bodner067

...but it's in the 60s here in western Pennsylvania! Good morning, my stitching friends! Is it warm where you are, too? In all my 60 years, I never remember a December like this--it is supposed to be in the 60's here (more like May weather for us) throughout the Christmas weekend. I hate to say I miss the snow, but (I miss the snow! ). The mild weather has been great in terms of getting around to shop, decorating the outside of houses (in fact, I swear more houses than ever have put up outside decorations this year), and getting back and forth to work easily. But, without the cold, ice, and those pretty white things that fall from the sky, it just doesn't feel Christmasy. As my son said, "This is what Christmas in northern Florida must feel like every year!"  Anyway, the cards are sent, the groceries are purchased, the few presents we bought (our main gift was the Argentina trip from last month) are wrapped and under the tree, and the tree is up. Yes, the tree-...

Are there really only seven days left until Christmas?! As the big day approaches, I'm feeling better about things than I was when I last posted. I've definitely cut back on the decorating this year and, you know what... I'm okay with that. The house still looks festive, just in a more scaled back fashion. I still don't have the tree entirely decorated--my ornaments are sitting in their underbed storage box waiting patiently for their moment to shine. Hopefully, I can get them hung later today as I have to work tomorrow. I also need to sit down and catch up with all of your blogs--have to admit, I've barely had time to glance at them since we returned from Argentina. I will make a special point of visiting as many of you as I can today... I know many of you are new to my blog, but each year I devote one post to the monthly ornaments I've created over the past twelve months. If you are interested in seeing previous "Parade of Ornament" posts, you can f...

I'm back! Did you miss me? I sure missed all of you, but I tried to peek in at your blogs from time to time while traveling the 13,980 miles to and from the very tip of South America. At times, it hardly seems real that we were actually way, way down there! I've outlined our flight path in blue on the map below so you can see the breakdown of our trip: Pittsburgh to Atlanta (521 miles), Atlanta to Buenos Aires (4,995 miles), Buenos Aires to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego (1,474 miles)... and then back again!  It was so great to see my youngest son conversing like a native with the cab drivers and waiters in Argentina--that's what immersing yourself in a foreign country can do in just a short time. It honestly would have been hard to navigate the country without him by our sides as very few people spoke English and our knowledge of Spanish is elementary to say the least! We hiked and canoed in that pristine Patagonian wilderness, visited historic sights in Buenos Aires, and sm...