And Suddenly It's 2019!

While Christmas Day came and went without any snow, New Year's Eve was another story.  Snow began falling in the morning and continued pretty much all day, leaving behind a lovely layer of fluffy glittery white.

 It was also very cold, and continues to be frigid today with a high of 16 predicted for mid afternoon.   It's ten degrees right now at noon and you might think this would mean that we are snuggled up in front of the fire, but no, soon we'll put on our warmer clothes and head out for a walk up to Chautauqua, which ought to look very pretty with its coating of snow.   I tried to convince myself that it was too cold to walk, but a look out my window at all the people walking their dogs dissuaded me from that notion!

I wouldn't say that 2018 went by too quickly, but it was certainly a lively year.   We finally got our new patio put in, Paul graduated from Boulder High, I visited Disneyland with my sister and my sister-in-law, had a sibling reunion for my brother's 70th birthday,  traveled to Maui and then to Sicily with Ben, and we lost our two pets in the course of just two months.  The holiday season has been fun, and I am now ready for what we call around here "down time."  January has always been a good month for regrouping, reflection, and planning.

One of my goals for December was to finish up a quilt runner that I started in a class about two or three years ago.  The star blocks were made using a technique called paper-piecing, meaning that you sew the fabric to paper pieces and then trim them to reveal the star.  I finished the star blocks some time ago and then set them into a surround of white fabric.  To finish the piece up I needed to quilt the stars and all that white, which seemed a bit daunting, and add a border and then the final binding.   Once I stopped procrastinating and got the scary quilting underway I gradually was able to  relax and enjoy the process.   It felt good to get this project finished up in 2018!

Last night we enjoyed a fun party at our friend Bob's house, toasting in the New Year at 10:00 our time, which is midnight NYC time.  A nice thing about being two hours behind east coast time is that we can get to bed before midnight on the big night.  It's a quiet day today and then things pick up again tomorrow and crescendo into a very busy weekend for me with Paul returning home from his trip to Maryland on Friday, two quilt guild events on Friday and Saturday, a special dinner out with friends on Saturday, and family dinner with John and Dawn on Sunday. 

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year!