Christmas gifts

I had a lovely Christmas and i hope you all did too. It's been fun reading about how you all celebrated the holiday. It was especially exciting reading Barbara's news! Congratulations again Barbara!

We went to a hotel for our Christmas lunch and it was soooooo nice. To start i had Duck Parfait, then i had soup, then a rack of lamb (with all the trimmings), lots of different puddings and then cheese and biscuits (which i was too full for). I decided not to have the traditional Turkey this year and im glad, the lamb was just amazing!

I got so many great presents this year too. DH did good, he bought me an MP3 player, Felicity season 2 boxset and some CDs. My sister and her DH bought me some perfume that i love and have wanted for ages; Stella McCartney Peony and they gave me a gorgeous hand-made necklace. My mum and dad got me loads of great things, in particular lots of quilting stash - a big cutting board, a new rotary cutter, these books...... and that was just some of their gifts!

My in-laws in Canada had asked me what i wanted and i had given them a big list of floss i don't have. I didn't expect them to get me so many!! It's great because floss is so much cheaper over the Atlantic. I can pay 70p if i was to buy it at a local shop. Online i can get it for about 45p but in Canada it's about 50cents i think, so a much better deal!On to stitchy gifts.....on Christmas eve i was so excited to receive my first exchange gift from the SBEBB. This was for the Specific Designer Exchange. Myrna stitched me this beautiful pinkeepand included so many lovely gifts too. LHN's Necessities Sampler which was on my wishlist, some silkweaver fabric, scissors and lovely fabric. I was spoilt! I can't wait to start the Necessities Sampler :) Myrna, thank-you so much for all these lovely gifts! I was thrilled and it was a great package to receive and open on Christmas eve!I also received this lovely package from my friend Lesley just before Christmas. Lesley stitched me this quaker strawberry from the JCS 2006 ornament issue. So pretty and such lovely finishing!

Lesley was also so kind as to include these charts as well, which i love! Thank-you so much Lesley. I really appreciate you sending me all this. That was lovely of you. Can you tell i love LHN?! I have so many charts in my collection now!Im hoping to get in lots of stitching this holiday! Ive finished the stitching on the piece for the Birthday exchange and also for the SBEBB Winter House exchange. Next, i need to work on the SBEBB Winter quaker and then Lizzy's RR. Then im going to limit myself regarding exchanges so that i can work on some wips/ufos. Im also thinking about a big new start for January.....like Vonna, i have also been inspired by Lizzy's RR that i am currently working on (see here) and im thinking of stitching all of LHN's Dear Diary series onto one big piece of linen. Lizzy's RR looks great already and there's only 2 on at the moment. More on that next time.....