Not that I'm in a hurry, but I think I am closing out the year.....

As we head into December somehow even with Covid we are all getting busier.   The holidays are going to be so very different this year.  The reports on the resurgence of the Corona Virus are scary.  I am wrapping and boxing up gifts that I need to get to UPS to ship to my family none of who will be coming home for the holidays.     I am sure some of you are doing the same.  It is a small sacrifice for the ability to spend many more future holidays together.     

Because of the pandemic,  I floated an idea to my children that we celebrate Christmas in July....gosh I hope the Corona Virus is in our rearview mirror by then.  We are searching Air B & B and VRBO to find a place for all of us to spend a week together next summer.    We are looking in the Keuka Lake Region of the Finger Lakes.   I want to make sure there is a reasonable cancellation policy just in case The Lady Corona is still among us.   The place has to have a water setting, sleep 6 adults and two children, preferably equipped with kayaks/canoes, fishing, fire pit, hiking, and must be dog friendly too.    Everyone is on board and it has given us something to look forward to.  We are all having fun sharing places we are finding and will be booking a place very soon. 

As we are making plans I am thinking of all the things we have at our fingertips that my parents did not (yes, both were alive during the Spanish Flu of 1918; my father 11 and my mother was one so she would only know by the stories her parents may have told).   Think about it....rather than being out on our own and isolated, we do have the internet, the tv news, InstaCart, Zoom calls, Amazon, instant downloads, YouTube and more to stay connected.    I will be the first to say that the internet info and the news media can get more than a tad annoying and overwhelming and full of panicking news and conspiracy theories but we have it to shop by, we have it to entertain us, we have it to stay in contact....   I think about my parents and grandparents and the fear they must have lived with.   Maybe there was not the fear that I imagine since there was not a daily litany of woe on TV and the internet that they had to deal with.    ..........and now pardon me while I step off  my soap box.

Anyway, we enjoyed unseasonably warm weather the weekend before  and the week of Thanksgiving so I lugged out all the holiday decorations.   It was so nice to be able to put up the lights in the warm weather instead of the bitter cold.    It seemed so odd to be pulling down the fall things and it wasn't even Thanksgiving.   I have to admit, the tubs of both fall and Christmas sat side-by-side nicely lined up and untouched for about a week.  Like who would be stopping by and would see them?   I had been undecided about decorating the inside of the house let alone doing it early.  It is a lot of work and no one will be coming over.....but for the most part, I decorate for myself anyway.  I love to get out all my stitchy pieces and I love the festive feel of the decorations and the house lit only by the tree lights.

I finished my Shepherds Bush stocking.   Always a pleasure to work on the large count.   This is for my grand-daughter.   It is stitched on 18 count Putty Khaki by Davos.  I had fun foraging through my stash of buttons and beads for embellishments.  I need to finish-finish it and get it in the mail.  I am happy with fabric I found in my stash is fabric for the backing and lining.  The floral will be the back and the stripe the lining.  

Since the decorations are now up, the buying is done and I am just waiting on the final Amazon deliveries,  I am looking forward to finishing up some WIP's during the rest of December.     Once I finished the stitching for the stocking for Little Miss,  I got back to my  blackwork SAL.   I am behind since all other stitching stopped when I was working on Coming to America September to November.  I have two different spools on 'stand-by' for this finish.   I am wondering if I should line the back.  Theoretically the back and the front should be pretty similar........um, until you find you got a loop or knot 100 stitches back.....

I am doctor's office transportation for a  couple of friends and you guessed it, because of Covid, I have to wait in the car.   This is the perfect piece to take with me to work on while I wait.

   Along with the blackwork is the cutest cardinal I started last winter.   I put this aside when I realized I nelglected to include the blending filament with the white.  That's what happens when I mess something up.....I put it in time-out for a while.

I am just adding the blending filament over the already stitched white and I will go from there.   The pattern is  "When Cardinals Appear" from Blackberry Lane Designs.   The fabric is the beautiful blue Crystal Fathom.   The photo does not do it justice.  

I want to get back to my whitework Lotus Box.   This is the first of two sides.  

Once I attempted and got over the fear of the openwork, this zoomed along.

Not too ambitious of me to think I can get this all done before the end of December is it?  This year has been fabulous for reducing that backlog of WIPs, UFOs and that basket of shame.   But it also included online stash enhancement..... but I am sure I am not alone in that. 

I did get a lot of reading done this year.   So far I have read 48 books.   Yes 48 so far!   I have the Goodreads Ap and way back in January I set a goal of 24 books for 2020.  I sure did pass that.  Admittedly some of my completed books were audio books.    It was easy to complete books on the one-hour drive to my sister's house.    I've got a one book discrepancy between Reading Challenge and what I have uploaded to my 2020 folder and I can't find it....

Some of favorite books of the year are -

• The Woman Who Smashed Codes, by Jason Fagone
• The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michelle Richardson
• American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins
• Salt to the Sea, by Ruth Sepetys
• Break Shot:  My First 21 Years, by James Taylor
• The Husband's Secret, by Liane Moriarity
• The Bregdan Chronicles, Books 1 through 8, Ginny Dye

As I look back on this post and proofread it, sure sounds like I am doing my re-cap for the year.    Not like I want 2020 to be over already.   

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe, wear your mask, stay healthy and keep on stitching.