Almost Christmas

     I've been busy making Christmas gifts and finally gave some away this week.  This is a quilt I made for someone I love very much who always says when I ask her that she wants something I make.

          I also made this pillow.  I love this pattern.  I think it came from an old Better Homes and Gardens quilting magazine and I have made several things from pillows to dish towels to table runners using it.  It is really easy, but looks like I spent days making it.  It works well with batiks which I very rarely use except when I am making this poinsettia.

      I've been burning candles alot lately.  I have one called Autumn Leaves that make me think of Christmas, I don't know why.  I burn alot of candles in the winter as it makes me feel warm and the house always smells good.   I put a candle on the stove burner where I think if I forget it, it won't set the house on fire.   

      Now this thing about Christmas.  I love the season.  It just doesn't seem to last long enough.  We barely get done eating our piece of Thanksgiving pumpkin pie and the race to Christmas begins.  Every year I plan to have all my shopping done before Thanksgiving and the house decorated the week after so that I can bask in the glow of a heavenly Christmas and dwell on what the season is really all about.  I always plan to give more each year to the Salvation army and I do try not to pass a bell ringer without puttin a bill in the pot, but I want to do more.  I love going to church and seeing how beautiful it looks in all its Christmas finery and I love the carols we sing and the good feeling one gets from thinking on the Christ child.  But I want to do more.  I want to give more.  I want to receive less.  My husband and I always say don't get me a gift, but we always give in and get each other several gifts. 

      I am planning right now to do more this year.  To give more of my time and my money.  To tell others the Good News about our Savior.  To do unto others as I would want to be done to.  The grinches in the world do not like this holiday for some reason.  I don't understand why.  It brings out the best in alot of people.  I know it brings out the worst in some also, but those are the exceptions I would like to believe.  I have not come across anyone grouchy in a store.  Even today this close to Christmas, people were smiling at each other and saying excuse me at the packed Wal-mart we were in.  Maybe it's me looking through rose-colored glasses which I tend to do, but I love everything about this time of year. 

      Anyway, me and Bonnie will be back to wish you all a Merry Christmas in style in my next post.  So bye for now.