December 12

So much to do, so little time. I woke up starting at 6:45AM my time and every 10 minutes for the next 45 minutes so I finally got out of bed at 7:30AM, which makes that 11:30PM TUESDAY NIGHT Dec 11 HOME time. It's going to be a LOOOOOOOOONG 48 hours. I woke up with a sinus infection which makes my teeth hurt more than they already do, my fingers, hands and wrists, feet, ankles and calves are all puffed up and I have absoultely NO ambition to do anything that needs to be done before we leave tonight. DH wants to take the luggage out and check in/get boarding passes early, then we go to the airport around midnight/1AM local time for a 4AM flight. Passport control here does NOT always go smoothly so that is why we go early.
We are headed into snow/sleet/ice storms at home about the time we land and the evening that we will attempt to drive home to our house. We have also had to rent a SUV to get through the ice/snow since our car is not running now.

I did stitch a bit last night and got a couple things put in my bag to stitch if I can't sleep on these flights. The flight from Europe to USA is almost 10 hours, 4 hours longer than the usual vacation flights. I just hope there aren't any screaming, ill mannered, undiciplined brats on the flight.

I have my blinking Santa hat in the bottom of my purse so I can put it on when we get HOME!

If you are reading this, please send us safe, easy travel vibes or a prayer or two for no snow ice etc. I am absoultely terrified to land and drive in winter weather, I just want to get home to enjoy 3 short weeks with my family.

Ok, got the load of laundry done, swept & mopped the kitchen floor, re-organized carry on, got clothes out for flight, put stuff away, cleaned out fridge. I even purged my closet of clothes that I wore back in 1999 when I was SKINNY that I know I will never ever wear again.

More Blogthings

You Should Have a Blue Christmas Tree

For you, the holidays represent a time of calm, understanding, and peace. You avoid family fights, and you don't get too stressed out - even when things are crazy! You like to make Christmas about making everyone's life a little bit better. You don't get caught up in greed or commercialism. You're too sincere for that. Your blue tree would look great with: Lots of silver tinsel You should spend Christmas Eve watching: It's a Wonderful Life What you should bake for Santa: Chocolate chip cookies

http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorchristmastreeshouldyouhavequiz/">What Color Christmas Tree Should You Have?

http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorchristmastreeshouldyouhavequiz

Too bad it doesn't tell you which ones you got wrong.

You Know a Lot About Christmas

You got 5/10 correct You know tons about the history and traditions surrounding Christmas. When you celebrate the holidays, you never forget their true meaning - or all the little fun details. Random Christmas fact: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was originally a promotional gimmick for Montgomery Ward.

http://www.blogthings.com/howmuchdoyouknowaboutchristmasquiz/">How Much Do You Know About Christmas?

http://www.blogthings.com/howmuchdoyouknowaboutchristmasquiz/

December 11

Ok, well I will try to post this AGAIN! Blogger wouldn't post this last night.

As of this post, 7 more prayer calls to go! We will be going from 85F to 40F to 20F, from balmy breezes to ice, sleet and snow, oh boy! NOT! Can't come soon enough! Our internet was down from 9:15AM until well after 4 PM on Monday and of course when I needed to check things online.

I guess the other day I was having a REALLY BAD case of PMS, hasn't been that bad in YEARS! But then I'm been more menopausal the past few years too. So everything is ok. I will definately let my family know how I feel though about us going home because they want us to then saying "oh, sorry, we want to stay at our own homes for Christmas"

This is the internet radio music I've been listening to: http://www.accuradio.com/holidays/

We had KRISPY KREME donughts for breakfast on Thursday!!! They were fresh and GOOD, MMMMMMMMM!

The weather at HOME this week:

Thursday: Chance of a few snow showers. Highs in the upper teens and lows in the mid teens.

Friday: Morning clouds followed by afternoon sun. Highs in the upper 20s and lows in the upper teens.

Dec 15 Saturday Partly cloudy. Highs in the upper 20s and lows in the mid teens. Dec 16 Sunday Cloudy. Highs in the low 20s and lows in the low teens.

