Christmas makings and sad news...

Still catching up on sharing my Christmas. One posting after this one to finally be caught up. At the end of this installment I have some very sad news to share.

I rushed home from my Christmas shopping trip to watch mom make some chocolate peanut clusters with Cocoa. Mom made us sit back, she wanted us to avoid chocolate paws. While we were drooling over the chocolate smell I could hear mom's embroidery machine running upstairs.

So I hurried up there to see what was stitching. I like to sit and watch it. I spent lots of time watching it stitch out lace ornaments.

Angels and snowflakes this time.

Here are just some of the ornament designs mom made for gifts.

Here are some of the cosmetic bags she made. She made 13 in total. 

Here is what she made for my cousin, his wife and family, an Advent Calendar. It was a printed panel, mom backed it and quilted around the Nativity, and sewed the pockets on.

Then she made a cover and a way to hang it on a hanger for storage. That way it doesn't have to be folded.

Because e pockets were so small, almost too small for a piece of candy. Mom asked me to think of another way to use the pockets to count down to Christmas. I asked my Aunt Cheryl to choose and type 24 Bible verses about the birth of Christ so we could make verse cards for each day. Mom added a number on the back side to correspond to the day.
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Now, for my sad news. Late this past Wednesday afternoon we received a phone call from New Hampshire. My grandpa C., that's my dad's dad, suffered a massive heart attack after clearing snow. He passed away. Mom says he's in heaven now with Jesus. For that we are happy, even though we are sad because we will miss him. One of my memories of him involved

Notice, this pic was just after my nose surgery in 2002.

these anti-bear signs he posted before  our visit in 2002. My Grandpa pretended not to like us bears. But we always thought that deep down he really did. Anyway, I forgave for making and posting the signs. By the way, I sneaked down into the "No Bear Zone". I was a brave bear, after grandpa went to bed.

Well grr-by, sniff, sniff, for now,