Five heavenly days

It is over entirely too quickly, but it sure was fun while it lasted. Five whole consecutive days off for Thanksgiving!

Wednesday was pretty low-key - some housecleaning because I hosted the meal (for 15 people) this year, some time hanging out with the kids, a bit of quilting done on my flannel juvenile quilt.

Thursday was great from start to finish. The kids helped me prep for the meal,

while the food was cooking, there was a raucous game of Taboo going on.

(the thinker is my brother, with his girlfriend on the right and my mom on the left)

(the beauty facing the camera is my younger sister who is pregnant for the first time - yay! She is high fiving my cousin's wife - their team kicked my team's butt! Twice!!)

The food was great - after all that work you'd think I'd take a photo, but I forgot. All but 4 people spent the night; I'm so glad we finished our basement - with all this room, you couldn't even tell there were 11 people engaged in synchronized snoring here that night.

On Friday, we moved the party over to my mom's house where we played dominos and bid whist (we LIKE games in my family - and we are VERY competitive). On the way out the driveway, I checked the mail, and I had packages from both Victoria AND Becky. I brought them with me to open at my mom's - I wasn't about to wait until I got home to see what goodies they had sent me. And when I got to my mom's there was yet ANOTHER package for me - a box of ties from my sister's boyfriend.

Victoria and I swapped some 4" squares. I asked for some of her bold, modern prints - the kind of stuff I feel you can't find around here, and even if you could, I'm not sure I'm brave enough to buy it. Boy, did she deliver! I can't wait to use these in something. Thanks, Victoria!

Then Becky had a whole mess of scraps she was looking to unload. Of course I sent her my address. Here's 22 pounds of scraps, sorted - first, some Christmas fabric, some patriotic fabric, some black & whites which I've pulled aside for a project I need to finish up, some orphan blocks, a piece of flannel that will make its way directly into my buzzsaw quilt, and some small scraps waiting to be cut to size.

Then, strips, lots and lots of strips!

Finally, some yardage, a pile of juvenile and a pile of non-juvenile.

Here are some of my absolute favorites. Thanks for sharing, Becky!

Saturday and Sunday, I vowed to not leave home. My husband's team had an away game on Saturday afternoon, so I listened online while I finished up my Gail Pan blocks and put them in a frame from Angela's Country Scrap Quilts. Another Christmas present done. (Oh, and they won the game - yay!)

Then, today I just couldn't resist those strips from Becky. I pulled out some of the brighter ones, tossed in a couple strips of my own, and started my version of that quilt I found online while in the hotel in Cleveland last weekend. I'm not sure about a border yet, but I love it so far - any suggestions?

One benefit of working with those new scraps is that I was able to get some cut into my scrap sizes (1.5" to 5") as I sewed.

Then tonight I sat down with my kids and watched the last two episodes of Gilmore Girls. We began watching over the summer, and we made it through all seven seasons. Well, Jason and I did. Donald is usually asleep halfway through any episode. Jason, however, is riveted. At the end, I was starting to feel a little weepy, and I glanced over at my son and he was wiping his eyes. That is MY son, Mr. Sentimental. I sure do love my kids.

I am so thankful for time spent with family and friends and time to pursue my passions. And also thankful that there are only 3 weeks until I get some more time off to enjoy them all again!