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What are you up to today? This week?


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3 hours ago, SewMini said:

Yikes! I still have a scar on my thumb from a fight with a table saw when I was 13. Glad you still have everything and I hope it heals quickly! 

I took a bit of a break from Garden Lodge to finish up what I thought would be a quick project that ended up being a very slow project. When I went to Paris last Cheistmas I picked up a most unusual little book at Sainte Chapelle. It was a booklet about the chapel that also contained a paper model you could cut out and glue together. This thing ended up being no joke and took almost a month to put together working on it about an hour a day. I really love it though!

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Last night I got the shell of Garden Lodge done. I just posted those pics. It’s coming along. I had to go all the way to the city to get foamcore because there is only one store that I know of that sells it. Im not complaining though. Copenhagen is so pretty at Christmas. There are several markets and they really do up the pedestrian areas nice with lights. 

 

This is so cool. I just love it. 

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H Hollie, that will have to be another trip, that is unless I can get one in while in the UK next week however the cash I have spent coming here, buying my son a car, ferry costs  not to mention the ton of gifts and clothes   I have taken  for a family of 6   taken a huge junk from my savings so i have to think about that a bit when I get back..

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20 hours ago, Keifer said:

I am very grateful to say that I still have all 10 fingers intact

 

Very sobering indeed! My husband had an accident using mini handheld circular saw. He is a professional cabinet maker. The thing is, he hated the saw because it had a terrible kick on it, and he didn't pay attention to his intuition. He cut his thumb down the middle. He now has a 'Franken Finger" and his nail grows at two different speeds. He was lucky, and I am happy you were too!

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Yikes, Keith! Be more careful, please. On the other hand, it's good all 10 fingers are still attached. Miranda, that cathedral is a showstopper, wow! Jeannine, glad to hear you're holding up to the rigors of your trip so far. Try not to overdo things! Today I finally finished decorating the tree. Spent a solid 2 1/2 hours on it, and then sat by it with my dinner: a nice hot bowl of beef stew. Snowed all night and most of the morning here, maybe 8-10" worth? But I stayed cozy inside. Won't be able to leave the house until the middle of the week, if then. Oh the joys of rural small town living; I think we only have one snowplow to service the area, and it of course takes care of downtown first.

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I've been trying to get into a holiday mood but am having to force it. Some years ago my sister made a unilateral decision not to exchange family gifts. My giving gene can't handle it. I want to see presents under the tree beyond the gifts for my great niece. The soon-to-be-three-year-old's birthday is 12/24; all of the presents are hers. This year I got small gifts for sis and her husband and their grown daughters and spouses who live nearby and who I see almost weekly. I hung the wreath on the front door and a swag on the fireplace and put the Santas on display. Tried to get a tree over the weekend. Last year Lowe's had 4-foot live trees in stands; this year's crop is much smaller. Too small. Have hesitated to put up a tree until the invasion of sugar ants is dispatched; ant buster/exterminator coming this morning. After he leaves I think I'll go buy a tree stand and maybe look for a tree. I have the angel that topped my very first Christmas tree. Mom embroidered my initials and the year on the back of her skirt. This will be her 77th appearance. :) She deserves a real tree.

Meanwhile, I'll get out the candles for the windows and keep playing Christmas music. I've received three Christmas cards and have written three to those folks; need to get to PO for stamps. The boxes of cards and my address book are sitting here but I can't seem to get into writing them. Tried last evening but ended up watching old Rizzoli & Isles episodes. Gave myself permission to write cards one at a time to reciprocate those I receive.

Last year was my first in Georgia and the newness of celebrating with family,fitting in to their customs, was energizing, kept me distracted; this year I'm missing Lloyd and my New Orleans family more.  Bit by bit I'll get there, but it's slow going.

Many holiday hugs to my Greenleaf family! :flowers:

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Kathie, here's a BIG holiday {HUG} from one of your Greenleaf family.  My decorating consists of a Christmassy wreath on the front door and either the ceramic lighted tree DMIL made or our large creche set on the bombe chest in the living room.

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8 hours ago, KathieB said:

I've been trying to get into a holiday mood but am having to force it. Some years ago my sister made a unilateral decision not to exchange family gifts.

