Waterworks...

 

Nothing to do with plumbing.

Steph called this morning, wailing and tears flowing.  Snot sobs.  We weren't worried that it was something bad, because Joan had the tracking information.  I could hear the sobs from across the room and asked Joan to put her phone on speaker... she hit the wrong button and hung up on Steph.  Steph called back in a nanosecond (thank you, "favorites"), still sobbing, "Thank you, Momma!  It is so beautiful!  I love it so much!"

The Christmas tree wall-hanging quilt that Joan made arrived.  It was supposed to get there on Tuesday, but spent a couple days in a Post Office close, but apparently not the facility that gets packages to Steph's neighborhood.  Joan didn't tell Steph it had been shipped.  Steph knew that Joan was making it for her, and had only gotten a few glimpses of the process.  Joan wanted some element of surprise in the gift she was making.  There are a lot of very personal elements in the design.

I don't know how many hours went into this project, but I saw the constant progress.  There was a deadline of sorts, since this is a Christmas tree design.  Steph and Dan have rarely put up a tree because of their cats, certainly not because they don't have the Christmas spirit.  This is a large wall hanging (they have tall walls in their home), and will be a nice focal point... that the cats won't bother.

The photos don't do it justice.

The quilting throughout is detailed and lovely.  There are cat shapes quilted into the lower corners of the background.  Cat ornaments sewed on.  Christmas tree shapes in the small green corner inserts.  It is made especially for our cat-loving daughter and husband.  The back needs some kind of fabric on it - Joan picked this...

Lots of cats - I think it may have been Steph's favorite part, even though it is something that will rarely be seen.

A lot of love went into making this...

The phone call this morning was special.  We know it meant so much to Steph.

Steph sent us these photos...

Trying to wrangle the cats to get a photo of it on their wall, with the cats.  Reminds me of bygone days doing family photos for Christmas.  ;-)  The big boy in the middle is Alfie, and he isn't having anything to with this...

But, Tasha (the big girl on the left, who incidentally likes Joan best) and Tango (the smaller boy on the right who is the newest family member and actually does like Steph best) did set nice for a photo.

Definitely, a feel-good moment to start the day!

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It's beginning to look a lot like...

A friend on Facebook posted something about decorating early for Christmas; I commented that, considering what a shit-show 2020 has been, it seemed like a good idea.  Most years, we start our Christmas decorating on Dec. 2, to mark our anniversary.  I may be home from the hospital on the 2nd, but I probably won't feel up to trimming a tree.  We had already decided to do some decorating today and tomorrow.

Since Joan put on a Christmas movie before noon, it was sunny on the deck by the time the show was done, so we started our decorating inside.  Joan bought a tall, slender artificial tree, that saw its first use last year.  We both liked that a lot, so it is doing Christmas duty once again.

The fun part of this is looking at all the ornaments... we start with the sentimental ones, taking time to reminisce; then, we add some generic (but pretty) ornaments that add more sparkle.  The tree came with programmable LED lights.  No fuss, it looks nice, and fits the space.

We have photos of each of the cats that have been a part of our family.  There is also the obligatory "cat in a Christmas hat" photo that goes on display this time of year.  Rufus's photo is the only one that doesn't have that "Why would you do this to me?" look on their face...

I love that photo - the big furry boy looks rather dashing.  I may be biased.  :-)

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Speaking of that handsome boy in the photo above, Rufus and I were out walking for about a half hour this evening.  Sometimes I can get a few exercises in while he looks for the right blade of grass to munch; tonight, he was all about the walking.  In that time we were out, two individuals and one couple out walking commented on "that beautiful cat."  But, wait - there's more: two golf carts (a couple in each) and two different cars stopped to roll down their window and comment.  One guy said, "That is the best looking cat I've ever seen!  Bless you for teaching him to walk on a leash!"

I believe that is the most in one outing.  I had to finish my exercises at home.