It's Monday Again

We have been in a whirlwind around here getting ready for Christmas.  I'm sure it's the same for everyone.  Seems like I always think I can get more done than I actually accomplish, including making gifts for others.  Our daughter is still here with us for a couple more weeks and our son came home for the weekend, so we celebrated Christmas early with just the 4 of us.  Our son's fiancee was unable to join us as she had work duties that kept her home.  Luckily we will see them again right after Christmas.

Here's what I have been working on.  Another stocking for our mantel.

The house I grew up in did not have a fireplace.  It had a brick chimney like you see on the rooftop of every house that Santa ever landed on with his sleigh and reindeer.  As a child,  I simply could not fathom that we had a chimney, but no fireplace.  How would Santa get in?  I remember scouring the house trying to locate the fireplace that went with that chimney to no avail.  As an adult, I swore I would have a fireplace someday.  My first house had no fireplace, so I had one put in.  When we built the house we are in now, we made the fireplace a focal point in our family room.  There is something special about a nice cozy fire, especially at Christmas time.

The cardinal stocking is from a pattern designed by Erin Russek of One Piece at a Time.  The other stocking I made when our daughter was a baby.  I started a stocking for our son when he was a babe, but it is still not done. LOL.

I also made a snowman quilt for a friend.  It had to be done last week so I could ship it to her in time for Christmas.  Nothing like a deadline to keep me hopping.

I love the lanterns that have become popular the last year or two, so I hopped over to Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago when they were on sale and found one I liked.  I love to comb over the photos on Pinterest and found a tutorial for making a lantern swag.  Back to Hobby Lobby I went for floral picks and ribbon and whipped up the decoration for my lantern.  It is bright and cheery. It's also so big, you can barely see the lantern. LOL! I filled the bottom of the lantern with leftover ornaments.

We had lots of snow this weekend, like most of the upper midwest.  It is so nice to have a White Christmas.  That is one plus of living in Wisconsin.  It is pretty well guaranteed every year.

Blessings on you and yours for the Christmas season.

Hop over to Judy's blog to see more fun designs.