It's the most wonderful time of the year...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I sure did! And although I made a peep last month about not being a "gift" person, when it comes down to it, I really enjoy the giving and the receiving at Christmastime. :-D

• My favorite gift to give - In our family the siblings do a mystery name exchange. This year I had Michael... and I did not know what to get him. Then, about a week before Christmas, I remembered that, last year, I had wished I had drawn his name so I could get him a cape, or the stuff to make it (If you know him well you would understand why.) So this year, that's what I did! I made him a calf-length black/red hooded cape. It was pretty crazy since I hadn't made anything like it before, but I finished it, well past the 11th hour, I might add. And he loved it! What was really funny: doing it as last minute as I was, I couldn't always wait until he was gone to work on it. When I was working on the red satin side, both he and Stephanie thought I was making a skirt! And after I had put the black and red together, Stephanie made some remarks. "You know what that looks like? A cape... like Michael's dream cape." I just kept quiet and grinned to myself.


• My favorite gift to receive - was a very special gift for the whole family - a violin!!! Valerie and I have wanted to start violin for a long time (longer for her) and we were thrilled! Everyone has tried it, but she and I have been practicing every day. I love it, and I've been picking it up pretty quickly. The smaller shape and fingerboard, the simplicity of doing only one note at a time (so far), it's all good.


• Oh, and if you care, my mom gave me a card reader for High-Capacity SD cards. :-)