Day 6: Christmas Memories

Tonight's memory is about family pets. We usually had cats over the years...one dog was a part of our lives until the kids were afraid to go out in the backysrd! We decided that he needed to be a farm dog...that he needed more space than our backyard gave him. Back to our cats...one year right at the end of the school year we got a kitten that the kids named Sugar...guess what color he was...well, I guess perhaps tonight's photo answers that question! I stitched this ornament in my early years of my stitching to represent Sugar. I put it in a bell ornament frame...when I see this I also think about the Aesop Fable about belling the cat. We had Sugar for several years, but he disappeared after we moved to the house we live in now. It's been a busy day. I had several duties around the house that needed doing...one was make Woody's breakfast sausage...another was vacuum up the threads in the living room where I had done part of a sewing project. I kept trying to get back to sewing, but other things kept coming up to do...including Christmas shopping for our family. I sat with Woody and looked up things that he wanted to get for various family members. His hands are sort of tied since his computer still is on the blink. So Insearched and he approved. By the time we finished, we had found gifts for the ones who were lacking in gifts...good to have that done...now to get them all delivered in a timely manner! After lunch we had a meeting with our financial advisor here at the house. Woody actually came out of the family room and sat in the living room for the meeting. It was good for him to have a change of routine and he got to see the Precious Moments Nativity (his favorite of our decorations) and got to see the tree and the other decorations between the living room and the family room. I try to think that he is more well than he is...but at the end of the meeting, I could tell that it had really tired him out. He dozed for a while after he got back to his recliner. He also is having sinus problems...runny nose and a bit of sneezing so that doesn't make him feel great either. I talked him into taking an allergy pill. I hope that helps him feel better. Once the meeting was over, I headed back upstairs with a load of clean clothes to put away and a couple of things that needed to be ironed...three of those things were Christmas gifts. I discovered that my iron is no longer among the living of irons. I hate it as I have really liked this iron and the last time I looked WalMart no longer carries this brand. And, I can't take the time to order as I need it for my sewing immediately...if not sooner! I can't sew without an iron! It was so close to dark when I discovered this and I had already covered the windshield and the back window with towels to keep frost off in the morning, that I decided to just do what I can with my projects and head straight to WalMart in the morning after I drop Woody off at dialysis. I had things all ready to make five ornaments...all the pressing to this point had been done and they were just waiting for me to take them to the next step. I have done that and as soon as I blog I will sew them up...but they will need to be pressed after turning them right side out. I "may" be able to do it...as I kept my iron before this one after it quit steaming...kept it for a dry iron. But I tried using it after I discovered the malfunction of my other one and it didn't work all that great even with a wet press cloth. Again, I will get them to the point that I need to iron them and then set them aside till after my purchase in the morning. I looked online to see what WalMart has for irons these days and have, I think, chosen the one that I want...now we will see if our WalMart really has this one in stock. I WILL come away with a new one no matter what tomorrow...I have three things that I want with the iron...a shiny bottom (none of that no stick stuff on the bottom), a pointy tip on the front, and one that steams. Price I'm not picky about, though I have found that cheap irons last about as long as expensive ones! I am not going for top of the line at WalMart as I have had that brand before and have not had the best luck with them...they tend to spit dark water all too soon. Ahhh...the woes of someone who sews...I go through a lot more irons than the general iron user! But there is still plenty to do to get ready for when I do have a new iron. I think that Woody is about to settle in for the night. I have a few dishes to add to the dishwasher and then I will start it...then once I'm sure that Woody is settled, it is back upstairs for me...first I will sew fronts to backs on five ornaments...then I will see what time it is. I am tired tonight...no time for a nap so far today...so it may mean an earlier bedtime tonight! We will be up and out of here early in the morning and it is supposed to be a cold morning...back to the upper 20s. Oh, big job done today without any effort on our part...the leaves that Nathan and kids and our neighbor have raked, mowed up, blown, etc. out to the curb got picked up by the city's leaf machine today...once again you can see he curb in front of our house. Always glad to get that pickup...just wish that all our leaves were down and all had been out there to be whisked away today...but that won't happen till Spring when our trees finally drop all their leaves. The leaf truck will be back one more time before Spring. Once in a while we get an extra pickup as we have more leaves on this side of town than those on the other side. To be continued! Be safe! Be well! B cautious! 'Tis the season!

