DONE! Now, Let the Baking Begin.

Here it is -in all its shining glory. That item that has kept my fingers very busy for the past three weeks now -the last tablecloth production of the year 2008!

This does not show the entire tablecloth -can't fit that in with my little camera. But the above picture is of the center portion. Each corner on the ends has a cluster design like those shown above as well as there is a little "spray" of pine, red berries and two gold stars centered along each of the borders

Here's the closest I can get to a "full" view of the item -intended to be for younger daughter, Mandy, for Christmas.

And this is a closeup of the center of the cloth.

No more embroidery now till at least December 26th! Actually, I think I will hold off now until January 2nd before I start on the next embroidery project which will probably be another tablecloth -a full sized one -that might have a chance of ending up as Mandy's birthday present on February 11th!

Sunday night, just like a college student, I pulled an "all-nighter" -embroidering until about 9 a.m. Monday morning.

The plan was that since Mandy had a doctor's appointment yesterday a.m. for Kurtis, she would take both kids with her instead of leaving Maya home with me and that way, I could sleep while they were gone.

But, you know that old adage about the "best laid plans" don't you? Well, it held true here, for sure!

Mandy had just finished bathing both kids and all of a sudden found herself with Maya upchucking in the bathroom and Kurtis "escaped" -running out to the living room in all his shining nakedness with Mandy hollering for me to grab him and dress him while she got the mess in the bathroom then cleaned up.

Because of the sudden onset of an upset stomach with Maya, Mandy decided not to take her along and there went my planned naptime for the morning and early afternoon hours. However, she decided there was a way around that and since Katie, the 17-year-old (who no longer lives with us) didn't have school yesterday -their Christmas vacation having begun -she called and asked her if she would come down and watch Maya so I could get some much needed sleep.

Katie said she could do that and would be down in about an hour. Hmmm. Her hours must differ from mine though as here it is, almost 24 hours later according to my clock here and I have yet to see her make that appearance. No phone call explaining her absence either so I guess she figured it wasn't worth her while to show up -or to call.

I was highly impressed with her change of plans and no notification -NOT! Actually, the lack of sleep for me was a small part of the problem as Mandy had told Maya that Katie would be coming down and spending the morning and afternoon with her so this then produced a lot of anxiety -and near meltdown too -from Maya when Kate didnt show up.

Oh well, such is life in the fast lane of a teenager I suppose.

But the nice thing about the entire day however was Maya's behavior overall. She was as close to being angellic as any five-year-old possibly can be! Now, that did impress me -greatly!

Now, today -after I get a couple hours of sleep in here as soon as I post this -I will be starting a mini-marathon of baking cookies for the holidays! Normally, by this time I would have baked at least 5-6 different kinds of cookies. (Back in the 80s and 90s though that number would have been anywhere between 15-20 kinds of cookies in amounts of at least 4 dozen to as much as 10 dozen of certain cookies but with the average being about 5-6 dozen per type. I would then fill my big cake taker container and cart a large assortment of cookies into work everyday for about 2-3 weeks. The folks I worked with at that time, if they saw me coming carrying that cake taker, would meet me in the break room and begin the demolition process, like a pack of vultures descending on its prey! That's was okay with me though because that was the main reason I baked and brought them into work -for my co-workers to have lots to snack on and put 'em on a big old sugar high in the process!

Over the past five years however, my cookie production has dropped significantly. I don't have the energy nor the need to bake that much. So no doubt it will amount to my making gingersnaps, chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies. Maybe some nut tassies if I am really ambitious and energetic or some really good chocolate cookies. I'm not quite sure as yet what all I will bake in the cookie line today. Time will tell about that.

So now, I'm off to bed for a nice nap!

Peace!