We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Quilty New Year!We’ve had a wonderful Christmas! All of our extended family gathered around for Christmas Eve dinner and to open presents. It was fun to see my children’s excitement as they experienced the fun of giving and the joy it brought to others.

The younger kids and cousins made candy Christmas trains while Jason Sr. and Jr. battled each other on their favorite computer game. Ryan was off in the distance, admiring his new collectible card games. My favorite gift was a set of warm fleece pants & top, gloves and a scarf. I just love to be comfy-cozy!

Jenna got her very own sewing machine. Now we can both sew at the same time and work on projects together. Merry Christmas!!

Each year my family has a tradition of running a 5K on Thanksgiving morning. This year we kept with our tradition but it was a little simpler and lots more fun!

Jason, our kids and I, along with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt & Uncle (& the dog!) gathered up a few friends and ran a 5k (3.1 miles) in our very own neighborhood, rather than traveling across town for an “official” race, like we have done in years past.

We had a nice showing from our running neighbors and friends. We ran an easy course with light traffic and beautiful weather. Families with kids in strollers and bikes all got to participate in the fun, too.

My oldest son finished first with a time of 21:16 and my younger son ran with his dad. (My daughter and I did a shorter run so we could be there at the end to take pictures.)

My friend Marci (one of the fastest runners I know and last year’s winner),  got to be the Turkey while everyone tried to catch her.

She ran with her kids this time so she slowed her pace quite a bit. I know she was sad to give up her Gobbler Crown but now it passes to my son for next year.

At the finish, we celebrated with bagels and snacks. Everyone who finished got a small prize, courtesy of ChristaQuilts.com. What a great way to start our day!

Ok, so Jason and I are never too old to dress up for Halloween!

This picture was actually taken last Christmas at our in-laws house.

We all dressed up as characters from Toy Story and had a costume themed scavenger hunt with clues from the movie. We loved the costumes so much that Jason and I decided to use them again for this year’s Halloween fun.

Say hi to Jessie the yodelin’ cowgirl with the yarn-made braids and Sheriff Woody, the cutest cowboy in town!!

Our kids however wanted new costumes. Jason Jr. picked out a commanding “Star Trek” themed outfit, Jenna wanted to be a “cute” witch and Ryan looked just perfect in his police officer’s uniform. He rounded up all the kids and kept them in line!

We had a safe night of Trunk or Treating on Saturday (people from church decorated their cars and handed out candy from their trunks). Then tonight, we’ll head out in the neighborhood for more yummy treats!

Aren't these Witches Cute?

For Valentine’s Day, Jason and I exchanged some yummy treats this year. For dinner, he brought me my favorite pizza from Papa Johns (heart shaped of course!) and some sweet treats for dessert. A friend of mine makes hand-dipped chocolate caramel pretzels and they are my absolute favorites.

This was dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Perfect energy for a day of sewing!

Not to be outdone, I got Jason’s favorite treat: a log roll ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins.

This is what’s left of the cake once I thought about taking a picture of it.

It came with yummy chocolate hearts on top and of course they were the first to go!

Just so I can make this post a little more quilting-related, here’s a picture of a cute Valentine’s Day quilt I display each year:

It’s made using 3 inch squares with “snowball” corners for the top half of the heart and triangles for the bottom half. I surrounded it with pieced sashing to add interest.

We had such a fun Christmas that I wanted to write about it. For starters, it was a “Toy Story Christmas” at the in-laws this year. In order to find our gifts, we had to dress up as the Toy Story characters and go on a scavenger hunt with clues leading the way. My mother in law & sister in law sewed some simple cowboy themed costumes and gathered supplies that transformed our family into the Toy Story characters – Barbie, Mr. Potato Head, Woody, Jessie, Army Guys and of course, Buzz Lightyear!

Now we have costumes for next Halloween!

We had a fun time with my side of the family as well. As you can see from the mess it was quite a party!

For the younger kids and friends, it was a “DS Video Game Christmas”. And my oldest son looks like he could be doing a photo shoot marketing Apple products. What a fun Christmas!

Yesterday I attended a Christmas party for my local sewing circle and it was “sew” much fun! My mom, also an avid quilter, was in town so she was able to go with me.

I’m not sure what is more fun about Christmas parties – the food or the gifts! My grandmother is here with my mom so she got to come, too. Everyone brought a pot luck dish so there was plenty to eat.

Here’s a picture of Ann, the original founding member of our guild, Desert Quilters of Nevada, picking out her present for our gift exchange. Our guild has over 400 members and we divide up geographically into smaller sewing circles of about 20-30 people each.

My mom received two gorgeous sewn aprons as her gift – one for fall, one for Christmas.

I began to get a little jealous now!

I received this intricately embroidered tea towel with a picture of a Rodeo Grandma. My dear mother, a cowgirl at heart, was very envious. So she swapped me one of her aprons for the towel and we were both very pleased!

Our members are very talented and most everyone brought a handmade gift.

Several of the guests brought little trinkets for each of the partygoers. I gave everyone a Scissor Pal charm for their rotary cutter. In return, I received several adorable fabric ornaments and yummy goodies to take home. What a fun party!