Merry Christmas - a day or two late

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, reflecting on the season and His wonderful creation and humble beginnings. Our December 25th started out with a surprise - a power outage! My water for coffee had just finished in the microwave (yes, I drink that powdered vanilla-flavored-not-really-coffee-but-definitely-caffeine-stuff-in-a-box), and 'poof', the power went out. At least it knew that I needed the coffee to deal with the outage :-) We explored our stockings by candlelight, got a fire going in the wood stove, and a few hours later we had power again. Being on a well, no power means no water, which is what gives me the most anxiety. Thankfully it wasn't long, and we don't often lose power often, but I can tell you we had lots of jokes about the 12-21-12 being a few days late!

This morning we have a beautiful blanket of snow outside, gentle flakes still falling, and the dreaded black ice on most of the roads. Like I needed another excuse to avoid leaving the house, and staying in to stitch. I have two new designs at the framers now, am working on a second colorway for one of them, and have spent the month of December playing catch up with inventory. This is my slowest month of the year, which gives the extra blessing of more time doing church and family things.

We did have a 'cooking' funny this past month. I decided to try and make homemade macaroni and cheese. It was a labor of love, with six cheeses, all hand grated, a beautifully tanned roux, fresh minced garlic painstakingly sauteed in butter, and baked until perfectly browned and bubbly. Two hours later, the munchkin's response, with a thumb sideways (instead of thumbs up or down): "meh, it's all right". The blue box would be cheaper, and less work.

Homeschool lessons are going well, but I've found that the little one is determined NOT to read instructions. Even when I highlight them! So here's my little experiment: If you are reading this, send me an email to sales@mybigtoedesigns.com BEFORE January 1st and be entered into a drawing for a chart or fob of your choice. You can send a quick "hello", or I would love to hear your favorite Christmas memory or stitching story.