Three Christmases This year

We normally have two Christmas celebrations each year, once when brother Robert returns home from abroad, usually in the fall.  And then again at Christmas.  This year we had three celebrations, the first one when we exchanged gifts with Robert, as usual.

The week before Thanksgiving, Mom was transferred from the retirement apartment she shared with Dad to the assisted living wing in the same facility.  So we celebrated Thanksgiving at the nursing home, with a turkey dinner and all the trimmings.  Then we celebrated our second Christmas of the year, by exchanging gifts with brother John and his wife Renee.  They were planning a cruise over Christmas, so we would not see them then.

And for the third, and final, Christmas of 2013, we had Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts with Mom and Dad on Christmas Day.

One of the gifts to my Mom was a hand stitched sachet, filled with  lavender potpourri.   The pattern is from The Victoria Sampler, "French Lavender Pillows," by Linda Rosser.  I found some "vintage" lace on Etsy that matched the colors perfectly, and also found the lavender potpourri on Etsy.

Empty sachet awaiting lavender potpourri stuffing

I did stitch a second sachet, though it is not yet assembled with the lace edging.

I have a friend who is not much into gift-giving on any occasion.  A couple of weeks before Christmas, he stated, "Don't get me anything for Christmas."  (If he doesn't get a gift, he won't have to give a gift...) To which I responded, "Of course I'm getting you a gift!"  Among my gifts to him were stitched ornaments from the Bent Creek "The Bugs" patterns.  One ornament was the "Humbug," and the other ornament was designed to be a Y2K bug, but I changed it to a "Bah!" bug.  Unfortunately, I didn't get photos taken.