Life With Jules, and other stuff

This year has been a year to remember. Or a year to forget. I haven't decided which yet. I feel like we have been on a celebrity death watch since Sunday. George Michael dying, unexpectedly. Then Carrie Fisher on Tuesday. Her mom, Debbie Reynolds, the next day. It's been a hard last week of the year. I don't make resolutions, so you won't see a list of any here. But I do hope to get on here more frequently in the upcoming year. I also hope to get back into cross-stitch and actually finish some of my old WIPs (that can almost be called UFOs at this point, lol). So, what I will leave 2016 with is this: Thank you for being the year you were Please don't repeat yourself in 2017 Happy New Year!!

It's been a long time since I picked up needle, fabric and thread and while this is a kit I am looking forward to a new finish in the new year. This is Floral Cross. I actually started this a few weeks ago, but the colors weren't there that I needed. Go figure! It's a kit afterall. So last weekend I stopped at Michael's and picked up the 2 missing colors. Which also meant I had to frog some of what I had already stitched.

I miss what Christmas used to be. A time spent with family, gathered around the table eating a meal lovingly prepared by several members. This time of year just hasn't been the same for me since, well, the 1990s. I mean, yea when I was a kid it was about the presents. But let's face it, mom had to come up with some pretty interesting hiding places to keep me from snooping and finding them. I always found them. I always knew what we were getting before they were even wrapped and under the tree...until she started leaving them at her friends' homes, lol. But at some point it became about time with my family. Whether there was snow on the ground or not, I didn't care. I just wanted Christmas morning to arrive so we could pile in the car and head to grandma's! Grandma went to heaven in 1993. Christmas has never been the same. The family started doing their own things. Aunts and uncles became grandparents and turned their attention to their grandchildren (rightly so). An