Let's All Wish for a HAPPY NEW YEAR in 2014!

What a six weeks it's been since my last post!  I'm looking forward to a New Year that hopefully will be better and more productive in many ways!

Some of our Texas bloggers have mentioned the ice storm that hit North Texas the week-end of Dec. 8, and believe me, it did HIT, and hard.  I didn't get out at all, and fortunately my family members were able to stay out of it for the most part, with no damage to anyone or anything, thank God!  Then it was back up to 60 degrees and then nice during Christmas, and now we are freezing again, but New Year's is to be back up to 60, and then freezing again the first Sunday in January.  The weather has been crazy!

I got the BFF quilt to my BFF just before Christmas, and indeed, she does love it.  She said, "We did every one of those things!", which is exactly what I had said when I first saw the panel.  She was thrilled.

I ended up hosting only three parties this year.  With weather complications, etc., two parties never materialized, but that's okay; three were quite enough for me this year.  First on Dec. 5, there were seven church quilters here for a luncheon/party; next on Dec. 14 there were 18 (9 couples) from my church for an evening of fun, food, and laughter; finally on Dec. 17, there were 18 of my school classmates here from about 1 PM to 7 PM.  (Some of THEM are getting too old to drive much at night! *giggle*)  We had more food than we could eat, and enjoyed all kinds of stories from long ago, some we would have been better off to have forgotten!  We did have a blast!

I went to my son's for both Christmas Eve's gift exchange and Santa, and then Christmas night for a big dinner.  Then the day after Christmas I got very sick with what I thought might be food poisoning, and my son got sick too.  I have never been so sick for 24 hours in all my life!  (Don't want to share TMI!)  When I mentioned possible food poisoning, my son said his wife's sister had arrived sick the day before Christmas Eve with a similar problem, before any of us ate anything.  He thinks she brought all of us a bad virus;  it was bad all right!  All I've done since Christmas is lie on the bed or the couch!  Haven't even been out to feed the birds!  But I'm feeling better today, and have been catching up on e-mails, etc. and reading lots of quilt blogs. *smile*

I'm wondering just how December could have been so bad in many ways, and yet so good!  I was able to be with so many of my friends, here in my home and at church, and with my family at my son's.  I am truly blessed!

My sewing machine cabinets have been covered with Christmas decorations since before Thanksgiving, so I have no quilty pictures to post.  You've seen all my decorations in past December posts, so I'll forego those again.
 
I'm looking forward to packing Christmas 2013 away later this week, and getting ready to start a new quilting project of some kind.  All of you have shown so many pretty things that have kept my creatives juices flowing, and for that I'm thankful, even if a little jealous!

I do hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends, and that 2014 will be happy and bright for all of us!  Have a safe New Year's Eve!

---"Love"