Welcome to the next to the last To Do list for 2020! I can’t say I’m sorry to see it go. Weirdly, it seems a long and yet short year at the same time! So on to the list from last week!

• Complete the Month 5 border block ✓ done!! Finally. It was a rough start but we got her done!! I love each of these blocks a little more than the last!! Now to do the center and quilting.

• Get Christmas cards to post office ✓ done
• Get gifts wrapped and under the tree ✓ done – all except one which I apparently placed in a very safe place!!

• Do something else! At this point I don’t know what! We’ll see what squirrels run through the brain! Well, if you count helping Gary put up a temporary mailbox, this was done, but no stitching!
• Make apple bread for my boys ✓ done – they loved it and so did their daddy!! It was a little warm still when I took it to them. MMMM good!! Unfortunately, I did not get a picture! ☹ I used the Puffin Inn Apple Bread recipe from Carole who blogs at From My Carolina Home. The link will take you to the post with the recipe, just scroll down! Gary doesn’t care for apples, but he liked this bread!! That’s a Christmas miracle in itself!!

Last night we had a great view of the Christmas Star, also known as the “Great Conjunction,” though I had to drive to the park near our house to get the picture. It was so bright we could see the planets from our porch, low on the horizon, but we have so many trees around our house we couldn’t get a good clear view. So to the park I rode and had a great view, though, using the binoculars I could see they were already starting to move apart. I wish I had a camera on the binoculars to show you!! But this will have to do! I think it’s pretty cool as it won’t happen again until 2080! I did some research and there are varying numbers of years since the last one! But, as best I could figure out the last time these planets were “this close” (I think 5 degrees apart?” was 1226!

And for another Christmas miracle! If you saw my post last week, you saw the condition of our brick mailbox. A kid delivering pizza backed into and knocked it over on the recycle bin. Gary and my son-in-love tried to upright it and couldn’t budge it and David is a very strong gentle giant!! So I’ve asked on our neighborhood Facebook page for recommendations for a brick mason and got a couple, but one was out of business and the other has not returned my call yet! Yesterday morning, we heard a knock at the back door, so Gary answered it and a gentleman was there. He was visiting his daughter “just around the corner” and saw the mailbox and wanted to help repair it! He is a brick mason from Florida!! He said “it’s Christmas and a time for helping others!” Isn’t that sweet?! He called Gary yesterday afternoon and they were going to do it today but Gary asked him to wait until tomorrow since he wouldn’t be working, so he’s coming back tomorrow! He thinks they can pull the mailbox up with his truck and he can repair it! Or, he said he could rebuild it! I told Gary to ask him if he was an angel, because he certainly is an answer to prayer!!

Now for this week’s list. There won’t be a lot of stitching done until after the holidays, but I’d like to do something!

• Either quilt block 5, or start the center, maybe!!
• Make a new recipe for cornmeal sausage balls, which sounds yummy!
• Prepare, cook and enjoy Christmas day with my family! I love watching them open their gifts! It warms my heart!

I won’t “see” you until after Christmas, so I would like to wish you and your family a joyous and blessed Christmas! I will be back on the 30th, if not before to share my 2021 Stitching Resolution as part of Carla from Creatin’ in the Sticks’ blog hop! But I’ll probably be back earlier in the week to share my progress, if any, on this week’s to-do!