Short Days, Early Nights, Christmas, and Quilting

I love this time of year -- late fall and early winter -- when the days grow shorter and the dark of night comes earlier.

After gracing us with fall's bright beauty and dropping it to the ground, I imagine the earth breathing a sigh of relief then settling in for a cozy winter rest.  Following nature's lead, I take it a little slower in the late fall and early winter.  If it weren't for the busyness of getting ready for Christmas, I would slow down even more.  But already the days begin to grow longer and here we are, heading for spring and summer again.  I'll enjoy the next month while it still gets dark early.

Christmas was wonderful with my daughter and her family here -- three little grands ages 5½, nearly 4, and nearly 2.  Busy, busy, busy, and such fun.  The only sadness was that my younger daughter wasn't able to be home.  She works as a nurse and couldn't have both Thanksgiving and Christmas off.  There's an incompleteness when a family member is not home for Christmas.  It's hard to believe that Christmas is really over, though.

The week before Christmas, while my younger daughter was home, we attended Merry Tuba Christmas Columbus.  If you've never been before, I encourage you find a Tuba Christmas in your area and go.  It's such fun to hear Christmas carols played by tubas, with their great, deep blubbery, vibrating "voices."  I wondered what the collective noun for tubas was and found tumult, croak, and rumble, but none of those really quite describes the sound of 15 dozen tubas playing together.  The best way I can describe being in an auditorium with nearly 200 tubas playing "We Three Kings of Orient Are" is being in the belly of a whale.   The sound surrounds you.  You can google Tuba Christmas and watch/hear videos but they just don't do justice to the live sound.

It is also fun to watch tuba players applaud.  Because their hands are holding those heavy instruments they can't really clap.  Instead they lift their tubas up and down, up and down, again and again.  Click on the above photo to see the tubas in the air.  Yes, next year, I encourage you to try to attend Merry Tuba Christmas if you can.

Quilting time took a hit over the holidays but that's okay:  time with family is better than time quilting.  Those who were here left yesterday afternoon.  After taking it easy last evening I was ready to get on with things today.  I cut binding....

... for this quilt, which I worked on during nap times and late evenings and finished hand quilting a few days ago.

I hope to have a Friday finish this week but we'll see if I can hand stitch 120" by then.  If not by Friday, surely I can get it finished by the 31st for one last finish in 2017.

I'm so grateful I didn't have 17 unfinished projects to finish this year.  I would not have met the challenge.  I'm still considering what's in store on the quilting front for 2018.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

I'm linking this post to
> WOW at Esther's Blog
> Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
> UFO Challenge at Jo's Country Junction

--Nancy.
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