Feels so good

First off, I'm so excited to be taking part in Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year.  If you look on the sidebar, you'll see a link to the blog where you can find all the details.  It's the perfect thing for me since I love Scarlet Letter, so of course I joined in right away.

And a funny coincidence, since I'm already working on a Scarlet Letter piece!

The fill in is slow going, but I'm enjoying seeing all the various motifs come to life.

Don't you love the parrot and the snail?

There was another reason I might not have gotten as much stitching done as I would have liked.  Thanksgiving!  It was so wonderful to have both my kids back home again.  And I think Mia was happy about it as well.

Although it was hard to tell at times.  She would do things like get as close to the girl child as possible, but also hiss at her.  Such a mixed up kitty!

And of course, there was the cooking.  The girl child took part in the makings this year.  She was in charge of the pecan pie.

We ate of course.

And we played our old favorite game of Apples to Apples.  We even watched a movie on my laptop.

We also managed the next day to see Wreck It Ralph.  In 3D.  Note the father type in his 3D glasses after seeing the movie.

Mia managed to sneak in a bit of a coffee high as well -- she loves coffee!  (And no, she only got to lick the cup.)

We went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants too.

We even managed to fit in a yummy breakfast at a new IHop.  And yes, the kids managed to see their friends and hang out with them as well.

It's been a great Thanksgiving.  I think we all appreciate being together more now that we are apart so much.  We're all looking forward to Christmas break already.  It's a bit sad today -- everyone has to leave to go back to college and work soon.  But I'm so grateful for the time we had together this Thanksgiving.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I'm posting a day early today.  Hope everyone who celebrated enjoyed their Thanksgiving as well.  Have a great week!

Almost time....

I've finished all the outlining on AAWFAA.  Even stitched Adam and Eve's hair.

Had to do their hair since it wasn't outlined.  They looked very bald without their hair.

I got a lovely surprise in the mail from Nicola of Stitching by a Cornish Sea, all the way from the UK.  I think Nicola knows what we love in this house!

A very large Cadbury Milk Chocolate bar!  So delicious!  Thank you so much, Nicola!  You are a sweet friend.

It's almost Thanksgiving!  It will be the first time the boy child has come home since he left for college. And the girl child is coming home too, first time since September.  Wish Thanksgiving were longer.  I'm so looking forward to having both the kids home!

I wonder if Mia senses something.  I found her for the first time in the boy child's room.  I think she still misses him.

She got distracted by loud noises outside.

The boy child can't wait to see Mia again.   I hope Mia treats the boy child well.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone who celebrates the holiday has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Have a great week!

stitching post finally....

I finished what I could on that model so far, so I picked up an old WIP to work on.  I don't know why, but whenever I tried to work on this one in the past, it was a complete failure and I would put it away again.  This time, however, I seem to be enjoying it.

It's And All was for an Appil by Scarlet Letter.  I'm using DMC and 40ct linen of some kind.  I think it's an R&R fabric.

Love the colors!

I was so surprised the other day to receive in the mail a gift from my dear friend Laurie of Corgi Cottage.  She sent it just because as a way to cheer me up.  She's so sweet!

Love the t-shirt!  And some Little Gem scissors, a Kelmscott Threadkeep -- so pretty!  And also a Mary Englebreit needle keep.  Love Mary Englebreit!  Thank you so much, my friend!  You are the best!

I also won a prize from Sandra of Homespun Elegance.

And here's what was inside.

Thank you, Sandra.  I love it so much!

I was throwing away a kleenex box, and of course Mia was interested in it.  Then the boy child reminded me (via IM) that she used to play inside kleenex boxes as a kitten.  Well there's no way she would fit inside one anymore!

She's a bit too large to fit now.  lol!  Here's a pic of her inside a Kleenex box as a kitten.

So cute!!

Thank you to everyone for sending such wonderful emails and comments asking after us and how we were doing through Sandy and its aftermath.  I'm still feeling a bit shell shocked, but it's so nice to be getting back to normal again.  We are very lucky in so many ways.  My thoughts and prayers continue to be with those affected by Sandy.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I always appreciate your visits and comments.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

ETA:  Forgot about my TUSAL report.  Here it is.  Doesn't look very different.  :D

another update

This is what I hope is the final update from Sandy.  We got power back around 9pm Monday night.  Yay!  It was sooooooooooo nice.  Basically a week without power.  Irene kept us without power for 5 days.

We got our internet/phone/TV back today in the late afternoon.  And yes, thank God, we survived the nor'easter with our power intact.  We did get snow and wind, but the wind was just enough to knock the snow off the leaves that are still on the trees.  And the snow was just enough, not too much.  We were so lucky once again.

We had a bit of a scare today.  Poor father type has a kind of food poisoning and has started antibiotics to treat it. We are hoping he will be feeling better by tomorrow and recovering nicely by the weekend.

Thanks to everyone for their good wishes for us through all of this.  We were so lucky, as I've said before.  Yes, we had the inconvenience of no power etc.  But we have our house and are safe.  We are still figuring out about the car -- whether we can manage to salvage it despite it being totalled, or whether we have to get a new car.  We shall see.  There are the fallen trees to take care of, but they are not in the way, so we will get to it.  Like I said, we were so lucky.  My thoughts go out to all those who are still suffering, who have lost their homes or businesses  -- in short, everyone affected by Sandy and the nor'easter.

I have finished what I could of the model stitching for now and am waiting the arrival of the rest of the chart for the model.  So perhaps I will have a bit of non model stitching to show you next time.  And I haven't forgotten the red wall either.  Although I should say my red wall is very small, so don't be disappointed.  :D

I will leave you all with a picture -- recreated -- of what Mia was doing through much of the power outage.  We had our little wood stove burning away in the evenings, and Mia enjoyed the warmth very much.  It was too dark to capture it in real life however.  So this is just a recreation of what she would do.  I took it soon after we got our power back.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  And thank you to all my blogging friends.  Your good wishes and thoughts for us mean so much.  Oh, and it might take me a while to catch up with blog reading, but I'll be back to commenting soon!

update

Still no power.  They say by November 9.  I hope.  Nor'easter coming, but hopefully only rain and a bit of wind, not as bad inland wind-wise.  It's coooooollllldddd.  Come on, guys, we need our power back!  It's a real mess everywhere.  And I mean everywhere.

Sorry I'm not commenting on blogs or anything.  Turned comments off.  No internet at home either, obviously.

Oh, and the car might be totalled.  Still talking to insurance about options.

Kids are back to normal lives at least.

Nuff said.