It wasn’t very hard for me to say goodbye to Christmas and pack up the decorations… until it came to the manger.

My heart lingered here, reluctant to carry it to the basement.  I realized that this was probably my last Christmas to lay my own baby in the manger for our annual re-enactment of the [...]

We spent Christmas Eve with my husband’s brother and his family last night, remembering the reason for the holiday.

With costumes on, the children (14 in all!) quietly portrayed the events recorded in the New Testament surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ.

As I photographed the production, I noticed something.  Having a real baby in our own [...]

At about 11:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, I addressed the problem of having no stocking for my 4 month old baby.  The fabric I purchased to make one that matches the family was still sitting on my sewing table, and I didn’t have time to make it then because it requires embroidering her name on [...]

This Christmas season felt to me like a reflection of my life this year:  lots of  little things causing what I call “speed bumps” which are frustrating and time wasting, but ultimately everything works out.
We got our Christmas tree mid-month.  It’s huge.

It was the 15th of the month, and we’d had scheduled activities every day [...]

My youngest sister graduated from college last weekend.  Way to go Kris!
I made her an adorable Christmas mini quilt as a graduation gift, to go along with the rag quilt that we made in November.
The pattern is from Nancy Halvorsen’s book,  I Believe.  I spotted the pattern back in July and loved it.  I had [...]

So, back in October I sketched a little design for a Christmas rag quilt.  My sister and I went shopping for fabrics, and after she cut out tons of holly leaves and berries, we got together to make a quilt.

Two sewing machines on my table!  What fun!  As we began this project, she looked at [...]

There’s something fun about the stacks of paper and supplies that I always have when I’m making my Christmas cards.

blue cardstock, strips of old sheet music found at the thrift store,

green tags cut with my current favorite paper punch and stamped with a design and a greeting,

a large stack of pictures of my (somewhat) supportive [...]