Playing catch up once again......................

 So, after keeping up with posts in November and feeling good about that, here we are almost half way through December, and I am back to old habits and playing catch up. It is rather scary the way time seems to be speeding up??!!

A lot of activities were packed into the first 12 days of December, but I am now in 'slow mode' for the next few days. I am tapping this post out on my laptop while I am at Mum's. 

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I will back up to the 1st of December when we helped Val to celebrate her birthday, which coincided with the visit by Laurie the fabric rep. It just so happens that his birthday is a few days after Vals, so we had a double celebration with coffee and cake. (Val and Laurie have known each other for many years as he also used to call on her when she had her fabric shop so she likes to come when he is in town to say hello).

Pat was also in town for the day and enjoyed coffee and cake too. We all love to look through the fabric samples that Laurie brings to tempt me, and I may have bought some more!?

After Laurie had departed, more friends joined us for lunch to further help Val celebrate.

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The roses have looked amazing this year after so much rain, and I could see that the temperatures were about to go up to very warm for the weekend, so I picked some blooms to bring inside.

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Saturday afternoon there was an impromptu zoom session with Chooky and friends, and this time I was able to join in. It is always good to 'meet' up with the others from all over the world and hear what they are all up too. Thanks Chooky for organising us all.

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On Sunday I drove to Keith (45 km north) to meet up with DS and family who were driving back from Portland after attending a family wedding. (This granny needed some cuddles). It was a 7 hour drive for them to go to Portland, and then another 7 home again. Miss Olivia was a star traveller.

There is a lovely park in Keith where we met in the shade of the rotunda.

...and a train for Miss Bridie and Mr Tate to play on.....

........while I had some more cuddles.

This is a photo of Miss Bridie all dressed in her flower girl outfit for the wedding.

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I received another blog book in the mail. There was a Black Friday sale of 40% off which I could not ignore. The discount really only pays for the extra that's added to convert the US dollars to Aus dollars, but it all helps.

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I have finished a few customer quilts in this time, but will save those for a separate post.

Some time has been spent in the garden, in an attempt to make progress on all the weeds. There is quite a way to go yet, but it's happening.

Mum celebrated her 91st birthday during the week and received many phonecalls from family and friends. 

We were saddened a few days before this to learn that Mum's older sister (94 1/2) had passed away. 

Our family Christmas was happening soon, so I had a session wrapping presents.

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Last week I had the pleasure of special friends coming to stay for a few days, and we enjoyed a sewing day with some locals joining in.

I didn't take a lot of photos of what we were all working on, but this one is Yvonne's Ta Daa moment, as she completed the borders of this string quilt that has been 'on the go'. This will be a QFO and is now waiting in the queue for the quilter. 

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There were a few tops loaded onto Max this week to help a friend whose health issues prevented her from quilting them herself. I can't imagine not having Max to quilt for me! He makes the job easy.

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Saturday was a day of preparation and sorting my things. Sunday morning I packed up the car ready to leave home for a few days. You could be forgiven for thinking i was leaving town for much longer!!

I drove to Mum's, a 2 hour trip and unloaded all of this except those all important Christmas gifts that I wrapped earlier in the week. Then Mum and I headed off to the city, about 1 1/2 hours further, for my family Christmas gathering.

Just as we got to Adelaide, the traffic that needed to turn right was held up for awhile while MANY motorbikes headed on up the highway to the hills. It was a sight to see, and the noise they made was very loud!! Don't really know how many there were, but had to be thousands!!?? I didn't think about a photo until most of them had gone past.

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Our family gathered at the home of DD1 for our 2022 Christmas. We were all present, including DD3 and family who had flown in from Melbourne that morning. GD1 had also just returned from a 3 week holiday overseas, and of course it was Miss Olivia's first family Christmas.

This was the first meeting for Mum of Olivia, so the perfect time for a 4 generation photo.....

As we were all present, it was the perfect time for a family photo with mum, myself, my children and their children !!...

.........and this is one of my 4 children with their mum! As a friend said to me, we must be getting old, when the family think you need a chair!?

After lunch it was pressie time, much to the excitement of the children.........

..............and one creative mum had fantastic labels for the children's pressies.

For the adult pressies, it was decided to do something different this year. We were allocated a $30 limit to choose a fun/quirky/unique/interesting gift. Each person then picks a number out of the hat, and number 1 chooses first, then 2, etc etc.... and each person can decide when they open the present to either keep it, or take something from someone who had already picked, therefore the last to choose had the pick of all the gifts. This was rather funny, and there were a lot of laughs. 

This is what I unwrapped, and I decided to keep it....

...and these were some of the others.....................

...there are some I won't show you photos of................but it was a lot of fun, and something different.

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I decided that I would take Mum home via the scenic route, through the hills.... past the Rocking Horse at Gumeracha which was closed.............

.....and down to the river at Mannum, to see what the floods were doing.......

........and drive through the main street and check out the levee banks that are being built.

We arrived back at Murray Bridge in time for tea and an early night.

Today I have been to an appointment, and now have the computer busy doing this post, while Mum is out. I have some bookwork to do and Val is home looking after things for me while I am away. Tomorrow I am going to the Barossa to babysit Bridie and Tate. Wednesday I have another appointment. Thursday we farewell my Aunty Coral and then it's time to pack up for home and take mum to Bordertown with me for a few days break.

Will be back sometime with the next newsfromjude update.

Blessings, From Jude