My daughter and I enjoyed Larkrise to Candleford. I concluded that she is a bit like Dorcus Lane – strong, independent, kind-hearted and a wee bit meddling… Dorcas recognizes that she has “one weakness”…when she actually has many. I used a fabric marker to write that quote on a scarf for my daughter. She loved it! She also received the entire Larkrise DVD collection and a stack of classic books.

Annie makes all of her gifts and bestowed these lovelies on me! An adorable cupcake pincushion and two zippered, fabric bags made out of this fantastic typewriter fabric!

She made all of her aunts and grandmas either coin purses or clutches. She mad her sister and me a camera strap cover with a case for the cap! She made her brother chapstick with fun labels.

I did some shopping on Etsy. Annie got this pincushion from Made In Lowell.

Maggie got this treble clef ring.

She also got a vintage book frame like this one.

There were also all kinds of new Twillypops! My sisters-in-law put theirs on right away! Everyone loved them and I’m so excited Sara opened up her shop for the holiday season.

There were parties, nights out, parties….and enough viri to go around! This was a “rougher” Christmas holiday – in terms of timing, busy-ness, and sickness. Two of my kids got the upper respiratory virus, complete with fever. My mom and brother got it in time for Christmas and my mom is still recovering from the laryngitis. We moved Christmas from my mom’s house to my brother’s house.

My niece made this “Town Belle” costume for her niece and she put it on and started dancing and singing!

There were dinners out with family and friends and lots of jazz music in and out of the house!

My son played with the Rachel Sepulveda trio on New Year’s Eve. My husband and I trekked down to the wonderful Worthington Inn. This was our second 24 hours away from the kids in 24 years of marriage!  We enjoyed a fantastic dinner and then even better music!

Here’s me in the dress I was stitching minutes before leaving. It will get its own post.

The jazz music was a contrast to whatever was on TV – including Beiber’s sagging pants.

The streets were so pretty! The snow clung to the trees as in classic pictures. The drive down was awful. There was a stretch on the highway where we passed 10 cars that had just gone off the road. The roads weren’t that bad, but traffic was heavy. Speed had to be a factor. But I was sure happy when we arrived.

My husband gave me a new camera – I have much to learn but I am excited about it! I hope your holiday season was a good one!

Next week I’m going to share some business organization ideas. I hope you’ll stop by and share your ideas!