Jenny Bean Finish and other stuff of importance? Maybe?

I finally have a few minutes to sit down and say hello! I hope everyone is doing well and that most are ready for the holidays! I'm a long way from being ready but closer than I was a week ago at this time. As usual, life has been one long series of busy, busy and more busy! Work is slowing down a bit now, I think I only have 3 more orders due for Christmas, then a football jersey, and a half dozen cross stitch pieces to frame after that. Not bad considering the 22 I had at one point! I finished framing this piece for Connie (a friend) yesterday. She's giving it as a gift this Christmas.

And speaking of finishes....I put the final stitches in Jenny Bean's Christmas late last night. What a fun stitch this was! I think I only changed 2 things on it. One was the one tree color and the other was the letter B. Just didn't like how it was charted.
A friend asked me today what I was going to work on next and I was a bit stumped for a minute or two. Then I remembered Jenny Beans Friendship Sampler. I'll kit that one up tomorrow and get a start on it. I was tempted though to start LHN's The North Wind. Of course if Journey to Bethlehem was in house right now I would most likely start that one. Can't wait to see it come alive as I stitch it!

Back to the busy part of this post, some of you might remember that my husband and I have a rather large Christmas Village. (click here to view last years village) Every year we try to host an open house so that those who are interested can see what changes have occurred in the village. This year we added a light industrial park. We cut it really close and finished the village on Friday. Here's a little peak at some of the new section.

Saturday was the open house. Friday morning I still needed to finish decorating, clean the entire house go grocery shopping and make food. Needless to say I was a bit busy and matters were not helped by my having to wear an orthopedic boot. I was prescribed one 2 weeks ago today due to chronic achilles tendonitis and it wasn't going well. It's awkward, heavy and because you are higher on one side than the other it makes your back and other hip hurt. In other words it was hampering my ability to get things done which caused me to be so far behind. Anyway, Saturday morning dawned cold, snowy and with winds blowing upwards of 50 miles/hour. I got to work on the cleaning all the while keeping one eye on the weather and finally, after Dan came home from getting groceries so I could start making the food for the open house we decided it was stupid to risk people coming out in the weather and we canceled the open house. I'm not gonna lie, it was a huge relief to me. I really just wasn't ready. By this time my ankle was a mess so the boot came off, I finished the cleaning, froze the groceries and re-issued invites for this Saturday. Once I have the open house behind me I will be able to concentrate on buying Christmas presents. I've started but am far from being done.

Monday I called the Dr. and asked if the boot was supposed to make things worse before it makes things better and she said no. She discontinued the boot and I am now in physical therapy for 6 weeks. I hope it helps because the only other option is surgery and I am just not jiggy with that!

Amy comes home tonight for the Christmas break. Dan is picking her up as I type this. Adam will be home on the 23rd. He received a promotion at work and they laid out their future plans for him. It's looking like D.C. will be his new home some time next year but it's all subject to change. Abby has been having issues with extremely dry skin and was starting to look like a lizard. The Dr. put her on some special cream which seems to be doing the trick. She and boyfriend Jordan have been getting along nicely, he seems to be treating her well so far so I will continue to let him breathe for now. :) Kidding! School is going well for her and she will start her final rotation after the new year.

And that friends is about it for this post. At some point I will take pictures of this years village and I'll let ya know when that happens. In the meantime, here's a pic of our tree, Merry Christmas!

Take care till next time,

Julie