Day 5: Christmas Memories

Tonight's Christmas memory goes back to when I was always on the lookout for another Christmas ornament for our tree...at that point the tree had many empty places left to fill in when I finished decorating it. This ornament was a compromise. I found a lovely pair of wooden bells with a wooden heart...very Scandanavian...I loved their simplicity and the fact they were wooden...just really liked them, when I first spotted them in a little gift shop in our mall. BUT the price tag on these bells was more than I was willing to pay...so passed them by and continued to look through the array of ornaments that this store had. And, lo and behold, I found the ornament pictured in tonight's blog...a smaller version and much less expensive...I imagine only a couple of dollars. I was always on the lookout for unique and inexpensive ornaments to add to our array of ornaments. I happily took this one home and have enjoyied placing it on the tree each year. The next picture will tell you "the rest of the story." I don't know if it was the same year or another one on down the road, but at some point when ornaments become part of an after-Christmas sale, the much desired larger bells and heart went on sale for a price that I was willing to pay...so now each year on our tree abides both of these ornaments and I still love their simplicity and beauty to this day! Oh, one thing that these ornaments represent on our tree is the fact that I have quite an extensive bell collection...so there are many bells on our tree.

We've had a pretty good day. We got off to a good start this morning...actually got to the dialysis center a little early. I raced home with a goal in mind...to finish up a set of gifts...I had four complete and had six to go. I actually almost got them all finished before going to pick up Woody. I think that I worked a half hour more after coming back to the house and had them finished. They are now in the drier and I will give then a final press and 9 more gifts will be ready. When I get finished downstairs tonight, I will go back up and see what else I can accomplish before closing my eyes tonight! 'Tis the season. In the past I have often burned the midnight oil to finish gifts...just find that I play out earlier than I used to! Oh, I did complete stitching my cross stitch project last night...now to get it fully finished!!! I just remembered this evening that I still have another gift to get ready for our AZ package...almost forgot! I think I would have realized it when I came across the fabric laying on my cutting table...but who knows. Woody said that he did have to have a bolus of saline solution at the end of his dialysis treatment as his blood pressure went below their allowable low...but it was back up when he finished his treatment. He has had a good afternoon as far as I can tell. I still have to dress the lower part of his leg tonight. We did hear from the infectious disease doctor. She has no openings for telemed visits till after the first of the year. But she plans to order some blood work done. He does have another appoiontment with wound care on Friday so she will be checking on how his leg looks. I think that it looks better after just a couple of days of applying antibiotic cream...hopefully it's a surface infection that can be taken care of topically. The last time that he had blood work done...not long ago, his white count was good. We will also see what his white count is on Friday when TN Oncology does their labs. They are not Vanderbilt...so info doesn't flow well between the two entities! Well, back to finishing loading the dishwasher now that Woody has finished his meal of two soft tacos. Then I will dress wounds and tuck him in for the night and head up to my rooms that are overtaken with creative chaos! To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! 'Tis the Season!

Day 4: Christmas Memories

When I see this angel, I smile and even chuckle a bit...unusual reaction to an angel ornament?!? Our Sunday School has met most years for a Christmas party either at someone's house, a restaurant, or at church. We often have an ornament exchange. In the early years we played "Dirty Santa" to procure our gift. The year I received this angel as my ornament, I won out over many others who were interested in getting her. She was quite the popular ornament to "steal." Thenway we played that year was we each had a number and each number was put into a container and when your number was called, you could either pick a wrapped package and open it or you could steal an ornament that someone had already opened. If I remember correctly, my number was just about the last to be called and I chose to "steal" her from whomever had her at that time...she had been stolen and in many hands at that point in the game. The only way that I ended up with her was that there was hardly anyone else left to steal her from me! I was very happy with my conquest and am still enjoying this coveted angel on our tree all these years later. The one who gifted her reads our blog...so thank you again after all these years, Brenda W! Today has been busier than usual for a Monday, as we had to go to the local hospital to have Woody's leg x-rayed. It was a very efficient appointment...in and out before we knew it...thank goodness! I have concentrated on completing a cross stitch project and I can see the finish happening tonight before I sleep. Woody has done a lot of crossword puzzles and rested today. I went to prayer meeting this evening, but Woody chose to stay home...his one trip out today was enough! He's all tucked in for the night. I have a little straightening in the kitchen and then I'm heading upstairs to stitch! To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! 'Tis the season!

