Merry Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, PEOPLE. I hope this day is all you wanted it to be.

BUT, of course, if you are reading this blog on Christmas Day, I worry that maybe it was a disappointment. Few things can live up to the huge expectation we put on Christmas...ugh...

I want to dedicate this post to my Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club...

It was one of those weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas...the TMBC was coming to my house. I scrambled some eggs, and fried two pounds of bacon (just because I could)....

Linda K. and Sandy....

Linda P. and my sister Ronda (our special guest)

The big SEW AND TELL on this day was from Sandy!! She has a four-year old granddaughter, and this is the year she gets her FIRST AMERICAN GIRL DOLL....

This is the BED for the doll....

And, when you lift the lid - there is an amazing wardrobe...

Outfits, shoes, coats, nightgowns,

Loved this little snowsuit....everything in exquisite detail...

Sandy even knitted a little sweater/hat/blanket set...

The tub is jam-packed with beautiful little outfits and bedding...

Of course, I understand completely how much work Grandma Sandy put into this little tub. OH MY GOD...the work.  Writing this post, I am snapped back to Christmas 2012.

I was so excited about Lillian getting her first baby doll. For weeks, I'd been making outfits...and I made matching nightgowns for Lilly, and her Mom, the doll AND Sophie...I had my cousin Linda paint a little train case, using the nightgown fabric as inspiration for the pattern. WOW...

When Lilly opened the gift,  she said, "Nice try, Grandma..."

You can see she was MISERABLE about my gift...and we were both quite annoyed with the men in the room, who could not stop laughing...

In this picture, even Sophie looks disappointed...

She never played with the doll or any of those clothes. And I never saw anybody wear the nightgowns.

Hey -- sometimes - that's how it happens. And, on this day,  we all need LISTEN to some very good advice from my friend Eileen Roche. It's the actual planning and making of the gift that matters. We put our heart and soul into a project, thinking about the person we are doing it for the whole time we're working on it. THAT is the benefit to us. To be creative, and to love somebody so much you would go to all this trouble just for them.

Once you put your best effort and love into the MAKING of a gift....how that gift is received is beyond your control and really not important.

Eileen says, once she's finished, and has given the gift, it's over for her. She doesn't care if it goes in the trash. The joy was in the making...

Excellent advice, my friend...

But I am worried for Sandy....