Hello My Dear Friends! Merry Christmas!!

Oh my gosh, it's been so long since I've written, I'd almost forgotten how to get on, write and post to my blog!

I have been so busy - I visited with family all over the country through October, and then began a series of oral surgeries.  Why do we women always think, 'ah, not a big deal, I'll be up and around in a couple of days!'  Really a good question - it's because WE ARE WOMEN!!  When did we take time being sick, or lazy or down when our children, or even our grandchildren were really little - we didn't - unless we were half dead!  Which may be the reason things hit us so hard now.  But, I digress.  The last surgery I had was a 3 hour bone graft 10 days ago.  Doc explained, 'going to be taking bone from the back of your jaw and screwing it in here (showing me on ex-rays, like that's really English to me!)  If we need to - we'll take some from the chin area - ack!  Wait a minute, CHIN AREA???  Like - isn't that going to leave a bruise?  'Donna, you're going to have quite a bruise anyway, this is major surgery.'  Hangs head - me, that is.  Well, at least it was scheduled after all of my business meetings.  My sweetie is still taking really good care of me.  Tonight - Christmas night, I ate my first full meal - last one for a while because I'm in a lot of pain now, but it was yummy, and I did get to help cook most of it.  We were able to laugh a bit throughout this entire process, no talking really because at first I sounded like Scooby Dooby Doo, then like Sylvester the Cat (still do when my mouth starts to hurt because my tongue swells badly.)  But we go on - life is good, it's wonderful, today is the day our Lord and Savior was born to save us all!

Our garden still has it's lovely visitors - even though we have had many nights at 25 degrees.  Because we are so close to the coast, we still get many, many hummingbirds.  They must know how much we love them, as we are still feeding them at the rate of - - - drum roll please - - - one half gallon of sugar water A DAY!!  We have two feeders up, about 10' apart or so, and they love our home we have for them!

It's really something to see so many birds feed in our yard, and then our neighbors for a block in all directions my get a stray bird once in a while.  The only thing I can think it could be is water.  They will not feed on tap water.  Ours is reverse osmosis and they'll drink regular water if it is boiled, but most people won't take the time to do that for them.  It's so worth it for us!

We have about 2 months when we have no birds at all, and take the feeders down - usually January or so, then one will go up for a month around March, then the other goes up shortly after that.  At first, we will get One male who will try to lay claim to the feeder - but when all come

home, and hundreds are here, there is no room for bossy boys here!  They say they come back to the same feeding area each year, and I must say, each year, we have had more and more birds.  Feeding one half gallon of sugar water a day is feeding a lot of birds - and they are a joy to watch.  These are the two feeders we have.  The blurs are 'birds in flight!'

Have you all been keeping your crafts up?  It's so much fun to create something with our hands!  I've been making tons of journals.  I love making them for gifts.  I can't seem to find my folder that has all the photos, so here's the latest one I made.  I made it for one of the ladies in our Daughters of the American Revolution chapter as a Christmas gift.  I loved having a tree, symbolizing the 'family tree' aspect of the group!

Then, as always, I have a crochet project in the works.  My friend told me of this pattern, though she never knew the name.  She said, 'all you do is double crochet 10, chain 10, until you have the length you want, then I'll show you how to twirl and tie it up.'  You know me, I'm always game for something new, so I double crochet, chained 10 to what I felt was a comfortable width, and length - it looked like this -

Then twist the chain 10, pull through the next chain 10 and repeat until all are finished.

It's actually very pretty and looks as if it's braided strands and not twisted and brought through. 

When all are twisted and brought through, I went around the entire afghan twice in a very nice half double crochet, placing 3 stitches in each corner to have it lay straight.  The color scheme I used was a variegated with dark brown, medium brown, orange, tan, and beige - 6 colors total.  The pattern was 5 rows of each 6 colors, 3 rows, 1 row to the variegated and then 1 row back, 3 back 5 back. 

The colors came out beautiful!  The size was a bit smaller than I first thought it would be, but never making it and not having much to go on, it's great.  My next one will be twice the size, as this is just for one.  But, it was given today to my newest granddaughter - my grandson was recently married and they are expecting their little wee one on March.  This will keep her nice and toasty.  The fringe was a new one for me, a triple knot.  I really like it, for fringe.  Only on one end.  I prefer no fringe because it always tickles or makes me think something is crawling on my neck when I'm sleeping.  But, it was a gift, so I fancied it up.  I read a pattern on Pinterest some time back and they had a variation of this as a ripple and called it Jacob's Ladder.

Also done a bit of sewing.  My little Wee One, Leila, asked for a Yoshi blanket for her gift.  So how does one make a Yoshi - well, first buy the material, then take it all to Colorado to my daughter there and ask her to help!  My son married an Angel and she sews like a professional, so she helped me.  Son made the Yoshi pattern, I cut, daughter did sewing - a family affair!

She loves it Auntie Kim!!  Thanks Uncle Jeff for helping, too!  And yes, each piece is sewn on separately!  It was a lot of pieces, a lot of work, I can't thank Kim enough as she has this beautiful, professional sewing machine that really hit the mark! 

These are my kids who do costuming professionally.  She does the sewing of costumes of fabrics and leathers,




he does all of the props or items fabricated in different metals or plastics.  They are an amazing team together!

And, so with that my good blogging buddies, as Yoshi to the right is ready to say good bye for now - I promise it won't be another 4 months before I stop back by.  I do get by to see many of your blogs, but have just not had time, as you read to leave messages.


May God bless each and every one of you, keep you safe, loved and forever thankful we live in the greatest country in the world. 

For those who have soldiers away from home, God bless you and them.  Thank them and thank you for your service to our country.  Without them standing on the front lines, keeping our liberty and freedom, and you all keeping the home fires burning, we would not live in the greatest country any longer.  God bless you all.

May you all have a wonderful, healthy, and Happy New Year!  May it be all you want it to be, bring you the happiness you deserve, the prosperity you work for and the health our Lord bestows on you.  This new year I look forward to better health, a brand new Great Granddaughter (Grandson and new Granddaughter will be having her in March) and a wonderful new year.

Blessings and hugs,
Donna