Food for Thought

When dieting, this is as close as you can get to bacon and eggs in the morning.  This pattern was designed by Sarah Parr, and the pattern can be found at her website. 

Enjoy!

TTFN

Sue

Cold Ears Anyone?

Again, I am amazed by something a knitter has created.  If you read the pattern for the Katamari Damacy Queen of All Cosmos earmuffs you will see this has been cleverly planned and designed.  For all of you for whom I knit, don't worry, I'm not inclined to knit this. 

TTFN

Sue

PDX or GO HAWKS!!!!

We've been in Portland this weekend checking out rehearsal dinner venues, and it's been a blast.  This is an interesting and exciting stage of our lives that David and I are entering.  Once a parent, always a parent, and we have discovered that with each stage of parenting we enter into with our sons, it just gets better.  Parenting is a thrilling and fascinating adventure.  Having adult children is wonderful, and now with Frank's upcoming wedding we are gaining a lovely daughter, and with her, her family. 

In the past two days we have checked out five restaurants, eaten at three, viewed facilities at three, and narrowed down the choice for the rehearsal dinner.  I never realized the various things to consider when planning the rehearsal dinner, but the most important for us was location from the church, and ease of getting to the location.  As the mother of the groom, this is going to be fun to plan.

The winner?  Kell's in downtown Portland.  We've always like Kell's and they have nice facilities, and a wonderful staff.  Besides that, we do have a lot of Irish in the family. 

Last night we had dinner at Amalfi's in NE Portland and met up with Rachel and her sisters Sarah and Rebecca.  What a fun evening and it was a delight to meet Sarah and Rebecca. 

It's very easy to tell they are sisters, all beautiful and very dear.

We are heading back to Seattle early today because of the weather.  I realize we should be glued to a television watching the Seahawks play, but there is always the radio.  The one thing about these trips to Portland, I will be getting in some major knitting time.  On this trip I'm working on a scarf where you start out with 80 stitches, and after the last increase, you end up with 1280 stitches.  I currently have 640 stitches on my needles.  By time I'm done with this row I'll have the 1280.  The cable is 40 inches and the yarn is fingerling weight.  It's going to be a tight squeeze but I'm sure they will all get on there.  The nice thing about this scarf is there are only 29 rows, albeit, 29 LONG rows.

The yarn is Hand Maiden's Swiss Mountain Cashmere and Silk.  Yum.  The yarn is so soft and dreamy, and a luxury to knit.  It feels so heavenly on the hands, even at 1280 stitches. 

Well, time to sign off and hit the rainy, windy and messy I-5 for Bellevue.  Enjoy the football everyone.

TTFN

Sue

Our Mission Continues

Please notice the little Christmas tree in the corner of the room.

Hello my dear friends.  I'm back after my annual post OHS break.  I spend a lot, and I mean a lot, of time on the computer from September until we have sent out the last box of stockings, so I take a breather to catch my breath.  There is a lot of time, energy, work, and of course love, that goes into Operation Holiday Stockings, but it is worth it.  The final tally this year was 1700 stockings to 19 units.  Thank you!

Throughout the year, we work with those who are making stockings for us, collect items for the stockings, and quite frankly, ask for donations to pay for postage, and some corporate expenses. 

The monetary donations are needed year long so we can cover the expenses for OHS, which are payments we need to make to the government, like the annual corporate registration with the State of Washington, and here's the best one, the whopping $800 filing fee with the IRS for the 501c3 non-profit status.  There's an irony in this one, we need to raise donations to file for the federal non-profit, but generally we need to be a 501c3 before someone will make a donation to us.  I personally have a hard time asking for money for anything, but fortunately, we have members of OHS who don't.  Our little non-profit is basically run on a wing and a prayer, so I know the funds will come in so we can get the 501c3 before too long. 

It dawned on me that many of you don't know what all we send to our soldiers.  We send the stockings stuffed, cards in each box, and a letter telling them how much we appreciate and support them, and how the stockings are being sent as a small token to tell them so.  A list of contributors is included and the story about OHS, and how we got started. 

It is worth the work?  You bet it is.  Below are excerpts from some more thank yous we have received.

"I would like to take a little time to thank all of you from Operation Holiday Stocking for all you are doing for those of us deployed or serving abroad this holiday season. It is truly heartwarming for military personnel to know that people back home, … are thinking of them when they are gone. I’m sure most, if not all of you, know how hard it is to be separated from the ones you love for any given amount of time, … it’s not any fun and can be painful. The holiday seasons for many people … whether younger or older, their first deployment or tenth, it can be an especially lonely time for many.  It is people like you and the organizations you volunteer to support or start yourself that help to bring a little bit of back home and some holiday spirit to all of us. I would like to thank you for this patriotic compassion, this gift from you cannot be measured and it is so greatly appreciated by myself and the soldiers in my Company. Thank You!!"

