Happy New Year!

Is it really 2011? Time just zips by, you know? I am now a GRANDMA!!! Little James was born on October 7, and even though I planned my flight to be there 10 days before his due date (Oct. 19), he just couldn't wait, and arrived before I got there. Sigh. But I was there when Nicki came home from the hospital, and was able to stay and help out for 3 whole weeks! Back at home, I'm afraid everyone got along just fine without me. :( I used to be so important to everyone's survival. They missed me, but really did just fine. It's hard to not be so needed any more. I had a wonderful time in Connecticut, taking care of James and his Momma. It was so hard to leave! And I have to tell you that before I left for Connecticut I won the weight loss challenge, getting down to 6.0 before I left. I managed to get through the holidays without gaining, and I'm going to check with Doreen and see if she wants to start it up again, now that we are into the New Year, and holiday goodies are behind us. I'm proud of myself for not undoing all my efforts, but I really would like to lose another 10 pounds, so we'll see if we can pull that off.

Christmas was great! We changed some of our traditions, we just needed to adjust them, now that there are fewer of us, and no little ones around. Christmas eve day we had Roy's famous snack tray for lunch, and it stayed out all afternoon, which works well since our dinner is so small. For Christmas eve dinner we had our Bethlehem dinner (pita, honey, humus, olives, cheese...). In the past we have always had the kids dress up in costumes and act out the Nativity, but no one was very excited to do that this year, and since James was in Maine, we had no baby Jesus. So instead, we dressed up in wiseman and shepherd costumes and sat around the table while Roy read the Christmas story from Luke, we sang some carols and then ate our dinner. It was really nice! I also changed up Christmas morning. I was afraid that with just 5 of us, it would go by so quickly and feel like an anti-climax. So, after the kids were in bed I wrapped up a bunch of "clues" to look like presents, and put those under the tree, and removed the presents! I hid them around the house, and we had to do the "one by one" thing on Christmas morning so the kids could help each other find their presents! They all really enjoyed it and said they wanted to make it a new tradition to repeat every year. It took us an hour and a half to do the present opening part of the morning, which was great!
Later in the day we got to talk to Matthew on the phone, which was wonderful! It was so great to hear his voice, after more than 6 months since he left on his mission. Mongolia is so far away and so cold, but he sounds happy and is enjoying missionary life. He was just made a senior companion, and a district leader. I am so proud of what a wonderful young man he is. Wow, that's my son!!!

Today the kids are back to school. School for Roy doesn't start until Wednesday, but he is back up on campus getting things ready for a new semester. Ahhh, routine again. I love the holidays, but somehow by the time they are over, I am itching to get back to routine and organization! Strange, but true. I have the itch to go through every inch of the house and start de-cluttering and purging. I really do enjoy that, am I insane?

Oh, I forgot to mention my wonderful, amazing Christmas present! I got a Janome Horizon sewing machine, it is amazing! One of it's many amazing capabilities is that is has "Accufeed". Instead of the feed dogs pulling and the presser foot pushing the fabric through, which results in fighting your seams to keep them even, this machine has feed dogs on the top and the bottom, so both layers of fabric get pulled through together, and things stay even! It is wonderful! I made 56 quarter square triangles the other day, and the points on every single one of them match up perfectly!! It's a miracle! It's fabulous! It wasn't me that struggled with that before (like I thought!) it was my old machine!! It is also wonderful for Free Motion Quilting. I have decided that is one of the things I want to accomplish this year, I want to be a competent FMQer. I have been practicing, and am going to keep right on doing that until I have some things to show off! After I figure out how to post pictures, I will even put some pictures up here, that will be a shocker!

Life is good, I have been greatly blessed.