Dec 17 Monday More clouds than sun. Highs in the mid 20s and lows in the upper teens.
Ummm BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

I finished making my 2 ornaments today and I am kind of proud of the way they turned out. This is the front and back of one.

This is a double sided ornament:I also finished 2 of my name flakes as well. I am so excited about those, I really love the design and the way they turned out.

These are the NameFlakes by VeeandCo. I LOVE the way they turned out.

So now I am stitching a little project called Be Merry by Shepherd's Bush. I'll have to find something to kit up to take on the plane with me.

I still have NOT smoked since Nov. 19! I don't take that Chantax stuff every day, it gives me HORRIBLE farts.

Having a meltdown

I don't know what is wrong, I'm having a meltdown here. I've listened to my 1 hour a year of Christmas music and I'm just bawling. We are going home this year so I don't know what is wrong. I don't know if it's the attitude of my daughter's husband of wanting to spend it at his house because that is the only Christmas that my grandson knows is at his house, because I know my husband is a bah humbug kind of person and has made me into that. After years of begging we're going home for christmas, but my family still won't be together on Christmas day.
I don't know if my problem is not knowing what the hell is going on here, somwhow I get the feeling i'm going in for round 2, kind of like deja vu.

I do know that If I don't get to see my kids or grand kids, fuck it, I'll never go home for Christmas again until I go home for good.

An anniversary

Friday December 7 was my 23rd anniversary of living in hell. It was December 7, 1984 when my 2 kids and I landed in this land that time forgot. Whopee, not a fun anniversary to celebrate.

I finished my Meagon Name flake on Friday, the colors don't show up on the picture like they really are. The snowflakes are all beaded, one is dark purple, one is light purple and one is an "ice blue" color. I don't know how I am going to finish it yet.

I started a Brenda Name flake yesterday too who would guess it's on the same fabric as the Meagon flake just different color DMC variations floss.

I wasn't on the computer at all on Friday, I stitched all day instead. I probably won't be on the computer much, I need to sort things out.
Not a good time to quit smoking either but no matter how crappy things get, I won't start up again.

December 5

It's the weekend! This time next week I'll be packing or napping waiting to go to the airport! Wahoo! Not a whole hell of a lot going on lately. I haven't smoked in 2 1/2 weeks, it seems like been a hell of a lot longer than that, it's been a LOOOOONG 2 1/2 weeks too!

I didn't stitch yesterday so I don't have a wip update.

We went to the store to buy a new suitcase and had just about as much fun as one can stand, NOT! BUT, the grocery store had it's annual "Seasonal Treats" display in a tiny, out of the way corner. They had gingerbread/anise cookies from Germany, Christmas pudding from the UK, Stollen from Germany, the Christmas packages of chocolates from the UK & other countries. IT's so funny, there is this HUGE banner over the isle where they are with a picture of fancy red bows, ornaments and a pine branch that says "Seasonal Treats" but heaven forbid should you say Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas. Of course all this stuff will probably be conficated in the next couple weeks anyway.
I did get a couple new larger storage boxes for a couple sets of floss that I have a lot of.

I bought a couple Christmas presents online today, still have a couple more to go.

December 4

Meagon Name Flake progress, I am loving stitching this one! Here is my progress since Dec. 2, I made the mistake of taking a nap Monday afternoon so I didn't get much accomplished.
There is a beaded snowflake at the top, you can't really see the beads very well but they are there. The M is even, I don't know why it shows up as the right side being longer than the left, but it is even. This picture is a more acurate color of the fabric.

More sneezing and blowing my nose today, the weather is still ucky out side so I just have to stay inside.

Another day without a cigarette! I want to know when it will get easier, I want to know when the craving to light one up goes away. I personally don't think those Chantax pills really do much of anything, I still want to light a cigarette when I sit down at the computer or after I've eaten a meal or been busy doing housework and want to take a break or when I get up in the morning.