"Hello! I wanted to personally thank you for the beautiful stockings you sent my husband and 90 of his fellow soldiers in Iraq. For some of our brave men and women in uniform the Christmas Stockings you sent were their first "care package." It lit the eyes of every soldier, since they received them on 23 DEC! Your Christmas Stockings spread Christmas Cheer throughout the DFAC (Dining Facility) and MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) room! They were all so grateful our American citizens are thinking about them during this time. You touched 90 lives this Christmas, and I'm sure many more! Your organization is fantastic, and I applaud you! It thrills me they were able to have somewhat of a Christmas because of YOU!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I cannot thank you and your elves enough!  What each of you do regarding this organization is truly amazing-and it's keeping a smile on our troops' face!"

"Thank you very much for each and every one of your donations to us here in Afghanistan. Attached are just a few pictures. You can see for yourselves the smiles you all are responsible for. "



Our mission continues throughout the whole year.  To all of you who participate in this project, a personal THANK YOU from me.  I have come to make many friends through this project in the last 6 years and we all have the same goal.  The goal is to make sure our troops know we care.  Thanks for the stockings, the stuffers, your time, money and love. 

Well, off to go knit another stocking.  Take care my dear friends, and may 2011 bring us peace somewhere so some of our troops can come home.

TTFN

Sue

We Take Our Cookies Seriously

For many years now, we have had the annual Christmas Cookie Decorating Night with the Johnstons.  The Johnston children are our children, as our children are the Johnstons' children.  We feel so fortunate to have such good friends, with whom we always have good times.

We take our cookies seriously.  No just icing cookies and throwing some sprinkles on them.  Not with this group.  Oh no. 

The decorating has become so serious that the cookies are baked ahead of time (otherwise we'd never get done).  We pull up chairs and start right in. 

As you can see here, Jim is busy decorating a cookie with his tweezers, while John is contemplating the color of frosting he's going to use for his piece of art.

As you can see here, Jim takes decorating Christmas cookies to a new level using tweezers.  In fact, he's an expert tweezer cookie decorator. 

As an engagement present, Rachel was given her own personal pair of cookie decorating tweezers.  Welcome to the family Rachel. 

Almost too beautiful to eat.  Love the angel in a tux.

Please note Andrews Gator and Matt's black heart.  We also have a Rev. Jim Turkey on this sheet.

Here we have Christmas cats, dogs and bears.

While on this was going on, the two Grill Masters were doing prime rib.

We took advantage of having everyone together and did some celebrating.

We toasted Frank and Rachel for their engagement.

We toasted John on his graduation from Portland State University.

We toasted Andrew on his graduation from the University of Florida.

We toasted Sarah on her 18th birthday.  She's the "baby" of the clan, and is now all grown up. 

And finally, we gave thanks for our friendship, love, friends, and the wonderful children who have grown up on us to become wonderful adults. 

Front row:  Edgar, Matt, Jessica, Lindsey and Sarah

Back row:  Andrew, John, Frank (aka Dave) and Rachel

We love you!

TTFN

Sue

We've Gotten Mail

We have received mail from some of the troops.  In one instance, our boxes were received in a week.  Here are the comments:

"We received our stockings yesterday and I gave them to the Soldiers and
they were so happy that someone thought of them. On behalf of every Soldier in my unit I just want to Thank you for caring about our troops!  Your support enables us to continue our mission and lets the troops know they're appreciated and not forgotten about. So please let all of your volunteers know that each stocking was received with much gratitude and appreciation."

"First of all, we received the stockings and we're all surprised how fast they got here. We'd like to personally thank you for everything that you do to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. You really have no idea how much it means to us to receive the stockings from someone that we've never even met before. We'd also like to point out that your story was very touching and we wish God's blessings upon you and your family. Please extend our gratitude to everyone that supports Operation Holiday Stockings. This act of kindness which you provide keeps us proud to be in the military and willing to defend our nation. The generosity and professionalism from you and your supporters will forever be etched in our hearts."

This is why we do what we do. 

In total we sent out 1550 stockings this year.  In the six years we have been doing this, we have sent out 6611 stockings.  Not bad for a small nonprofit made up of a lot of volunteers from all over the United States.  Thank you to all of you who help with this effort.  As you can see, it is important that we continue to do this. 

We will be sending stockings out again next year, so start knitting, crocheting, sewing, decorating, and collecting goodies.  We are accepting donations all year so you don't have to wait for the holiday season to get into gear.  There are several of you who knit stockings in the summer months when small projects work best in hot weather, including me. 

Speaking of stockings, one of the volunteers asked if she could use our "official" pattern to make stockings for the kitties at PAWS.  Of course she can, and look at this. 

I love this.  What a fun way to make the facility look festive and inviting for the holidays. 

Not so sure what this kitty thinks of this stocking, but I do know this kitty and all of the other kitties at PAWS would love a new family for the holidays.

TTFN

Sue

Congratulations to Two Wonderful People

Last night I received a text from Frank which just contained a picture.  It was a picture of a lovely young hand with an engagement ring on it.  I knew it was Rachel's hand, and the ring was from him.  I started squealing and got him on the phone to make sure I was seeing correctly.  David ("Dad") and I are thrilled.  We have come to love Rachel as a member of the family. 

Congratulations to David ("Frank") and Rachel.  We love you and wish you many, many years of happiness. 

Mom ("Sue")