Early Christmas Surprise

This past weekend we had an early Christmas surprise for Matthew. We packed him into the car after lunch on Saturday, driving about 6 hours, with him having no idea where we were going or what we were doing. It was a beautiful leisurely drive and he was a good sport trying to guess where we were going.

We stopped near Louisville for dinner at Ermas where we chose nachos, burger, ruben, steak and french onion soup. We checked into the Embassy Suites (thank goodness for credit card hotel points!). In the morning we enjoyed a complimentary breakfast of made to order omlettes! At this point Matthew is getting antsy wanting to know what the surpise was so back in our room I opened my suitcase and pulled out a couple of his Titans shirts to wear. Clue #1. We headed out to walk the few blocks to the statium and got a nice view of the state capital building and clue #2

He was now, officially excited!


The Titans did not play well and the Colts won their first game of the season.
But we enjoyed stadium brats and had a great weekend together!

Surprise Packages, Drawings and Swaps

I unexpectedly received this package of home made ornaments and gifts from my online friend Dixie. I had sent her a package of assorted fabric scraps and she just wanted to thank me.


I participated in my local guild's Christmas drawing and swap. To participate, we each made a 12.5inch Ohio Star block(see quilterscache.com for the pattern) using traditional Christmas red, green and white and/or brought in a small bundle of fat quarters to swap. Our names were all put in a basket. As each name was called you chose a Fat Quarter bundle from the pile. The last name called wins all the blocks... and my name was called last! Now I have orphan blocks to assemble into my first Christmas quilt for me!


I also participated in an online Secret Santa Swap. We were instructed to make a home made gift and up to $15 purchased gift. This package arived in the mail. Wanda is from Alaska and included a jar of Alaskan Salmon and some Salmon Jerky! She made a beautiful blue/silver tablerunner and a friendship star pot holder and crafted some lovely notecards!