And now, on to Christmas!

Thanksgiving was fabulous at Redwall. We had 27 people for dinner, and there was much laughter, sharing stories, playing games, music, and general merriment. And food. Lots of food. We capped the evening by lighting and releasing some Sky Lanterns. Here's Bob sending up a big smile:

These lanterns are tissue paper with a framework of metal wire, and are held aloft by a small piece of waxy material that is ignited by a match. We used our gas firepit to "prewarm" the lanterns so they would rise better (and not land on our cedar shake roof!).

Today my daughter and I dragged the Christmas decorations out of the basement and got the tree set up. She and her fiancee, Alex, live in the apartment over our garage, and since he's now living with us, I figured he needed a stocking to hang on the mantle. He is in the army, so I decided to make one to honor his service.

I didn't use any kind of pattern; the size was determined by the other family members' stockings so they would all be about the same size. I freehanded the boot shape and used some bottom-weight digital camo from Joanns, along with some cream-colored felt for the top band and some black felt for the boot sole. The sole is just glued onto the bottom of the front of the stocking. The stocking is lined with a pre-quilted jacket lining from my stash.

Rather than have his name on the top band, I digitized a dog tag with his name and embroidered it onto a piece of gray felt. This was then glued onto the front of the stocking, along with some ball chain from the scrapbooking aisle.

He saw it for the first time when he got home from work today, and he was tickled pink. I don't think he was expecting to have a stocking on our mantle!