Christmas fun, framed pics, new stitching, etc

Well, the Christmas tree is down, and the holidays are still going.  But first here is what Christmas Day looked like.

The presents all waiting to be opened.  And here are the boy child and girl child.  Can you tell which one was first up?

If you guessed the girl child was first up, you'd be wrong.  Hard to tell from the pictures though, huh?  We had fun opening our presents.  Then it was the lovely father type to cook our Christmas dinner for us.  Here's the table all decked out with food.

It was a great Christmas day.  But the tree was dropping needles at the slightest breath of air.  So it was goodbye tree by the second day of Christmas.  Now everything is back to normal and ready for the New Year!

I said in my last post that I may end up starting something new.  Well, I did.  Here it is.

It's called Beneath the Waters by Carriage House Samplings, although I think it was done when Kathy Barrick was still calling herself Barrick Designs.  Here is what the finished piece will look like.

And if you're interested in getting a copy of the chart, here's the link.   Kathy Barrick sells a lot of her OOP charts now on her etsy site.   I'm stitching mine on the same fabric as my PS Alphabets, 30ct Legacy Custard Creme over one, with the called for NPI fibers.  I want it to fit on a wonderful box that I recently got.

My friend Kathy (no blog) and I went to our favorite LNS on Tuesday, where I picked up two of my framed pieces.  Here they are, Frederick and Frederika, all framed with frames from Valley House Primitives.

And here is a picture of the frame detail.  I just love these frames!

While at our LNS, Kathy and I enjoyed the CHS trunk show that was there.  I ended up picking up the chart for this

(A Mind Independent and Free by CHS). And I was totally awed by all the CHS stockings hanging up -- what a sight!  And Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow was there as well!  Oh my -- to see this in person!  The colors are just stunning!  If you like the piece from what you've seen online, well, let me tell you, it's even better in person!  I am now sorely tempted to start in on that BAP!  But I also want to join in with Laurie of Corgi Cottage on And All Was For an Appil by Scarlet Letter.    All of which is a problem, since I'm in the midst of stitching the PS Alphabets and also Beneath the Waters!   I think all of this nonstitching time with the family is causing a major case of I-wanna-start-itis!  lol!

Well, the father type is still on vacation till the beginning of the New Year.  The boy child is off school till then, and the girl child as well.  The girl child will be going back to college Sunday to prepare for exams -- her college saves the fun of finals till after Christmas, a real bummer.  But until then, we're all snug at home.  Well, except for the occasional trip to the LNS, the kids disappearing with their friends, -- you get the idea.  But it's a pretty blissful, relaxing holiday.  Not much in the way of stitching, but such is life.

I hope you all have a wonderful, happy, and healthy New Year.  Thanks for stopping by my blog and sharing my stitching life with me.  It hasn't been a year yet that I've been blogging, but it's getting there!  Amazing!  It's been fun blogging with you all this year!  See you in 2010!