Holidays

Happy New Year!!! This year’s New Year’s greeting brought to you by Simba, super cat of TheSecondChild.

Can. You. Believe. It? 2024. I just can’t. I’m in a fog. Where on earth did this year go? The older I get, the faster time flies and the less I accomplish. I hope you’ve had a nice beginning to your year. I always have grand plans to un-Christmasify the house on New Year’s Day, but instead I puttered around and made our traditional standing rib roast dinner with the boys’ twice baked potato, 7-layer salad and homemade dinner roll favorites. An easy dinner, but I manage to take most of the day messing around with it. I like to set a nice table too — china and the works. No one cares but me. They’d be just as happy to eat it on paper plates. Ho Hum.

Anyway, according to old blog tradition, it’s time to look back on the past year. You might be wondering what year? Since I didn’t post all year. There were still happenings here, and I’m posting the traditional grid for the sake of the record:

The year was mostly good, but peppered with the sad. And then the really sad. Which, maybe I can talk about soon. I’m definitely planning a few posts just to document the makes — mostly because I use the blog as a record, in case I want to look at pattern or yarn or whatever that I used for a project. I’ve seen a few posts on instagram where people say they didn’t get much done, but they managed to survive. I finished a few more quilts than normal, but I feel like my biggest accomplishment was surviving — it was a tougher year than most, and I’m glad it’s in the rear view mirror now.

So, on to the New Year. A blank slate. So full of hope, but boy, a new year makes me nervous. More than anything else this year, I’m hoping for time. Time to just slow down and enjoy the good things in life. I hope you will find what you are hoping for too — HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!
XOXO,
Anna

Poor, sad little blog. It’s been almost a year since I have posted — the shock and horror! It was a busy year — mostly good, but some not, and I’m hoping to catch up in the next few weeks — mostly just to document the things and projects that I want to remember.

But more on that later. For now, I just wanted to pop in for my traditional Christmas Eve post. Here are this year’s cookies. I do like looking back to see what cookies I baked each year — even if they mostly are the same cookies every year.

The usuals are here – sugar cookies using the Jenny cookies recipe from her book, Grandma Hill’s Browned Butter Cookies, shortbread, peanut brittle (hopefully, I’ll put that recipe in my recipe section before too long so I can find it next year ;-D), and salted caramels. Sadly, I didn’t make my absolute Christmas number one cookie, Angel Slices, because we are a small group this year and I’m the only one who would eat them. And, I definitely don’t need a whole pan of Angel Slices to myself. I tried a new recipe from Sally’s Bake Blog this year, her Iced Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies, and they are really good — it’s a recipe I’m sure I’ll make again.

The girls came over yesterday to help make sugar cookies. We had lots of fun and they did a great job. I gave them a little pep talk before we began, explaining that they were all old enough now to take a little time and not just throw sprinkles around. I’m happy to say they all took the job seriously and made some fun cookies. I love watching them being so creative, even if it does make a big mess LOL.

I hope your holiday traditions are all right on track – I’m amazed it’s Christmas Eve already — time, as always is flying. Merry, Merry Christmas — see you soon with gingerbread house news!

XOXO,
Anna

Happy, Happy New Year!!! Paul Kitty has returned to wish you a Happy New Year!

I’m a little late with my annual New Year’s greeting, as we got out of Polar-Vortex-Dodge and spent the holidays in warm, balmy Florida with TheSecondChild. It was heavenly! It was a little chilly (in the 50’s) for Christmas, but that was when it was below 0 degrees fahrenheit in the northern plains, so we happily suffered LOL. By the time we left to return home, winter crowds were blissfully sunbathing in 80+ degree weather. It was my first taste ever of a bit of winter in Florida, and while I wouldn’t want it full-time (I do love me some winter and snow), it was a really nice change of pace.

In grand old blog tradition, it’s time to look back on the past year.

It was another good year here in ThimbleannaLand but boy, my posting here on the blog was less than stellar.  A quick look at my Instagram page, shows a few (mostly smaller) projects that I never posted here.  Which is a little sad, as the blog offers a lot more opportunity to keep track of project details for future reference.  Lax posting aside, the year was a good mix of travel, family and crafty bits.  I’m happy to say that there was more family time than ever gets recorded, I probably should work on that a little.  It’s so fun to look back and see what we were doing “way back when”.  I think I did a little more quilting this year than in years past — definitely more piecing than I’ve recorded.  And more sewing for the girls (I spy one up there that still needs to be posted), but less knitting overall.  And there wasn’t much travel, but the West Highland Way hike in Scotland was spectacular, so that more than made up for the longer stretches at home.  Aside from Scotland, there were several trips to Florida to help TheSecondChild get settled, and in the process, I discovered an obsession with iguanas LOL.  Because they are Every.Where down there!

So, now to look forward!  Are you a goal setter?  New Year’s resolutions?  I’m not much of either anymore — I just hope to have lots of time to quilt and sew, knit and travel — and, of course, spend time with the babies (big and small).  Wishing you all much of the same — or whatever it is that your heart is dreaming.  HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!
XOXO,
Anna

Merry Christmas!  It’s time for the annual Christmas Eve breakfast post — and a record for me of the Christmas cookies I made this year.  We’re having a low-key Christmas this year – just TheManoftheHouse, The SecondChild, MeMum and me.  Everyone else is with their in-laws this year.

I made my traditional favorite three — sugar cookies (I’ve started using the recipe in Jenny Cookies sugar cookie book), Angel Slices, and Grandma Hill’s Browned Butter Cookies.  I also made my favorite salted caramels – yum, yum!  And then, I decided to try my hand at Peanut Brittle.  I Love peanut brittle – my mother-in-law used to send me a bag every year for Christmas and I hoarded it.  She used a microwave recipe and I tried it years ago to no avail — microwaves differ and I ended up burning the batch and never trying it again.  But recently, I was looking at recipes in a Southern Living Favorites Collection that I have and ran across a traditional recipe and decided to try it.  And, I’m soooo excited that it worked and it’s really good!  At some point I’ll try to get the recipe posted in my recipe section — it’s a keeper!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful month of holiday preparation. Everything has gone smoothly here.  The advent calendars kept us busy — there are always a few activities with Grammy and Grandpa tucked into the pockets.  One of which is Christmas cookies with Grammy — we always have a great time.  And the kitchen always needs to be cleaned the next day — there were sprinkles and icing everywhere LOL!

Anyway, enough for now – wishing you a Wonderful Christmas and holiday season!
XOXO,
Anna