What a busy week!  "Scrooge" week is always very busy in our house! (As it is in the homes of everyone involved in it!)  "Scrooge" is performed every year by a local church as a fundraiser for our Blue Ridge Women's Center, a crisis pregnancy center.  My family has been involved in the production almost every year, for the 13 years it has been in Roanoke, in one way or another.  In fact, 13 years ago. when Amanda was still in high school, she was in the chorus and played the piano for the cast to learn the songs.  She was in it until she left for college, and between us, over the years, we have made several of the costumes for her and then for Betsy when she was in the chorus. The past two years, Betsy was the director!  She has moved now, and that made it a very difficult "Scrooge" season for me.  Jim is still in it, though, in the chorus, plays his psaltery, and dances on Scrooge's casket.  And I have a small part in interpreting it in ASL for two of the performances.  It is a very professional production, and is held at our local Civic Center auditorium.  It all went very well this year!  The week was full of dress rehearsals and then 4 performances.  But I didn't remember to take my camera!!

I also went to a Women's Christmas Extravaganza at my church this week, on Friday night.  There was a wonderful meal, and the tables were soooo beautifully decorated.  Several of the men in our church were our waiters.  I arrived and realized that I didn't have my camera there either!!

Where was my brain this week, not bringing my camera to all those events?

I also did Christmas shopping, in stores and online; I am still finishing up Megan's cross stitched Christmas stocking; I let down hems on two of the smocked dresses that I made for Megan last year; I did some knitting; I spent time with my grandchildren and Amanda; and I brought up some Christmas decorations from the storage room; got out my Christmas dishes . . .

Am I the only person I know who doesn't have their Christmas decorations actually up yet?  Does anyone involved in "Scrooge" get their Christmas decorations up before the production is over?

Sam got my pictures put up - that had been taken down in the remodeling - thanks, Sam!

I exercised and walked every day and have taken off a few pounds in the last few weeks! 

I played Scrabble on Facebook, and I started playing Words With Friends on Facebook at the invitation of my other son-in-law, Andrew.

There.  That was my week - and I am sure I did a bunch of other things, but I didn't take any pictures. . . I forgot my camera everywhere I went!!  Maybe I will do better this week.

I finished embroidering this apron in time to wear it on Thanksgiving!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend.  My brother, who goes by the nickname Rosey, and my sister-in-law, Carol, drove in from the St. Louis area to spend the holiday with us!  And they brought their cute little dog, Maggie!  And Suzanne was home.  And Jim's parents drove down from PA, and stayed with Kip (Jim's brother) and Joan.  Kip, Joan, and Josh, as well as  Amanda, Sam, Charlie, Megan, and John were here for dinner.  We had 14.

I didn't do all that well with pictures, though!  I was busy getting everything ready.  And then when I did get my camera out, I had a tough time getting everyone's picture in a way that looked good!  Some of them didn't want their picture taken, or posted.  So, here is what I did get -

Suzanne - the first one is from Wednesday night, and the second from Thanksgiving, I think!

Rosey, in the middle of talking about something, and Carol, also on Wednesday night  -

And Jim, on Wednesday night.  I made a venison roast (from a deer that Jim got this year) that turned out pretty well, and I served it with potatoes and carrots, and green beans that Amanda canned, and our applesauce, followed by ice cream sundaes!

Then, on Thanksgiving,  here is Jim's stepmother, Elinor - she is the only one I got a good picture of before we ate dinner -

Here we had  the food out - there is really turkey there, on the wall side of the buffet - along with mashed potatoes, sausage and dried cherry stuffing, broccoli, hot pineapple casserole. . . etc, etc.

I sent Josh downstairs at one point to take pictures of the guys who had moved down there to watch football, and he did a good job of getting them all in!

Here is Jim, Sr. -

Jim and Kip -

But then I didn't get a good picture of Josh.  Sigh.

Later, here is Megan eating ice cream -

John was playing happily -

But I didn't get a picture of Charlie! 

At some point in the weekend, Rosey was "napping" on the sofa downstairs -

And Carol with Maggie -

And I think this last picture of Megan must be from Friday morning, when Amanda brought them over to play.

We had a very nice weekend.  I am thankful for all the family that was there!  I missed Bets and Andrew, but they were spending Thanksgiving at Andrew's parents' home in Colorado.  

Our week coming up will be busy with our local annual production of "Scrooge, the Musical".  Betsy has been the director the past two years, and this year, it has been hard for me to have the same excitement about it without her here.  But Jim is still in it, in the chorus, and I am interpreting some of it - I have a small interpreting part; the rest is being done by some wonderful professional interpreters!

We had a wonderful missions conference at our church this weekend!  Jim and I are on the missions committee, so we are very involved in planning and carrying out the conference every year.  And it is always such a blessing!

We started out Friday night with dinner at our house, hosted by the missions committee, for the missionaries, the committee, the host families, and others who may be involved.  I took some pictures of the tables after they were all set, but forgot to take any other pictures that night!