Day 3: Christmas Memory

Tonight's memory comes from one of my childhood memories. Every time I put out our Precious Moments Nativity different things come to mind with each of the characters...little children dressed up to be a part of a Nativity pageant. Tonight's memory isn't about a Christmas pageant, but of another Christmas program that was out on by the children's department in my church one Christmas many years ago. What brings this memory to mind is the little angel standing on the "cloud" holding a flashlight to shine down on the scene. This Precious Moments figurine is called: "The Heavenly Light." As the season goes on I will share some of the other clever names that each of these Precious Moments figures were given by their original creators, Jonathan and David. The year that I am remembering is uncertain. I have only a couple of vague memories about the event so I'm guessing that I was in a lower grade. A group of us Sunday School children were chosen to form a living Christmas tree...prior to the elaborate ones of present day! We each wore a green cape. I guess we were placed on risers to form a triangular tree shape...with one person at the top holding a flashlight for the star on the tree. I was that child at the top! So this flashlight holding angel reminds me of that night many, many years ago! I'm sure that we probably sang, but that I don't remember...I was probably concentrating too hard on holding that flashlight to remember anything else, except for the flashlight, green capes and that it was dark...probably so my flashlight star could be seen! To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! 'Tis the season!

Day 2: Christmas Memory

I had really planned for the memories to be ornaments on the tree, but when Melany shared her memory last night, I decided that I would branch out out to other decorations. Tonight's photo shows our first Nativity. My cousin Sue fom Massachusetts, sent it to us in the very early years of our marriage. I'm guessing that she gave it to us either 52 or 53 years ago. She was my only first cousin, my mother's sister's (Aunt Lois) daughter. She was about 18 months older than I. We lost her way too soon. She died 30 years ago this year...I can keep track because she died the same year that our first grandchild, Erin, was born. Back to pleasant Christmas memories! We had moved back to Tullahoma after living in CA for two years and were living in our home on Westview. I'm thinking that Melany was between 3 and 4. I was in the kitchen and Melany was in the living room and all of a sudden she exclaimed, "It's a miracle!" I walked out into the living room to see what she was talking about. At that moment the sun was shining through the window casting a beam of light directly on Baby Jesus and no where else in the nativity...a miracle in the eyes of a young child! Sweet Christmas memories! We have had a pretty good day. Woody said that dialysis went well except that he did get sick close to the beginning of dialysis. I'm wondering if this time it was that he ate breakfast a little closer to the start of dialysis...not quite as early as I sometimes put it in front of him...was running a little later this morning. It was raining when we left so he may have taken less time getting into the car...sometimes that can take a while, but when it is raining there is more of a rush to keep from getting wet! All we can do is speculate! He has been fine the rest of the day. I have done very little on getting ready for Christmas today, as I spent a good portion of the time Woody was in dialysis getting the shopping list ready, then shopping and then coming home and putting refrigerated things away and then heading off to pick him up and finishing the grocery putting away after I got him settled...then it was lunch and then I dozed a bit as I didn't get the best night's sleep last night. I had a nice Christmas serindipity, as I came out of the grocery store this morning...I heard my first "bell ringers" of the season. The unexpected part to that encounter was that was that "the ringers" were some long time friends, It was nice to get to visit with them after not seeing them for probably some years. Good to see Deanna and Jeannie! I did make some good progress on my Christmas stitching...may continue that after I blog and do wound care and get the kitchen cleaned up for the night...or I may do a little machine sewing...time will tell on what I acctually do! Woody has done crosswords and watched football today. He enjoys knowing that he has two days off from dialysis. To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! 'Tis the season!

