Christmas Cactus Craziness!!

I am sure that most of you have heard of the Christmas Pickle…..

Traditionally, it was hidden on a Christmas Tree, with the finder receiving either a reward or good fortune for the following year.

Well, many years ago we decided to add this tradition to our Christmas mornings except there was one big problem…..I couldn’t find a pickle. I searched in store after store but could not find one and this was prior to the days of internet buying. Then one day I stumbled on to this ornament…..

…..and thus the Arnold family tradition of the “Christmas Cactus” was born!!!

Now to the story of this Christmas……

The kids (ages 26, 28 and 28) had left the room so that the Cactus could be hidden. While Michael was trying to hang it on the tree he accidentally dropped it and couldn’t find it. So he told the kids to come on in and look for it…..

Almost at the same time, both Brian and Jenny yelled “there it is” and the scuffle was on….

You notice that Amber used her head and got out of the way!

Well, this year, the cactus got the worst of it…..

But both Brian and Jenny emerged with a portion of the cactus and both claiming victory.…

Notice the ornament that was pulled off of the tree and got stuck in Jenny’s scarf!!

Typically the Cactus Gift is some sort of kids game that they play for money (everybody wins something), but this year my efforts were foiled by the lack of one Size C battery…..

Oh well, the money was awarded anyway and this will be put back for next year…..with batteries!!!!

Goodbye to an old friend….

Back in 1993 our guild decided to put together small quilting groups of four people each and that each group would work on a mystery quilt….one clue each month.

At that point, Michael and I barely had enough money to live on, much less to go out and purchase fabrics for a quilt that I had no particular use for AND no idea exactly what it would look out.

So, I decided to use the fabrics that I had on hand and to make it scrappy rather than a planned format. I had a wonderful time with my three bee mates and was thrilled with the final product….

This quilt became our family “comfort” quilt. We used it for our kids to sit on when we ate dinner in the living room, we snuggled under it when we were cold, we were comforted by it when we were sick or recovering. Basically it was our “go-to” quilt.

Now, after all of these years, it looks like this…..

Many of the fabrics have rotted and shredded, probably because I didn’t use the best of fabrics……

This hole was the final straw…..

When my feet went thru the quilt I decided that it was time to put this old friend out to pasture.

Now the question is what to do with it. I am not sure that I can throw it away but not sure that I want to store it for the long haul!!!

I guess that I really need to finish up the quilting on the piece that I started to take the place of “comfort quilt”!!

“Where’s your parrot?”

Today I saw the Doctor and was told that I can start getting rid of the final crutch…..

Hooray for that!!!!

BUT, Michael and I have had a lot of fun with the fact that I have been clumping around on crutches because every time he would hear me he would ask “where is your parrot”, referencing one of our favorite scenes from the old Pink Panther movies….

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Much elbow pumping would follow and one of us would yell “Thar she blows”!!

It is always helpful to have a good laugh!!!!

New blog on the block……

I am very proud to announce that my husband, Mike has started writing a blog as well.

The title is “Flaneur” and here is an excerpt from the first paragraph…….

“I am always prepared to be a flâneur when visiting foreign places. In his book A
Writer’s Paris – a guided journey for the creative soul, Eric Maisel defines the
[French-invented] flâneur as “an observer who wanders the streets of a great city on a mission to notice with childlike enjoyment the smallest events and the obscurest sights.”

In this blog he plans to write about some of those small events and obscure sights that have punctuated his life. He is a wonderful writer and has the great talent to make you feel like you are right there with him!!!

So, if you have a few minutes, click HERE and have a read……