My Christmas greeting

May your Christmas be filled with friends and family, food and fun, peace and joy! This is my 22nd year to make my own Christmas card design. I'm running low on ideas, and have revisited the inspiration for my card in 1990, the lion and the lamb. I gave it a Colorado twist this time, with a mountain lion and Dall sheep lamb, both Rocky Mountain natives.
"Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them." Isaiah 11:6

The "family circle" is something I've been adding to the back of our card for 21 years. Corbin is fascinated with it (I think he likes it better than the front of the cards) so yesterday I got out the copies I have saved of all of the cards and showed him how his mom and aunts have grown from tiny girls into big girls, how I added his daddy and him, then Zack to the group, and how both of them have grown. In 2002, I added our pug, Jazmine the angel dog, to the design (she died in 2001, but I didn't think to add her that year). Corbin loves the fact that he's trying to take a present out of his mom's hands. The circle has had to grow from its beginning size of about 1" to nearly 2 1/2". Every year it's a challenge to fit everyone in and make the changes in their appearance from the previous year, but making my own cards is a gift I give to myself, and one I hope to continue as long as I am able.

A chicken block

I used a chicken print for the center and a vintage pillow case edge, along with some tiny buttons. Tried to use some stitch combos that I hadn't done before, but I tend to go back to the old standbys.

The little red coat rides again

We have a little red coat that has been through all 3 of our daughters. Rachel (right) wore it in 1988, Trystan (center) in 1991, and Michaela (left) in 1999. Each was 5 or 6 years old at the time. I keep these pictures in a 3 opening frame, but the coat is still hanging in the closet, waiting for another little girl.......

....or boy. Corbin was kind enough to try it on for me yesterday. In a few years we'll see if Zack is willing....

Our Broncos Adventure

I haven't touched a needle in days, which is very unusual for me, but I have a pretty good excuse. Last Friday evening our oldest daughter called and said her boss had two tickets to the Denver/KC on Sunday that she wasn't going to be able to use, and would we like to have them. Paul and I hemmed and hawed a bit; could we go on the spur of the moment? could we afford the expense? what to do with youngest daughter Michaela? With gas prices low, and middle daughter Trystan still home until her graduate program starts in January, we decided that the answer to the first question was "yes". We made reservations on Saturday for a motel room for that night, and off we went.

This is an inflatable mountain and horse tunnel that gets put up for the players to run through on their way onto the field.

Here's Thunder, the horse mascot who runs down the field after each score. Not something they show often on televised games.

Our seats were in the south stands, just to the right of the white horse statue. On either side of him, they set off flames and fireworks each time the Broncos score. We were close enough to feel the heat from the flames each time. Apparently the stadium was built for noise making. When KC had the ball, we would all stomp our feet and the noise was deafening.

Paul and I were both a little surprised at how small the stadium looked inside. It seems huge on TV, but then they say the camera adds 10 pounds, or perhaps in this case, 10 yards. As you can see, the day was beautiful, nearly 60 degrees. We planned our clothes for cold weather (we were still in Colorado in December, right?) and were nearly too hot. I brought my down coat, and it remained stuffed under my seat for the entire game. Shirt sleeves weather...a mile high....in December....who'da thought?

We had great fun with 71,382 of our closest friends (well some of them were KC fans, but they were okay too). And the Broncos won; 24-17!
This morning I went out to start the car and it wouldn't start. It was out of gas. We made it to Denver and back on one tank. Barely.

Buttons

I can't resist a sale on buttons at 1/2 price, even though I now have 6 different button containers. Not all of them are full, and they aren't sorted in any kind of coherent manner, but I have a vague idea of what is in which box. One was my mom's and is full, one was given to me already full by my daughter's employer, one was a birthday present from my sister and was almost full, one is new as of last weekend (it's a haunted house shaped tin that only contains the newest buttons I bought at the same time), one is from a garage sale a year or so ago, and then there's the one I made from a paper mache' box that has my pin cushion for a lid. The last two are pretty full, too. I have a ridiculous amount of buttons.

You can click on this for a better look. The top row is pine cones, an eagle, a wolf face, cabins, rabbits. The lower row is round metal with an embossed bear track, old sewing machine, bison, turkey, and moose.