More Christmas leftovers

OK, OK, even I’m getting a little tired of Christmas by now, so I really need to wrap up some of these things I’ve got sitting around here.

I really wanted to keep all the decorations up until the end of the month, but it looks like everything will be coming down this weekend. Bear finally turned to me and said, “OK, I love Christmas too, but now we just look lazy.”

So before I say goodbye to Christmas for another year, I’d better show off the last of the projects I managed to crank out.

Since this was our first Christmas in the house, and thus our first Christmas with a big grand staircase, I absolutely had to make a big grand garland. Mike and Sally have been slowly starting to weed out their decorations once they threatened to take over their house, so Sally gifted me about 18 ft of naked garland that I fancied up with berries and ribbon and jingle bells and glittery ornaments. This is the kind of project I love after a ton of intricate, long-term, detailed projects. A couple of hours with a glue gun, and done.

The one useful thing I took away from my time working at Michael’s? I now know how to make a bow like a mad woman.

Of course, I have to show off this year’s Christmas card. The front says “Merry Christmas,” and then the inside says, “From the Whole Family.” Get it? Cause the cats, and the belly. Gosh, we are such dorks.

I’m kind of known for my crazy over the top Christmas cards, but with all the work on the house I needed something streamlined. This one worked out just super, because nearly all the work was in printing. After printing the cards and photos, all I had to do was glue on holly leaves and rhinestones. If only every idea I had came together so smoothly.

This was my big triumph. The completion of nearly six years of work. Every time I look at these I get such a feeling of accomplishment.

This stocking is for me, and I just put the last stitches in before Christmas. Bear felt that having Mrs. Claus carrying cookies was appropriate for a “Mom” stocking.

This stocking is for Bear, again appropriate because he is absolutely the Santa in our house. Every single year he finds a way to sneak a little extra money out of the budget so he can go above and beyond for everyone he loves. I finished this stitching about two years ago, and it’s been sitting in a drawer ever since waiting for me to get around to sewing it up.

In the week between holidays I finally managed to wash these thoroughly, – after so many years there was a lot of dirt and even more cat hair to remove – sew them up, sew up the lining, embroider the cuff, and sew the last pieces together. Just in time to hang them up for a couple of days and then pack them away for next year.