We had 29 people, and the only food that we had to do was the meat.  We decided to have London Broil on the grill, and then the missions committee members brought all the sides and dessert.

Saturday morning, and then again on Sunday,  we heard from several missionaries with their reports.  I didn't have an opportunity to get a picture of all of them, but here are some -

This young couple is going with Wycliffe Bible Translators to Mozambique.  David grew up in our church, and he and Wendi have two adorable little boys.  It was wonderful to hear of the work they plan to do after they raise their support and go to language school.  He is a computer guy and will be using his IT skills.

Richard Crane and his wife Robyn serve as missionaries to Latin America with our denomination's missions board, Mission to the World. 

Brooks and Riva will be serving in Japan, as missionaries working with missionary kids.  They are also with our denomination's group.  They also led the music this weekend!  Riva is the daughter of our pastor, and her husband Brooks just graduated from seminary and is serving as our church intern while they raise their support.

There are so many that I missed getting pictures of, but here are a few of our fellowship hall while we were waiting for one of the sessions to start -

It was a great weekend!

I put the shells, that I showed in my last post, in some small canning jars and in another round container that would fit on my shelf -

I kept trying to get a shot of them without the "halo" glow from the lids, with and without the lights of the kitchen on.  That was the best one!  Where are you, Cheryl, when I need you?    She isn't here to tell me how to do this, so you'll have to put up with the glow!  The bottle in the center is the one she sent from Puerto Rico. 

The larger shells, I put on a glass pie plate, first, surrounding a candle in the center, but when having that sit on my counter awhile was starting up a headache, I switched to a mini pumpkin I had -

My sister-in-law suggested that I put the candle out on my screened in porch overnight to see if the scent is as strong tomorrow.  I have done that, so, we'll see.

I might play with these shells and their display some more, but this will do for now.   Tomorrow night is the beginning of our church missions conference, and we often have the missionaries and the missions committee here for that first evening.  That is what we are doing tomorrow night!  There should be around 30 people here, with the members of the missions committee bringing the food.

That pie pan of shells will be one of the centerpieces. 

Here is the whole canning shelf -

We need to make more applesauce!  That will be next week's project!

We were home for a day after San Francisco, and then drove to Hilton Head, SC.  We had a hotel "deal" using our points, and we decided to take the few days and have a short vacation.  Remember, Jim's part of the San Francisco trip was work-related.  We had a nice drive down - took 8 hours or so - we listened to a book on tape in the car and I knitted!

I brought my camera, but there wasn't much to take pictures of!  We stayed in a nice hotel, did some shopping, drove around seeing the area, and walked on the beach.  What I wanted to do mostly was collect shells!  I was inspired by the shells sent to me by from friend Cheryl in Puerto Rico, which are in a bottle on my canning shelf.  So, my idea was to collect shells to put in canning jars next to it!

We got lots of shells!  Some are more interesting than others, and I found a sand dollar, which I thought was great!  Here they are, spread out on my counter on a towel, after I washed all the sand off and let them dry -

I'll take some more pictures when I get them in the jars and on the shelf!  Still not sure about the displaying of them yet; all of my larger jars have applesauce in them right this minute.  So, I am using the smaller jars and another container for now.  All is subject to change, and I am open to suggestions! 

Also, while at Hilton Head, we shopped in some gift-type shops, some sports shops, and found a brand new quilt shop that had just opened!  Sigh. . . I just can't resist more fabric for quilts, especially with quilt camp coming up next weekend!!

I found this assortment of Stonehenge fabric for a table runner -

Sorry, that is dark.  Photography just isn't one of my talents.

And, I was so excited to find a kit to make a small quilt for my youngest grandson!  It is called Sweet Baby Zoo.

Also dark.  Maybe I'll try to do better with those pictures tomorrow!

We came home from Hilton Head a day earlier than we had planned.  Jim still had one more day of vacation left and could spend it hunting.  And it gave me an extra day to get unpacked and start getting ready for a dinner at our house Friday night as a kick-off to our church's annual mission conference this coming weekend.  Traveling is nice, but I am happiest at home!

I just got back from a trip to San Francisco!  Jim had a meeting to go to there, so I went along.  It had been over 25 years since I have been there!  We did a little sightseeing, a lot of eating, saw some old friends.  And when Jim was busy and I didn't want to venture out by myself, I did a lot of sewing, reading, and napping.

We ate dinner one night at Pier 39, not at the Hard Rock Cafe under this sign, but at Neptune's Palace, which was one of our favorites when we were there before. 

Nice view of these boats from the pier -

It was getting dark by the time I took these, but here you can see the Golden Gate Bridge, if you look closely -

And Alcatraz -

One afternoon, we went to Golden Gate Park, which we had never seen before.  It has several museums, and this lovely Japanese Tea Garden -

Our flights out were delayed and delayed, but we got there!  No problem with flights getting home.  And while we were there, we did some walking, took taxis, the cable car, and the metro to get around.  Lots of fun and good memories!

