Cookies, coughs and christmas

I really think I jinx it when I proclaim I'm going to do NaBloPoMo. Because something always comes up. If it's not an internet connection gone wrong, it's an earthquake, or in this month's case, whooping cough. Both my girls have it. But thankfully the worst of it is over now, and they can go back to school tomorrow.

On to quilty matters... here's Block #4, Cookies 4 Santa, designed by Kim Hanson.

It is appliqued cookies on a plate, decorated with buttons and stitching. That bright purple lacy flower was tatted by my late mother. It doesn't go with the rest of my colour scheme, but it seemed fitting to add it, alongside the little heart button (I have a couple more of these, so look out for them in future blocks).

To date, there have been 34 blocks published, of which I have completed 28.

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We put up our christmas tree yesterday. Or rather, the girls did - I just had the fun job of rearranging and vacuuming the lounge so there would be a space for the tree. Not that it takes up much room - we decided last year to get a "fake" tree, which is barely taller than my 12-year-old. I really miss the lovely green pine needle aroma.

As it inevitably happens, some of the xmas lights didn't work. So I tipped out the carton that we keep the decorations in, hoping that we had some spare bulbs somewhere in there. There were none. But what we did find, amongst all the tinsel scraps and twice-used icicle strands, were the ghosts of christmases past: pine needles. Horrible dry ones, that hurt if you tread on them at just the wrong angle in bare feet. They must've stuck to some of the decorations as we undressed the tree from... let me think... 2009 or before. They no longer had an aroma, or even a smell. But they were still green, strangely enough.