I just wrapped my first Christmas gift. Well, actually, it’s Dear Husband’s gift. He has a haircut tomorrow night, and wanted to take a gift to his stylist. We all recognize that wrapping gifts is not DH’s forte, so I lend a hand where I can.
While I wallowed in misery today (due to my cold), I spent some time ordering Christmas gifts on-line. I took care of three women who help me in my capacity at the office for our masonry company. One woman is our CPA’s assistant, and the other two are employed by supply companies. Dear Husband takes care of the gift certificates for our general contractors, and I take care of the support staff.
We had to make a trip today to pick up two lap quilts Elegante Mother had machine quilted. While we were out, I stopped for gift certificates at Panera Bread for our postal carrier and UPS man.
I found two gifts for one of my nieces, three for Dear Husband, and one for one of my sisters. I was really booking, despite the cold.
We had left overs for dinner tonight. I put the disaster potatoes back into the oven to see if heating them longer would help. It didn’t. DH thinks that there must have been something wrong with one or more of the potatoes that I used. The sauce was really tasty, but the potatoes still seemed half cooked.
Tomorrow, I’ll be mailing one of the Quilt Rooms in a Bag that I talked about in an earlier blog. We found a woman who had been sent to the Chicago area when so many were evacuated after Hurricane Katrina. I’m still looking for a recipient for the second bag. They showed part of an 80 mile stretch of the Gulf coast in Mississippi and Louisiana, and it looks like they’ve hardly made a dent on what needs to be done. I can’t believe the Federal government has not stepped up to help get them back on their feet.
Christmas decorations are very slowly starting to appear here. I took down the Thanksgiving wreath and put up one of fresh greens. I bought wreaths with burgundy bows to slip over the carriage lights. I need to decide whether I want to decorate the mailbox pillar, and if so…how.
Office work, laundry, dishes…you know the drill. I’ll be glad when I feel better.

I wrote about my niece being in a car accident the week before Thanksgiving. This is a picture of her car, after it had been towed. She described being sheltered by a tarp, with a paramedic checking her vital signs, while the firemen used the “Jaws of Life” to open her car door. I was rattled when I learned she had been in an accident. The next day, when I took her to collect her belongings from the car, I was afraid I would cry when I saw it. It wasn’t as bad as I had feared. Still…you hate to know that someone precious to you was wrapped up in something that looks like this.
On Thanksgiving we had a LOT to be thankful for!

I woke this morning (Monday) to hear a hard rain drumming on the skylights. If you’ve been reading my blog through the summer, you’ll know that my part of Illinois has been in deep drought. I’ve welcomed the rain each time it came, because it came so rarely.
I didn’t mind hearing the rain striking the glass. I’ve missed all the sounds that rain can bring. I rose early, and then snoozed after my first cup of tea. When we went to do the grocery shopping, the storm had passed for a bit, and we were treated to a day that reminded us of early spring.
I’ve been trying to beat back a cold. It seems to have settled into my eyes, and they ache and itch and weep, so I enjoyed the brief bit of warmth that came in the middle of the day.
Now the clouds have come back, and with it dropping temperatures. We may have snow by morning. They say that if you don’t like the weather in Chicago, wait ten minutes. That about describes our day.

I have been quietly accumulating pictures of things I have blogged about. Because I am not yet into the digital age, my pictures lag behind my thoughts and blogs, and occasionally I forget that I have things to share.
I have a very dear friend on-line who’s mother has taken up quilting. Quilting Mom lives in Scotland. I sent her a subscription to Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine for Christmas, knowing the magazine was most likely not available there. I wanted her to see the range of cottons available here, and to see some of the techniques American quilters use. I hoped it would encourage her to continue to take lessons.
It turns out the magazines have been a great hit. QM shares them with her classmates, and her quilting teacher and her daughter. I have it on good authority that each issue is well thumbed through. I can’t begin to tell you how happy I was to be able to share them.
Quilting Mom enjoyed them so much, that she very quietly set about making two appliqu

I am NOT silly enough to be out in the mad crush of shoppers. I don’t find anything about the idea appealing. If I had my way, I wouldn’t go out at ALL today, but I have library books to return. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to go out and stand in line after line, with harried clerks trying to move shoppers through, with little or no staff on the floor to help answer questions, and not enough asphalt in the world to hold all the cars that need to park.
Do you get the idea that I’m not much of a shopper? You’d be right. My concession to the day will be to drag out some of the MILLION catalogs that have flooded in over the last two months, and browse for ideas for gifts.
I plan to have a relaxed day. I’ll ask DH to build us a nice little fire, and I’ll wrap up in a quilt, and have a mug of tea within reach. I’ll play CDs and blog and read and generally do nothing! There is NO sale so important that I would participate in that madhouse.
Now, if you were going to go out, rethink your position. It’s not worth your life to be out there! I bid you a sane day.

Dear Husband and I had our annual date last Sunday. In the midst of all the preparations for Thanksgiving, he took me off to see the newest Harry Potter movie. The break in the preparations was a relief, the one-on-one time with DH a joy, and the movie was well worth going to see.
I’ve read the Harry Potter series, so it came as no surprise that each movie would be a little darker than the one before it. The kids are maturing, and the story line is focusing on Valdemort’s attempts to kill off Harry Potter. The good witches are realizing their world is in peril; we won’t see them begin to fight back until the next movie.
I won’t do a recap of the story here. You can get that information at hundreds of sites, with more detail than I have time to share. Let me just say that I enjoyed it, despite the two-and-a-half hour length, and recommend it to all.
I think I heard that the first weekend ticket sales for this movie were $104,000,000! I’m betting that most of the people who saw the movie, enjoyed it, except for my niece, who was ticked that they couldn’t cram the entire book into 150 minutes! *G* Go see it.

I’ve been so busy the last couple of weeks that I haven’t had much time to blog. I’m sure that from the entries I did get to post that you think I was just cleaning and cleaning and cleaning, but I actually had the chance to get out and enjoy myself a bit.
Sunday, the thirteenth, a group of ladies from my exercises class and I went into Chicago to see “Wicked,” the story of Oz at the time of Dorothy, from the Wicked Witch’s point of view. The book was fascinating; the musical is wonderful!
The musical departs from the book on which it is based in a number of ways, but the story is similar. You see Elphaba entering the University of Shiz and meeting Galinda. It’s difficult to show that Elphaba is labeled “wicked” by others, because she is green, because she has contrary ideas, and simply because she is different, but the musical pulls it off.
There are several incredible songs. Pop-u-u-lar, and Flying High (Defying Gravity) keep running through my head, but I suspect that the final duet the women sing will become my favorite. “For Good” is the title. Glinda sings:
“I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led to those who help us most to grow
if we let them and we help them in return
Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true
But I know I’m who I am today because I knew you…
The last two lines of the song, sung by both Elphaba and Glinda are:
Because I knew you….
I’ve been changed for good.”
Although the lyrics imply that there is some question as to whether the changes are good, the audience has no doubt that each woman has benefited from knowing the other.
Music and lyrics for “Wicked” are by Stephen Schwartz. He has a deft hand with both. Glinda, in “Popular” tells Elphaba that she needs a little “personality dialysis.” I hope this musical gets credit for the weighty issues it tackles, and has a long run. This may be the story of Oz, but there are lessons here for all humanity.