My Favorite Gift and A Big Bang

So I told you about my handmade Christmas.  I showed you lots of things I found for other people to make for my girls.  But what I was dying to show you was in a million (ok, maybe 70 or so) pieces in the best room in my house....the crafting room.  My intentions were to make this before my sweet Allye was born.  That was not happening in any world that I was living in at the time.  I can not tell you how proud of myself I was the night I finished this.  I am sure it is not perfect and a true quilter might d.i.e. but I think it is perfect and I love it more then anything I have ever made.  So here it is.  Allye's quilt.

I was so excited to finally get some pictures of it!  Of course I wanted the recipient herself to pose with her new quilt.  This is the thanks I get.

Yep.  More hours of hard labor and lost sleep then I care to count ripped to the dirt covered ground while her silly sisters do n.o.t.h.i.n.g.  I am glad this was documented.  For all time.  I am over it now.  It is beautifully hanging on her bed rail.  I am still admiring it.  I might let her sleep with it next year.  Might.  As in maybe.  As in I am going to have a hard time letting her touch it.  Ever.

Anyway...I will gather up the rest of the pictures of what I made as part of my handmade Christmas and get them uploaded soon.  It was truly a wonderful experience that Man as decided I must start to work on now because let me just say it was CRAZY around here in the last weeks leading up to Christmas.  That just might be one of the things he loves about me though.  Determination...not crazy.  :)

Having nothing to do with my handmade Christmas but something really cool, was New Year's Eve.  By then I was beyond tired.  I wasn't even lifting a pinky at this point.  I was still counting the number of hours  of sleep I didn't get after December 1st and before December 24th.  But my awesome neighbors picked up my slack when they invited us out for fireworks in the cul-de-sac.  Sparklers for the girls...

And, how shall we put this...a small finale that translated to, "This is a really awesome idea if we all walk away unharmed."  We did.  So it was awesome.