I arrived home to a package - these dishcloths for my new kitchen, knitted for me by my friend Julie!!  What a treat!  This is a picture of a pumpkin knitted into it -

 And this one with a diamond pattern.  Hard to see the patterns in the pictures!

Thanks, Julie!  What a nice treat!                                     

I also came to to some not-so-good-news.  My bloodwork results.  Not good at all.  I went up in all the things you are not suppose to go up in, including my blood sugar and cholesterol.  My own fault - I have some GREAT excuses!  Lots of traveling, a wedding and a separate reception, and the fact that I had no kitchen for so many months!  But the truth of the matter is that I let all those things get the best of me; I eat poorly when I am stressed, and I had gained back some of the weight I had lost last year.

That is enough to get me motivated again to eat healthy, exercise more, lose this weight (40 pounds to go), and bring those numbers down! 

Amanda and the kids were here tonight (the guys were both out hunting), and she was soooo supportive and helpful with great ideas for me for yummy meals and snacks that are very healthy!

I took a quilt class today to make a Spicy Spiral Table Runner.  It was a great class, and the best part was, we finished the quilt top in one class!!  I wanted to make a table runner in fabric colors that would go well with our new dining room/family room.  I picked some fabrics, looked at others, wondered whether I should use 8 fat quarters the way the pattern called for, or the 4 going in both directions that I found while I was traveling.  I finally decided to go with my original plan, and I am very happy with it!

Here is my table runner top laid out, before I finished sewing the two halves together -

And here is the finished top, except that the edges still need to be trimmed and rounded off -

It has the blue/browns of the new furniture in it - you just don't see it very well in these pictures.

Some of the others had bright, bold colors that looked fabulous!

We made this by sewing strips together and then using a wedge ruler to cut the wedges, then sewing them together.  The middle part of the cutting process looked like this -

Lots of fun!  Now I will need to finish trimming, sandwich the top and bottom with the batting, and sew it together, then it gets quilted!  Good thing that I am going to quilt camp in a few weeks.  That will be a perfect time to finish it up!

I decided to try and get a closer shot of the fabric I used. . .

The kitchen is officially finished!  And the great room - it is much like one large connected space now!  The curtains are up, the backsplash tile is in, one picture is up, and the windows looking out to the back from every direction are nice and clean!  Thanks, Sam!  Here are some pictures:

And the canning shelves are full again!

I love it all!  It has been a long process, since last February when the water damage spurred on the remodeling!  And it wasn't without it glitches along the way.  But it is beautiful, and when everything gets back in place and I can remember where everything is, it will really feel like home!

Today we made applesauce - at least we got a good start on it.  Here are our 6 quarts and 4 pints.  We used about 2/3 of a bushel.

Amanda and I have been canning applesauce for about 15 years, and we keep getting more efficient.  Amanda suggested that, instead of doing as much as we can in one day, especially with her three kiddos running around and the need to take them home for naps after lunch, we cook up the applesauce one day and can it the next.  That's what we had planned, but those plans changed when we heard that the tile man is going to put in my backsplash tile tomorrow.  We always need to be flexible!

So, we decided to cook what we could until Amanda had to leave to take the kids home.  That worked out great!  Pots on 3 burners, and we kept peeling, coring, and cutting apples and letting them cook, then we mixed them with the hand mixer, added sugar to taste, and set the pots aside.  We stopped when we knew we wouldn't have time for more, and they will be waiting for us another day

Then after they left, I got the canner out and started canning, cleaning up everything while the batches were processing.  And so, here I am, finished for the day!  It took me two batches of jars, although I could have put more jars in the second batch, but didn't have enough applesauce cooked.

Won't those jars ( the ones I keep - Amanda takes what she wants to have on hand) look lovely on my canning shelf?  I'll get a picture of that after they sit for 24 hours.

This past Saturday, I made these 2 pillowcases for Megan, to match her quilt! 

I made this scarf this past week, from a skein of yarn called Rozetti Marino.  It is like mesh, and you knit into one side of it, on size 9 needles, casting on just 8 stitches.  My sister-in-law, Joan, found it at a shop she was in at the beach this summer, and bought us each a skein.  Now I am looking for more, in different colors, because it was so easy and fun to make!  Looks like we'll have to order online because our local shops don't carry it. 

A friend from my 2 years in the Houston area - Peggy - was traveling through Virginia yesterday, and we had an opportunity to meet for coffee near the highway.  We lost touch over the years but found each other recently on Facebook!  It was such a delight to see her again!

After coffee with Peggy yesterday, Amanda wanted to run some errands, so she brought the older two over to play with Grandma!  They arrived in these camo outfits - telling me they looked like hunters!  What adorable hunters they were!

We went outside to play ball and then hunt - they were hunters, after all! - for acorns and nuts and leaves on the ground.  Some of these pictures are blurry because they were whizzing by me as I was taking pictures!