Page 7 Complete and PIF Gift Received

Here is the great PIF gift I have received from Michele. I saw the tin and was instantly excited! You all know how much I love snowmen. She also included an adorable santa ornament (which is already on my tree) that she stitched up and had someone else do the finishing. And what a cute box of chocolates, a reindeer card, a pillow insert, and a beautiful skein of overdyed floss by Needle Necessities #152. I'm already thinking of what I can stitch to put into this cute little pillow this floss. Thanks Michele!!!

And here is my excitement! I completed page 7 last night! I still need to work on page2 which is whats left of the moon you see there. I did a little last night and I may continue it till I'm bored with the yellow again and then I am going to do page 6. so anyway this is 4 1/2 pages completed out of 20 pages but 2 are blank. I was wondering whne I started this so I looked up my first WIP photo and can you believe I started this Nov 01, 2006? I hadn't realized that I only got this little bit done in a year, which is motivation enough that I am going to work on this for awhile and see how much more I can get done before another project screams at me.

EDIT: I also completed my Round 4 F&S Exchange last Friday and have mailed it out today too so Vicki, its coming your way in the USA. :)

On the non stitching side Here is my xmas tree this year. Destiny and I did the decorating and the DH put fiber optic Santa up there. Please ignore my DH's workout bench to the left and the toolbox behind the tree or those hideous curtains either. Our house is a bit over crowded so deciding where to put the tree each year is a toughy. But we are currently working on cleaning out the basement so this stuff can go down there and I can have my space back. I think I have most of my xmas shopping completed and now it all needs wrapping up. I also have my tree up which my DH refused to help put up so Destiny and I did all by ourselves. I also put out a few of my xmas decorations around the house too but I don't feel much like celebrating this year. I did my grocery shopping on saturday and paid $10 for a small ham for xmas. I have never liked cooking turkey's so I do ham on xmas. Anyway today I went up to the store with a friend of mine since I needed to buy wrapping paper. Well we go into the commissary so she can get some groceries first and she tells me she is hosting xmas at her house this year. The Lindsey's had originally volunteered to host it but backed out last night. So she has $60 to buy 2 weeks of groceries for 2 adults and 3 kids plus xmas dinner for everyone. I'm like holy crap! But didn't ask how that ended up since their finances are not my business. Anyay so she went to the hams and we are noticing they are all expired! So I think holy crap I didn't even look at mine! well, once we got home I looked and sure enough its says Nov 21st! Now I am pissed! The commissary is getting horrible for expired foods. I can never buy ham from them and Destiny loves ham! The cherry tomatoes were moldy so that was out of the question. I hate this! During the summer I get Euros and go off base to the German farmers market to buy my fruits and veggies but its now winter and I am forced to stay at the commissary especially because the USD to Euro rate is outrageous! Why is it that this commissary has such low food standards?? I think I am going to start putting in some complaints or find out who I can speak to about this. Even most of their fruit is bad too. So here I am with a expired ham that i now have to return to the store and get refunded. I think I may just say forget it and pay the extra money to go out onto the economy to the German stores if it means I get fresh fruit and veggies.