From Thanksgiving to the End of December

It seems like I've been absent for a very long time.  December whizzed by while I worked at a candy store.  The whizzing started before Thanksgiving, though, when family visited for 11 days - two daughters, one son-in-law, and one 18-month-old grandson (all for varying amounts of time).  The day after the last one left (when I really, really needed a good rest) I started working.  And then it was Christmas (with no one visiting), and now it's nearly the New Year. 

Next comes the birth of a new granddaughter in the next few days, baby-tending my grandson, and care-giving to my daughter, her husband, and the two little ones.  Yes, I'll be even more tired, but I wouldn't miss it for the world.

In preparation for my grandson's visit at Thanksgiving I made a few little characters that I thought he might like. 

These are "wee folk" made in the manner of Salley Mavor, though not nearly as well done as hers.  Mali looked them over and put them down.  My feelings were not hurt.  Little children are quite open and honest about their preferences.

It turned out that Mali liked these tiny toys much better.

They are regular-sized dice, about half an inch square, and game markers from long-gone games.  His play primarily involved putting them into bottles of various sizes and taking them out again, though he also stacked them.  I was amazed that his attention span kept him playing with these for 30 to 45 minutes at a time. 

Here are Mali's parents.  Dad was attempting to look like he had a belly, too (but he's as skinny as a rail!).  And Mom, rounder than round, had another five weeks to go when this photo was taken!

I spent what time I could on this little quilt.

I stitched diagonally across the 9-patch blocks.  In the snowballs I quilted four hearts pointing toward the center.  On the flowers in the border I'm quilting around the edges of the flowers, edges of the centers, and outlining the leaves.

But I'm stumped about how to quilt the rest of the border.  Echo quilting?  Straight lines?  Fans?  Diagonals?  Diagonals crossing each other?  Nothing seems to be exactly right -- at least not yet.  It will not be finished in time for our granddaughter's birth but I don't think there will be a shortage of warm coverings.

In the past, when major events happened in my life (like hip replacements in 2002), I always looked forward to things getting back to normal.  But they never did.  Normal became something new and different with a few threads of what felt like normal amongst the new.  I'm wondering what will become normal by the end of January.

--Nancy.
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