Angels We Have Heard on High

After my last post, I found myself missing Frances Eden.  I got her out again, thinking she'd see me through until New Year's and a start on my Scarlet Letter, Ann Grimshaw. Since then, I've found joy in Frances' perfect angels, especially with the bittersweet events that have happened in the last weeks.

 

I lost my sweet Dad on December 7th.  Those of you who have followed my blog for awhile will remember a story I shared about him on Father's Day.  Of course, our family all gathered for traditional goodbyes, as we should.  I spent precious time with my mother and sisters, sifting through so many pictures that captured Dad through the years.  There were hundreds, but the ones that touched me the most were from his childhood.

 

 

You can tell by this photo that Dad grew up during the hard years of the Great Depression.  Even though times were tough, Dad always told us of how his own father made Christmas happen for their family each year.  There was always a Christmas tree by the fireplace, stockings hung with oranges and sweets inside and a Tiddly-Winks game for a little boy.   From his own father, my Dad learned the joys of the season and the strengthened bonds that grow out of family gatherings. 

 

At the age of 14, Dad also lost his own father just before Christmas.  He never told us much about it, but over the years I've often wondered how terribly sad that must have been.  How could Christmas ever seem complete after such a hard loss?  It felt to me as if a shadow must have fallen on the brightness of the season for him.  And yet, my Dad was always full of holiday cheer as Christmas approached, looking forward to each December homecoming as his family grew up and on with their own lives. 

 

 

 

But I understand now.  My Dad's final lesson for me is perhaps the same one he learned from his own father's loss so close to Christmas.  

 

Family matters, even or perhaps especially, during the hardest of times. 

 

Joy is to be taken whenever it can be found.   

 

Holidays, and life, are to be celebrated because both are far too precious and fleeting.

 

 

I love you Dad.  I will pass your joy into the holidays to come.  So my wish for all who take the time to read this is for a joyous and bright Christmas and the very very best in the new year.

'Tis the Season

Good morning everyone!  I hope this finds all of you feeling the approach of the holidays.  It's been a very full week for me between getting ready for a state audit at work, a trip to the movies yesterday, the arrival of a beautiful early Christmas gift, the appearance of 3 Santas....and a stitching finish! 

As a family, we tend to be very passive when it comes to seeing movies.  Sooner or later, just about any movie there's an interest in seeing tends to be forestalled until it eventually turns up on Pay-Per View or is released on DVD.  In all honesty, I do think the last time I saw a movie in a theater was one of the Harry Potter movies.  How pathetic is that?!  But having grown up in small town Illinois and being the avid history nerd that I am, I knew when Daniel Day-Lewis was first seen scoping things out in Springfield that Lincoln was one we'd have to go the extra mile for.  Jim and I took it in yesterday morning, and my head is still full of it. This summer, I listened my way through "A Team of Rivals", which is vast in scope.  Steven Spielberg's telling of Lincoln's last final accomplishment is even more compelling.

After dealing with craziness all week at work, it was so much fun to find a lovely early Christmas gift  from the amazing Faye at Carolina Stitcher waiting for me on Friday afternoon. I was so thrilled to be one of the winners of "2012 Giving Back Giveaway".  Here's what was inside the beautifully wrapped package:

• One of Faye's signature fully lined project bags in warm cranberry shades and a tiny stork scissors suspended from the zipper pull.
• A  holiday pillow, with Faye's lovely stitching and finishing details done to perfection.  Faye, I'm so in awe of your work!  When I grow up, I want to finish just like you.
• A piece of Tree of Life hand dyed linen with the tantalizing name of Almond Creme.  Now to find the perfect project for it....

Thank you, Faye!  I feel so very fortunate to receive these pieces of your creativity.

Friday really did turn out to be a big stitching day for me, because after receiving this delightful package, I settled in for an evening of stitching and accomplished a finish!  Here is Jean Rattray, in all her glory:

 

 Jean was started as a New Year's project, with the goal of having her completed by January 1, 2013.  Well, I did make good progress on her through the spring and summer but was blown off course in  September when Atocha arrived on the scene.  With the end of the year lurking on the horizon and Nicola's Scarlet Letter Challenge making me crazy to start Ann Grimshaw, finishing Jean seemed like the prudent thing to do first.

This urn and a little bit of the ground beneath it was the only thing left to be done.  Yay!  Another finish for ther 2012 books, and I can get a start on Ann whenever the first chance comes along.

As for the visit from not one, but 3 Santa's, look who turned up in my stitching closet.

These guys were also stitched during my Prairie Schooler Santa days, but since they were done over 4 threads on 18 count Davos, I finished them as stand ups.   They're probably my greatest finishing accomplishment, which no doubt says something else about my skills in that area.  Still though, they make me smile and it's fun to pull them out each year after Thanksgiving is over.  Now it feels like the holidays are really here.