Happy New Year

Best wishes to all of you and your loved ones for a happy and healthy 2015. Did you do anything special to celebrate the new year?

We arrived home yesterday evening from our trip to The Netherlands and Germany. It was wonderful to spend time with our son in Germany and our daughter and family in The Netherlands. Not only did we spend time with both of them in their own homes but our son drove to The Netherlands on the 24th and we spent Christmas and our grandson's first birthday on the 26th as a family. He has grown so much since June and is so adorable.

I had stitched ornaments for the grandchildren. It was so sweet to see them hanging them in their Christmas tree. What can be better than seeing those little eyes sparkle as the little hands reach up to the branches of the tree?

"Happy Hearts" by Diane Williams

"Santa Bear Stocking" by Sugarplum Designs

Granny had also made an apron for Hadewych as promised when our daughter and family were visiting this summer. She's a big "Hello Kitty" fan and wore it all day every day.

We also managed to see a number of relatives and friends. It was a good trip!

As always, I read a lot of books during 2014. Actually, due to the severe winter we had last winter, I read more than normal. A few of my favorite were:
- "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" Stephen King (2014 favorite)
- "Emily and Einstein" Linda Francis Lee
- "Don't Sing at the Table" Adriana Trigiani
- "The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion" Fannie Flag
- "The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating" Elizabeth Tova Bailey

Children's books have always been big favorites of mine and in 2014 I decided to start collecting the Newberry Award winners. Our Goodwill has such a great books coming in on a regular basis and when you can buy four almost new books for 99 cents it is extra fun to work on a collection like this. So far I have collected 22 of them. A few children's books read in 2014 were:
- "The Westing Game" Ellen Raskin (NA 1979)
- "The View from Saturday" E.L. Koningsburg  (NA 1997)
- "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" Chris Grabenstein
- "The Mysterious Benedict Society" Trenton Lee Stewart

Did you read any books during 2014 you can recommend?

Later today I will put a few stitches into my January 1 start. I will bring you UTD on that soon. I also have some other crafty pictures and ideas to share. Check in again soon to see what they are.

Have a happy, stitchy 2015.