Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Merry(Almost) Christmas

12/23/2015
Merry, Happy everyone!  Hard to believe Christmas is only 2 days away and 2016 is almost here.  The year has gone so fast and while I stitched a TON, I left many projects unfinished.

Today is my day to post as part of the Online Advent Calendar, sponsored by Jo at serendipitous Stitching.  I stitched like crazy this month trying to finish last minute Christmas cards and I wanted to share this one with you

It's a card I made for a friend that used to be my manager.  She left the company in May and I miss her a lot.  Her mother, who's name was Joy, passed away when my friend was 18 and I always make her a card with "Joy" on it.  This is adapted from a free pattern from Gazette94,   The original pattern is the second one listed on the page the link opens to. She has some great freebies on her website and I've used several of her patterns.

How I spend Christmas Eve. As a child, we always spent Christmas Eve with my dad's sister's house. She has 4 kids, all older than I and by the time I was in the 9-12 age range, my cousins had kids of their own.  As a result, there was usually over 30 people at her house and it was utter craziness, especially when it came time to open presents.  Now, most of those kids have moved away and Christmas Eve is much smaller, but it was a blast when I was a kid.  As an adult with children of my own, we spend Christmas Eve with my husband's extended family.  Everyone draws a name and we do a Secret Santa  gift exchange.  It is always a challenge to disguise handwriting and wrap presents in a unique manner to try and keep the "secret" as long as we can.

Merry Christmas,
Michele

15 comments:

  1. Thanks for taking part in the Advent Calendar Blog Hop this year.
    Your Joy is lovely, a very nice adaptation and a perfect gift for your friend. I have thought about making a collection of Joy ornies and just missing the Y off the end!
    Your Christmas Eves sound so much fun too with all the extended family around.

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  2. A very pretty card for your friend, and lovely Christmas Eve memories
    Merry Christmas

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  3. You're so sweet, I'm sure your beautiful card will bring a smile to your friend. Enjoyed reading your Christmas traditions. Have a blessed Christmas:)

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  4. This card looks gorgeous, Michele. I have to go and look for the freebie and add it to my folder for next year's Christmas cards.
    Nice to read about your Christmas Eve. It truly gets smaller when the kids are gown up and have afamily of their own.

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  5. Such a pretty card! Happy Christmas

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  6. Your card is lovely, and I know your friend will treasure it. I enjoyed reading about your family Christmas traditions. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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  7. Your card is lovely, and I know your friend will treasure it. I enjoyed reading about your family Christmas traditions. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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  8. I love your Christmas design. Red is my favorite color for stitching so your design really fits the bill! I hope you have had a very Merry Christmas!

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  9. Lovely card, thanks for the link. Sounds like you have wonderful memories of past Christmases. Happy Xmas.

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  10. Hopping by on the blog hop finally. What a beautiful piece! What great Christmas traditions. I'm a little late so I hope you had a great Christmas this year.

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  11. What a sweet card, such a treasure. Love the secret Santa, that's always fun!
    Happy New Year!

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