Many holiday hugs to my Greenleaf family! :flowers:

One of my sister's did the same thing.  Given that HER children and my oldest sister's children are all essentially adults now she decided that we'd stop buying for that generation.  At the time my kids were still 15 & 17 (or 14 & 16) and I did have a bit of a go.  So I bought presents for all of their kids until then (the oldest was about 27 at the time) and yet mine would miss out?  I mean, it's not the presents - we can give our kids plenty, it was more the way she did it.  So then she reminded me this year about a month ago about the no presents thing, then two weeks ago said that she was sending up a parcel.  I queried it - I thought we weren't giving gifts?  She came back with 'Oh, I've made something for you all'.  So sure enough the parcel arrived with 'family' gifts.  My niece had her first baby 12 weeks ago and I have presents for her, plus I've put together little things for my niece and sisters and of course something lovely for my Mum.  It doesn't feel right not to!  It's not like we have a massive family - but we live a plane ride away and I really don't know her boys overly well.  In fact when we were down there to see my Mum and meet my new great niece a month or so ago, the boys didn't even bother talking to my kids!  Ah well.....families....

Miranda that cathedral is gorgeous!!!!

Keith mate......glad it wasn't worse!!

Jeannine - enjoy your trip with your family - I hope you don't overdo things, but that you still have an amazing time.

We are celebrating Christmas as a family this year on Sunday 16th.  We'll pick up my Uncle from his retirement home (almost a 2 hour round trip), bring him home for the day and take him back later.  Plus we have very dear friends coming and our nephew (from my husband's side) and his girlfriend.  Then next Thursday my baby boy....16 1/2 yr old Jack, flies out to Rome via Hong Kong with his Venturer Scouts group.  They're away for 6 weeks.  They spend Christmas and New Years at the International Scout Centre in the Swiss Alps!  His first white Christmas - something none of us have experienced.  Then they go to Luxembourg, Paris and on to England for the rest of their trip.  I must admit to being very teary about this now.  Every time I think about him going so far away for so long I feel ill.  It's an incredible opportunity for him and he has worked hard to save for the trip this year.  It'll be an amazing experience and he will come home changed - hopefully in a positive way, certainly in a more independent way.  But he's my boy.....My 18 1/2 yr old daughter, Caitlin, is off down to another city for a week over New Years to visit with friends who came and camped in our back yard last summer.  So we'll have the house to ourselves for a week - completely unheard of.  I'm so going to miss my kids.

Meantime our business's Christmas 'do' this Friday - it'll be Caitlin's first ever 'work do'!!!

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The Pensacola jazz club's annual Christmas "do" is tonight; free, but food donations requested (we have a huge contingent of needy families on the Gulf Coast); I have a grocery sack going for the three of us.

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Well, tonight (Friday) we have our work Christmas function.  Because it's summer here in NZ most businesses close down for a couple of weeks over the Christmas period, apart from (of course) retail and hospitality!  We close our business down for three weeks, although we usually have some who work through.  We'll finish up next Friday and then hubby will be home for almost a month (yay) and daughter has three weeks off (YAY)! :D   So because our daughter has worked for us as an apprentice - she's almost completely her first year of full time work, she is also coming to the work Christmas do tonight.  Her first!  We're going to a Mexican restaurant at a beach about half an hour from where we live.  I never overly enjoy these evenings - being the boss's wife you're never sure if people are talking to you for your sparkling and witty repartee or because they feel they ought!  Plus I'm considerably younger and very different to the other boss's wife so I never feel I have much to say to her either other than the normal small talk and platitudes.  However tonight it'll be interesting as Caitlin is coming along - plus our very dear friends are also coming.  I'm the sober driver for 6 of us! :D  Then on Sunday we have our family Christmas - early because my baby boy is flying out to Europe on the 20th.  I'm trying hard not to think about that.....take one thing at a time.  Now, it's all about tonight.  :eekout:

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I seem to be one of those struggling with getting into the Christmas spirit this year.  Not even going to put up my Star Trek tree this year. (gee, it must be bad!) *sigh* I did put up the other decorations-but not with my usual "greens in every spot" enthusiasm.  Our family has been talking about the "no presents" thing for several years, but my oldest daughter is one of those perfect gift-giver types that shops all year round...so we just agreed to "tone things down" at least. But that certainly won't apply to gifts for my grandbaby! :D  So because of the mood this year I have totally procrastinated in the shopping. Well, I mean even more so than every other year. LOL  Going over to the cute little neighboring town to do some shopping tomorrow. Hoping the cute little shops will inspire me!

