Christmas Eve!

It's just not Christmas without hearing lovely Karen Carpenter sing my favorite Christmas song!

And, here's Achille Togliani singing Parla Parlami D'Amore Mariu.......just because it's so beautiful, and Dolce & Gabbana cut it off too soon!

Merry Christmas all!

regan

Merry Christmas!

Today was the first day of Winter!  Woohoo!  I can actually celebrate that enthusiastically, because it was 78 degrees today here in central Florida!  Tomorrow, hubby and I are waking up early to get in our walk, and then we are headed to the beach to fly kites with friends!  Yep....bring on Winter! We're loving it!

And we loved our recent cruise to the Panama Canal!  It was awesome in every way!  I don't have many pictures.....I guess I don't think to take pics unless it's of a quilt!

Here I am in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas!  And yes....the water is REALLY that color!  Gorgeous!  We were just there for about 6 hours.....long enough to fly my kite on the beach, and wander a bit!  We did the same in Aruba and Curacao.....both had nice little towns to wander around in, and lovely beaches, and we found a nice little park in both to fly the kite!  Our port of call in Cartegena, Columbia was rained out, so we didn't get off the boat.

And here's a pic of the boat heading into the Panama Canal!  It was an awesome event at the crack of dawn!  Our boat is the largest ship that can fit through.....there was about 1 foot of clearance on both sides!  Yikes!  If the railings on the ship weren't so slanted inward, we could have touched the sides of the canal!

The next day, we kayaked in Costa Rica.....totally great!  Then two more lovely days at sea before getting home!  And we just missed the big storm that hit the islands....whew!

When we got home, I got busy on the quilt I've been working on!  All the center blocks are complete, and I'm now putting them together.  I'm still piecing the borders, but I think they are really coming along, so I'll show them next time!  This is made with recycled shirts, and a little red and 

orange solids for the centers.  Pieced in the Courthouse Steps pattern.

And, of course, I just had to have a recent pic of our little peanut!  Maddie is now 14 months old!  Here she is watching Bubble Guppies with Grampa!  And yes.....she IS as sweet as she looks!  Totally true!

Our Christmas will be fairly quiet this year!  The kids and peanut are spending Christmas in Utah with Liz's family, but my sister and her boyfriend will be spending the day with us!  We'll relax, have a yummy meal of all our family favorites, chat the day away, and have a wonderful time of it!  I can't wait!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Eat lots of pie!

regan

Really? A year? Sheesh!

Yep....can't believe it's just shy of a year since my last post!  I know....pathetic!  I should just give it up.....but somehow, I keep coming back!  HA!

And I just had to post now, because we leave on a cruise on Tuesday, and if I wait until we get back, it will be OVER A YEAR!  Can't have that!  That's just wrong!  So, so wrong!

So I do have quilty stuff to show, and of course, grandbaby stuff, too!  Yay!

We're back in Florida again!  We are loving the snowbird thing!  And we love that it gives us a chance to spend time with our little peanut, Madeline!

Maddie turned 1 year old two weeks ago!  Can't believe it!  She's awesome in every way, and we were the luckiest grandparents to get to care for her last year!  We loved every minute of it!  Of course, now she's walking around.....and we're much too old for that kind of energy level!  So she's staying in her wonderful daycare this go around.....and we will visit and take her with us on day trips from time to time!  Perfect!

Here she is with my friend Pat's quilt that she made for her 1st birthday!  Soft and sweet, and Maddie loves it!!  You're awesome, Pat!

And for more quilty goodness, I entered a quilt in my guild's show in October, and it won 2 ribbons!  A 1st place AND a Judge's Choice!  Woot Woot!  I'm so honored!

It's called 'Orange you afraid of spiders?' and it's quilted in big stitch!  My first attempt....and I really enjoyed it!  I have to admit, though, that I'll never big stitch with crotchet cotton again, because the texture of it caused the batting to beard on the stitches.  Ugh!  There was a LOT of lint brush work to get it ready for the show!  A smoother or silkier thread would have been a better choice, but I was going for matte finish instead of any shine.  But lesson learned!

I just looked back through some posts, and it turns out I started this spiderweb on Nov. 10, 2010!  Yikes!  Six years in the making!  I had so much fun making the blocks.....from repurposed plaid shirts.....and I remember at the time that it was just going to be a fun and scrappy little quilt!  No intentions of ever putting it in a show!  So funny to think back on that now!

Before I go, I really need to say hello to Sue and Noreen, who have wondered where I've been, and if I'm ever going to blog again!  Thanks for looking for me, and I'm happy to say that I'm back to blogland!

And my next post should have some pics of our time on the cruise!  We are heading for Aruba, Curacao, Cartegena Columbia, the Panama Canal, and Costa Rica!  I'm so excited!  I've never been to any of these places!  My hubby has been to some of these spots during his years in the Navy.....but that was many years ago.....so it will be new to him, too!  Woot!  Eleven days on a cruise.....pure heaven!

See you soon!

regan