Thursday, December 18, 2014

A Week of Parties

Yes, yes, I know. I have to catch up with my blogs again.

Monday December 8th

Yes, one of the reasons why I hurry and decorate for Christmas already and not just Advent ... my Colonial Lacemaker friends come to my house every year for our December meeting. Of course I would like it to look nice.
The reindeer have assembled in my queendom and are ready for the table.


As hostess I was busy and forgot to take pictures. The first thing we did when everybody had arrived was a little craft. This year I prepared for everybody to make a "woven heart" (talked about it in a previous blog). I think everybody had fun with that.
The following picture was taken by ?? (I "stole" it from FaceBook I think. Can't find it any more)

 

Because there was time most made a second one. I had prepared a lot so there was a good selection of different fabrics to choose from. (I needed finished ones for next days' party anyway and with that selection prepared I was several steps ahead. The lacemakers had fun making more which meant I had less to do after the party.)
Then comes lunch. This year: sweet kale vegetable salad with seven "super foods" and poppy seed dressing first and then salmon on spinach with creamed sauce (from German pouches). I have to write this so I don't forget and serve it again next year ha-ha. My dear husband had rushed to Panera to buy really nice bread early in the morning = only the best for his wife's friends.
The best part: James doesn't like salmon but there was plenty and he had some in the kitchen. Guess what? He liked it! I might get to eat more fish in the future!


After lunch it's time for the gift exchange. I had prepared the left/right story of "the night before Christmas". James of course read it and we had a lot of fun.


And since James was there we even got a group photo. And yes, everybody is a lacemaker. We are a group of all ages.

 

Tuesday December 9th at 10 am
CR Quilters. The next party. Not much lecture this time but as always lots of show+tell. I decided to save details about that for a special blog. I realize that not everybody is that interested in my lace and quilts. It will be after Christmas though and I will add the link here then.


We had decided to share hors d'oeuvres but no gifts. I thought that the left/right game had been so much fun that I brought one gift and read the story. The gift went forth and back and all around and ... ended up with Motoko exactly where it had started. It was fun!


The snacking afterwards was great too. Jane (the oldest in our group with 89) had the great idea to make the recipe of this year's Pillsbury bake-off winner. Since the winner was a resident of Richmond the story was featured in the newspaper.
And hats off to Jane!

 

Tuesday evening:
Church Mice Quilters Christmas party at Bonnie's. Potluck deliciousness and ... guess what ... gift exchange with the left/right game again. Still funny.
Bonnie's visiting sister took the next two photos and Bonnie shared with me. Thanks!


Wednesday lunch:
Friend Julie organizes every December a get together in a restaurant with a certain group of her friends and I am one in that group. We were 8 and she had made a reservation for 12:30 at the Southern Season Restaurant.
The food was delicious but the hostess service was lousy. Some of us were there at 12:20 and she told us that the reservation had been for 12:00 and she had cancelled it because there was no answer when she tried to call a few minutes ago. And then she argued. I am sure that the customer was right in this case ... but even if the customer would not have been right, the customer is always right, right?
But as I said, the food was delicious and the server nice too. But the company is what counts most and it was great! No photos except for this selfie with Julie. You can see we had fun.


I was surprised Wednesday evening when I found this in my emails! I get something regularly because I used to be an AQS member for a year or two. The granddaughter of the founders Bill and Meredith Schroeder was in the Girl Scout troop when I was the leader (way back in Paducah KY). They knew that I was a lacemaker and asked me to demonstrate for a video clip because they wanted a filler for an episode in their TV quilt series. That was probably more then 10 years ago. Was I surprised when I saw my name at the very bottom left.

I clicked on it and this is what I got!
 
 


Thursday
Guess what? The Stitchers for a cause party! My first here since I had joined in the beginning of the year. I was told that it is work as usual but the potluck lunch was more special then usual.


A glimpse of the things to come!


Doesn't that look nice? I was told that the red plates where called charger plates and they are not for eating off. Stitchers are a wonderful group of people and so diverse.


Not everybody can come every Thursday but this was the biggest gathering I have seen so far. I think we were about 30.


Janet, who had been at the CR Quilters had liked the left/right game so much that she had asked me to bring the story and do the reading. She had brought 3 gifts which went around. Same fun for the fourth time this week for me. And it doesn't even get old.

To sum it up: I feel happy to be involved with so many nice people.

 

6 comments:

Kim S. said...

That video was so great! I am impressed all over again with the work that you do.

Christa said...

Ha-ha, I think it looks like I do it in slow-motion.

Happy Room Diana said...

Love the reindeer bags, is it your pattern?

Christa said...

I can't remember where the pattern came from if my life depended on it. It's from the time when I was scout leader more then 20 years ago. I have a box with "samples" I kept from that time in case of grandchildren. The white and red circles are drawn around a coin (quarter). The blue is drawn with a fat marker. The antlers are drawn half on the fold and cut out one at a time.

benwahl said...

I would love to try the sweet kale salad when you are in town(7 super foods ?)
I had no idea you are famous! 33,800 views- very cool.

Christa said...

The sweet kale salad ... I knew you would. Bought another bag today to enjoy it next few days.