Oh, and another thing, I'm sick of cooking. Normally DH will bring home food if he is out shopping. Not necessarily nasty, "bad for you" fast food just something that I don't have to spend a lot of time cooking. We have had delivery food twice since Oct. 19th, Popeye's Delivery and Papa Johns Pizza delivery. Well Papa John's pizza is off my list for awhile, it just tasted nasty this time.

Progress pictures

I finally have some progress pictures to show! The first one is something I started a few days ago called An American Christmas, it was a free pattern from the Eterna Silk site. I am stitching it on 32 count had dyed opalescent fabric from Silkweaver with Eterna Silk floss. Here is a progress picture:

Here is a link to the FREE pattern and a picture of what it is supposed to look like when it's done. http://www.eternasilk.com/AnAmericanChristmasChart.htm
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My next project is a Name flake that I started Sunday afternoon. The pattern is from Vee&Co (http://www.veeandco.com/43.html)

and I am stitching it on 28 count Ice Blue hand dyed metallic floss from Sugar Maple Fabrics with DMC Variations floss. I am so excited about this.
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More pictures I forgot to post. The first one is my "table decorations" that I put out at Thanksgiving. I set them up right in front to my place at the table where DH & I eat.

This is our Roxy cat, she's old, has no teeth and just plain screeches a lot. For some reason all of a sudden she stopped sitting in "her" chair and decided since my stitching chair was nice and clean she would sit there. Well I don't want her sitting in my chair and shedding all over and getting cat fur in all the projects I stitch. So everytime I get out of my chair I put my huge Reindeer that DH got me last Christmas in the chair. Well I guess Roxy REALLY REALLY wanted to sit in my chair. Don't you feel so sorry for her not having enough room?

AARRRRRGGGGG!

This damn internet connection is driving me nuts! It is SLOWER THAN DIAL UP IF the pages actually load. I had something all typed up yesterday and it wouldn't post, it just sat there doing nothing! This is really what makes me want to have a cigarette, when I have to sit here and stare at blank pages! But I won't, there aren't any in the house.

Speaking of which, another day with out a cigarette, I think it was good of me to try and quit here because here I can't jump in the car and drive out to the store and buy a pack since I am not allowed to drive here and I would have to ask DH to take me to the store or go get them for me, so another pat on the back for myself!

The weather here is changing, I was fine yesterday until I stepped outside for a few minutes then I started sneezing again, today I'm sneezing, blowing my nose and my knees hurt. It's SO humid too. It's only 87 at noon but it's so miserable.

I did get to stitch yesterday, I added about 300 stitches worth of blue floss next to the blob of red thread on my project and it doesn't look like anything. Today I woke up and found some GREAT patterns in my e-mail that I dropped everything to start, except the now the fucking printer won't work, either one of them.

DH got me a new cell phone yesterday so I have to sit down and figure out how to work it.

December 1

Yet another day without smoking! YAY!

I must have had some sort of allergy thing yesterday because I feel fine today, no sneezing, stuffyness or runny nose.

I've found a new way of making fresh "brewed" tea. I use the loose tea and my French press coffee maker. I just put the loose tea in the bottom, add the hot water, put the press on, wait 6 minutes and I have hot tea.

Julio Iglesias is going to be in Dubai next week, AARRGG! Before I went on vacation it was Aerosmith in concert, Elton John has been there as has SEVERAL great performers. Dubai/Abu Dhabi is really getting to be quite the party place.

So much for making a Christmas music CD, I can't find my Christmas music ANYWHERE! I looked in the bottomless holiday box, went through my CD collection, looked behind, under, in places and they are nowhere! I think I loaned them to a friend one year and she never gave them back. I liked a couple of them too. OH well.

I WILL STITCH TODAY! I am really getting annoyed with this stitchy slump, I just can't sit down and stitch and I honestly don't know why. It's been like this since I got back in October and I have all my great new charts, fabric and floss to stitch with but nothing! All I've managed to finish are my June & July blackwork projects and 2 ornaments for exchanges.

That's all my ramblings for now.