Day 1: Christmas Memories

I had this idea yesterday that I would share Dorrell Christmas memories each of the days preceding Christmas. i thought that I would start out with the first ornament that my parents got us for our first Christmas in 1969. I had trouble taking its picture as it is towards the top of our tree...so a little blurry...artistic blur? This is a little scene in a hen's egg...people walking towards the church and then the church and some greenery. This is a survivor ornament...as fragile as an egg shell is, this little ornament survived the year that the tree toppled over and broke many ornaments. Elijah put this on the tree this year. It didn't adorn a tree the first year, as we went to Arizona for Christmas that year. That is the only year that we went to AZ for Christmas when we lived in TN...such a distance...iffy weather conditions...and, it was really more fun to visit when there wasn't so much going on! I think that one of the reasons that I enjoy our decorations so much is that they are my memories of family...so many of them were given to me by family so as Inget them out and look at them during the season bring back family memories. I was telling Melany my idea avout sharing memories on the blog during December and she immediately came up with one...perhaps I will share that one tomorrow! Woody had a long wait and a long appointment at wound care. She feels like he may have an infection in his leg that isn't being touched by the antibiotic he is on all the time...so she wants us to make an appointment with his infectious disease doctor and she also wants to see an x-ray of his leg...so next week we will go to our local hospital to get the x-ray and I will ge contacting the infectious disease doctor. In the meanwhile, I have picked up another dressing duty...keeping antibiotic cream on the skin in the area that may be infected and keeping that covered with a bandage...so two bandaging jobs almost right next to each other...needing to keep the two areas separated! Fun and games...not! At least both bandages got changed today at the clinic. This was not a productive day for me, Christmas-wise. I do have all panels cut apart and ready to press and then stitch. I did stitch a little this afternoon on a Christmas gift...maybe it will get finished...slow go! I did run errands this afternoon after we had lunch and recovered from the doctor visit. I have given myself a December gift = I am starting a Christmas sampler...last night I dyed the fabric with coffee and tea and got a nice neutral color that is richer than the off white linen that I had. Before I poured the coffee/tea mixture out, i decided to dye another piece for use at a later time. That piece is baking in the oven as I write tonight's that supposedly sets the color and darkens it a bit more. I'm about finished with that part of the process. Next I will rinse it out and then hang it to dry. And, I did start my Christmas sampler...only a few stitches, but a start! Starts are something that many of us stitchers love to do...now finishing said start doesn't always happen! BUT...we have had the joy of starting a new piece! I have had this chart for some time. I bought it when Woody took me to a cross stitch store in Scottsdale, AZ when we were visiting my family...by the date on the sampler it was in the mid 90s...finally getting around to stitching it...almost 30 years after purchasing it! Woody is watching a nighttime game show...I hear him answering questions...so guess he is enjoying it! Another early morning for dialysis tomorrow...those early mornings roll around all too quickly! I'm hoping to get our grocery shopping done while he is at dialysis. To be continued! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! 'Tis the season!

Twas the Night Before December and All Through the House…

And, all through the house Lois' sewing projects have sprung! The sewing room, the bedroom, the living room...all have projects in them...some finished and some in the process of being finished. I am in full swing since I feel that today is the last "free" day that I have...once December arrives then I have to go full force in order to be finished. Today I got the three oraments completely finished that were almost finished last night. I completed sewing four gifts and have four more cut out ready to be pressed prior to going to the sewing machine...not major sewing but still have to do quite a bit prior to the sewing...cutting and pressing then comes the sewing. I like the finished products...so far. I prepared five ornaments to be finished...so lots going on! Woody had a good dialysis day...he said that it was L O N G. He got his puzzles done while there. Woody rested on the couch while Donna and I worked in the church library today. He has had his supper and when I publish this, I will go downstairs to check on him and change the bandage on his leg and check on the wound on his arm. I will finish in the kitchen. The dishwasher is running already. I just have a few dishes to wash by hand. Then I will head back upstairs and try to figure out how to make things out of chaos! But I think that I am about through for today...no nap today...so I am starting to feel the 4:30 am get-up time closing in on me. I hope that I can put in a few more stitches tonight than I did last night...woke up with my needlework in my lap, but no stitching had been done on it before I fell asleep...and, the little stitching elves didn't visit in the night to help me out! So tonight ends November...and from now on the clock will be ticking bringing us closer to Christmas. I'm glad that I am already decorated...that job is behind me. I'm glad that I am where I am with my sewing and gifts that need to be put in the mail...wish I was slightly closer fot those that need to be mailed...but I "think" that I will have things ready in a reasonable time...which means in the mail so they will get there before Christmas. We still have quite a bit of shopping that needs to be done for those close by. Hopefully time to accomplish that, too! Tomorrow Woody has his monthly appointment with wound care...and, it isn't an early appointment. To be continued. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! 'Tis the season!