Pinwheel blocks done, 2023 missive

Saturday morning (1/6) I cooked breakfast for my honey while his leg was propped up on a stool with ice on his ankle….we had leftover bacon and leftover hash browns, so along with eggs and half a piece of toast…it was a feast! After that he put on his boot and settled in with his book and I headed to my computer to try to get out several days worth of blog entries. I did that and then got the last 2 rows of my purple blocks put together:

and started to trim them.

I think all of our Christmas cards have finally been delivered….so here’s the Christmas missive for 2023:

I think the highlight of January was seeing MOMIX in Charlotte with friends Marcia and Maury. MOMIX is a company of dancer-illusionists founded and directed by Moses Pendleton, and each production focuses not only on the beauty of the human form, but also the beauty of nature, music, and life itself. Marcia and Maury had never seen them, and they were BLOWN AWAY!!! It was wonderful to introduce someone new to something Michael and I both love. When I asked Marcia how she was going to describe what she saw to her friends, she said ‘’Well…I dropped a little acid’’….and we all laughed…that is a perfect way to describe how surreal the performances always are.

I visited with Janice & Dennis in February, where I got 4 quilts completed, and came home to celebrate Michael’s birthday. But the highlight of the month was definitely the visit of Kate & Marc & Audrey. We visited the library, played miniature golf, used the putting green for real golf, had fun at the sports center, had a birthday party, and in general, ran and ran and ran all day and night! I think everyone had a good time, and Marc & Kate got to have a date night with grandparents at the ready, which they really appreciated.

I got to go to the Charlotte Quilt Show for the first time in March and I know the highlight for Michael was when UCONN became the Big East champs!! I spent about a week working on a secret project quilt, which turned out to be a Quilt of Valor for one of the members of Scrap Happy Quilting.

Of course a couple of highlights for April would be joining my friends for our QUAP quilting retreat in Tennessee and having a group of friends and neighbors over for Easter dinner…but the best part of the month was a visit from relatives….Sue and Charlie, Michael’s sister and brother-in-law.

Another visit from a friend was the highlight of May…Mary Jo came and quilted and laughed and ate and we just had a wonderful time. I was out of the water with my blog during part of April/May, and finally ended up on a new platform, learning all over again how to post entries and pictures…the things I do to document this life :~). We also put a beautiful stone edging around all of our front flower beds in May…something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. Michael was in a 2 day golf tournament this month, and one of the wives organized a ‘’Pittsburgh Cookie Table’’ for dessert on the first night….it was totally fun for me to participate in this tradition as obviously I haven’t done anything like that in decades.

Michael was in a match team golf tournament in June…and his team won! He won a hat, a dozen golf balls, some tees, a ball marker and a towel. And I had a great time when Janice came for a visit.

July was definitely a roller coaster of a month….we lost Cookie at the beginning of the month.

She was such a wonderful dog, and a trouper right to the end. As much as it was heartbreaking to lose her, it happened before our 3 week vacation…which was good as we knew we would worry about her the entire time we were gone. Michael planned a fabulous cruise to all of the ‘’lands’’….EngLAND, IreLAND, IceLAND, and ScotLAND…and fabulous it was.

Our hearts were full once again in August as we adopted a new puppy: Freya. We continue to think of Cookie on a daily basis, but we needed to share our love with another warm body….and save another life.

Two things kept us very busy in September…Michael started rehearsals for a new play at Fort Mill called THE OUTSIDER, and I spent a lot of time keeping a hawk eye on Freya to get her housebroken :~). At the end of the month, I traveled to Pennsylvania for our Fiber Floozie quilting retreat.

In October I started teaching Beginning Knitting at our local library on Monday nights, while Michael was still in rehearsals for the play. We also upgraded our bed from a Queen to a King! Now, I have to mention that I have never really understood how my 6’ 2’’ tall honey fit in a Queen…and we also changed sides of the bed with this upgrade and that is taking a little getting used to.

Michael’s play opened in November to SOLD OUT performances for the entire run!! And we had a wonderful time hosting the cast party when it was all over. The other item of note was converting from a 10 foot frame on XENA (my longarm) to a 12 foot frame so that I could complete bigger quilts.

The biggest bit of news in December was that Michael became the proud owner of a candy apple red Mustang convertible….he has fallen in love all over again :~).

As I read through my monthly letters to create this yearly missive, it is obvious that we had loads of fun this year, all due to spending time with friends. Our favorite entertainment remains having people over for a simple dinner, and a night of games…..we are so lucky to have so many people to share this with.

It’s been a wonderful and very full year….we can’t wait to see what 2024 brings.

*** “He’s so old that when he orders a three-minute egg, they ask for the money up front.” -George Burns ***