I celebrated my 58th birthday this week, so tonight we are gathering at my middle daughter's house for a lasagna dinner.  My SIL makes a mean lasagna! Hubby decided to bake & decorate my favorite cake for me this year: almond white with coconut.  Years ago he used to do my cake each year and was getting rather skilled -I used to tease him that I was going to have to hire him as my assistant baker! (back when I had my wedding cake business) But at some point our busy schedules (and looking at cake 24/7) resulted in eating ice cream cake instead.  This year I get both! :clap:

Christmas Eve will be spent at our house with my tradition of serving a seafood chowder for dinner. Looking forward to that. But in the meantime - on to shopping!

Safe travels to all!

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On 12/8/2018, 4:03:17, Keifer said:
2 hours ago, jbnmini said:

Our family has been talking about the "no presents" thing for several years,

I

We draw names at Thanksgiving and put a spending limit on the gifts. We also have played the Bad Santa game, but the younger kids just couldn't seem to steal other peoples gifts. Now we play some Christmas themed games and the winner gets a prize. It is hard to buy for everyone.

We have about 20 family members and we celebrate each others birthdays, so finding that perfect gift is done that way.

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Happy to report the Christmas spirit has finally found me. The tree is up. Can't tell it's artificial from a distance :D  Went to great niece's preschool Christmas program this morning. There's nothing like watching eight bewildered two-year-olds mangle Jingle Bells to amp up the holiday spirit! Precious angels, every one of them, even the little boy whose main talent seemed to be falling down. He'd collapse, the teacher's aide would haul him upright, he'd smile at her and collapse again. Too funny. One gift to go to UPS tomorrow, and one Christmas and one birthday gift for the great niece coming from Amazon in the next few days. Ready to enjoy the season -- and look forward to Mardi Gras :cheer:

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I am sitting here listening to the wind blow. WOW! Our power just went out for about 10 seconds a couple minutes ago and in this town, that's very unusual. So I've got the candles and matches sitting out as a just-in-case. Looks like we're in for some kind of storm.

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Went Christmas tree shopping with my son yesterday. Our favored tree type is in short supply this year so the pickings were slim. Ended up at a third big box hardware retail tree tent and found a lovely fairly fresh tree perfect for our ceiling height. Expecting to pay big bucks for it, the attendant told me it was “No Charge”. What???? He explained that they weren’t getting anymore so they were going to shut down and send the few remaining trees to a chipper. I was amazed since there was still a decent assortment of nice green trees there.  I gave him a really nice tip and off we went with a lovely free tree. 

 

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Finished the fancy stitching for a Christmas present today. Just have to do the assembly stitching now. I'm making a whitework pillow for my mom. It's a bouquet of her favorite flower, lily of the valley. I'm going to add a green twisted cording for trim, just have to go to the store tomorrow for some and a pillow form. Should finish in plenty of time.

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8 hours ago, blueirishmoon said:

a whitework pillow for my mom. It's a bouquet of her favorite flower, lily of the valley. I'm going to add a green twisted cording for trim,

Sounds lovely! 

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Jeannine, hope you’re having a great time. 

I have so much on my mind for the San Diego and Hawaii trips at end of January, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around Christmas and dealing with that. It’s actually kind of an eye opener, I put up 1/4 of the decorations that I usually do and no one has noticed or mentioned it.  We splurged on a gorgeous real tree this year and that’s about the only decorating I’ve done.  My husband isn’t a big noticer of things anyway and my teenage boys barely come out of their rooms except to eat so I may do some serious downsizing of all the Christmas decor. 

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I agree, the only one that ever noticed the holiday decor was me so I’ve pared it down a lot, too. I don’t mind putting it all up, it’s the taking down and restoring it that had become a real chore. So it’s just the tree and the dinner table that get decorated now-a-days. 

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There is a TV commercial of a family waking up on Christmas morning to find that everything was moved outside. This inspired me to purchase a new clay fire pit and decorate our fire pit which is surrounded with ferns and other tropical plants with white Christmas lights. A good weeding and new mulch has turned it into a lovely Christmas Eve gathering spot.

Tonight is the Fort Lauderdale Boat Parade. My son’s condo is on the attached photo so we will have a perfect view.

https://miami.carpe-diem.events/calendar/5495543-las-olas-events-2018-riverside-boat-parade-party-central-at-riverside-hotel/

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