I'm back and feeling much better than I was a week ago. I think I am at the end of this New Year yukkiness and glad of it. I hate being sick....it seems like everything I try to do is in v-e-r-y s-l-o-w motion. Thanks to all of you for your well wishes...somehow I think all those kind thoughts helped keep me on the road to recovery.
I thought I would share my favorite Christmas gift of all with you. Just look at the picture above. . .
yessiree, that is my
very own antique chandelier for my studio! It's from my DH and it couldn't have been more perfect! He hit all the marks that I was hinting at all year. . .white, old, hanging crystals. . .it even has a little cherub hanging onto the center post. He made me nervous when he told me one day he was going to Menard's and Home Depot to look for a chandelier for me. I know they have some nice ones there, but not any that fit the look I was after. I think that must have been a diversionary tactic, because in the end, this is the one he bought me and I do love it so! And just like my friend Cerri wrote
here about one of her Christmas gifts, I think DH finally gets me!
He didn't waste any time getting the chandelier hung, complete with a dimmer switch which is, as you know, essential to getting the proper aura from the light. What a peach he is! Then after seeing
this photo from Holly, I got out a few of my cherished vintage Christmas balls to hang from the bottom. Such a great idea, Holly ~ thanks!
Another favorite gift I received was
this little ingenious bit of technology. I've been needing a new phone since my contract expired at the beginning of 2008, but procrastinated and kept putting it off due to not wanting to have to learn how to use a new phone. But so far this one is a cinch to use and I like being able to have access to email and the internet (if needed) wherever I am.
Finally, I wasn't going to mention this little faux-pas that I had this past week, but then I thought, oh why not! It sort of rivals Karin's little miss-step she wrote about
here last year. Because I was bustling around trying to get something out of the messiness of the
laundry-room-turned-gift-wrapping-room-during-the-holiday-season, which happens to be a very tiny room and currently has very little floor space to walk on, I had a slight accident. Somehow I turned around and found myself tripping over an empty laundry basket and watching (in a sort of
out-of-body-experience kind of way) the whole thing occur in the slowest of motion, but was unable to stop the momentum my body was already in and
CRASH! There I was sprawled out on the floor, with my head resting on a bag of discards ready to take to
Goodwill and the laundry basket popping off all four of it's plastic handles in the force of the impact! My DH, called out from the other room asking,
"What fell," and came to my rescue after I managed to reply,
"Not what, but who!" He offered to remove the Goodwill bag from under my head, but I told him I liked the way it was cushioning my head, since I wasn't quite ready to get up and see how much damage I had done to my body. Fortunately I came out of it with only some bumps and bruises and a knot on the side of my head. . .all of which is a lot better than a broken bone in the middle of winter here in the Midwest! A friend of mine told me last week that she believes that the way you bring in the new year sets the tone for the way your year is going to be. Oh dear, I hope she's not right about that, because with the awful head cold and now this fall, I looks like I will be in for one heck of a year! Perhaps my DH should up our insurance just in case!
Years ago my father-in-law wrote down his autobiography while the memories were all still fresh in his mind. He told about growing up in Poland and being run out of his home by the Russians at the beginning of WWII and how he was sent to a work camp in Siberia. Later he joined the army and fought for the allied forces and it was there that he met my mother-in-law, who also was in the army. They married and relocated to England after their service ended. That is where my husband and his brother and sister were born. Later, when my husband was 5 years old they came to America on the Queen Mary and eventually settled in Chicago.
These were the first gifts we opened on Christmas and they were such a hit we almost didn't even get to the rest of the presents under the tree.
I knew about the calendar because my daughter had asked me for the old photo albums. However my husband and his siblings were totally blown away by the thoughtfulness of these gifts. Even my mother-in-law, who now suffers from Alzheimer's Disease, could still recall the names of many of the people in the pictures, although locations were not as clear for her. Of course when she saw the picture of her late husband, her eyes lit up and she told us he was a such good man. 
And below is my dear hubby - isn't he a cutie? Love that bow-tie!
