest project was finishing my son's high school T-shirt quilt.  He is only in is 3rd year of college...

It is not perfect, but I am pretty happy with this 1st attempt at quilting.

















Inspired by the quilting success...

I rehabbed my daughters' old American Girl Doll bed with a new scrappy quilt and pillows for my little cousins who I happened to hear were getting dolls from Santa.  Perfect for 2 little dolls to snuggle up on a cold winter's night.  

For a special stocking stuffer for my daughters, I converted some 80's clip earrings that I inherited from my mother-in-law when she passed and made them into push pins.  Now they can add a little sparkle to their bulletin boards and remember Grandma every time they see them.  

The backs came right off with the needle-nosed pliers and then I glued the thumb tacks on with the E-6000.
My great friend and embroidery teacher once informed us that "E-6000 could stick the butt of an elephant to a thumbtack."  

For sure, it can stick an 80's earring to one!

Lastly, I personalized some pillow cases for the nieces and daughters and towels for my oldest daughter's... fiancé.  Yep...To add to the fun of the season, my daughter got engaged on Christmas night! 

Welcome to the family!

It has been so happy, crazy busy that I am almost glad to be back at work.  Almost...until that alarm went off at 5:30 am!  I wasn't too sad to have a "cold day" off of school today, either. 

Wishing you all warm homes, warm food and warm hugs from me!

Pam