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Family Christmas

Christmas with the Simmons family....

We wish you Peace and Happiness to all during the festive season.
Hope you had a lovely Christmas Day. I went to a different church service (Lutheran) with Riikka, our exchange daughter on Christmas Eve, and then friends came over for supper afterwards. A really good start to this special day. Our children and grandchildren had a very relaxed lunch with us, and we really enjoyed spending time with them . Of course opening the presents was a highlight of the day for the boys. Each of our grandsons has a handmade Christmas stocking. Here is the latest for William - I finished it on Christmas Eve. It is a red velvet creation, with computer printed images on cotton fabric appliqued to the body of the stocking. It depicts Santa busily writing out his lists of good children and things to do, distracted by William playing with the lights from the tree in the background. I bought the little tree light buttons some years ago, and here they were in my stash just waiting for the right creative occasion.
Riikka has been doing a lot of Christmas cooking including a gingerbread house, complete with Finnish flag and snow. In Finnish tradition, the gingerbread house is not eaten until the 12th day of Christmas (6 January), but I did notice that some of the chocolate "freckles" shingles on the roof proved irresistible to little boys.

Special News: Please follow the link to the Hello Dollies blog, where I have published, free to all, the instructions for the little beaded Christmas star. www.agbhellodollies.blogspot.com
I hope you all have a wonderful relaxing holiday time doing all the things you most enjoy with your family and friends.
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