December winding down... and a look to 2023

 

A few Christmas snapshots... 

Charlotte at 2 1/2 full of wonder: 

My three children Noelle, Kaela, and Tommy, my two nieces Megan and Alyssa, and my three grand daughters at Kaela's place for our holiday get-together, a pizza night.  JOY!   

Christmas Eve dinner at our place: 

Charlotte likes to bring this nativity set piece by piece over to the coffee table -why not? 

Christmas morning back at Kaela's: 

Tommy's fiancé Camille arrived yesterday from Utah.  Such a delight to have with us!  At Kaela's house last night: 

2022 was eventful for us and somewhat stressful with our move from Japan and eventually to our townhouse in North Carolina.  The process took seemingly forever!  

I'm definitely looking forward to beginning and ending the next year in the same place, and getting some good routines going, including more quilting.  

Happy New Year to you my blog friends.  I love having these connections far and wide.   

I hope we all navigate 2023 well, giving and receiving plenty of love and support, through all the happy and all the difficult times too, and one stitch at a time. 

Thank you for reading! 

xo

Cynthia 

December flying by with family happenings

I am starting to do hand work in the evenings again.  Time is flying by.  I am spending a lot of time helping with the babies and Charlotte, but the babies are sleeping through the night, and I am also making better boundaries for myself.  It's all been a big learning curve. 

I love seeing my quilts used and loved!  At Kaela's, here's Eleanor napping on her nine patch... and the Christmas tree quilt in the background on the couch.  

I finished up Christmas stockings for the twins with simple embroidery - I had made a stash of these stockings while we lived in Tokyo. 

And a similar one for Camille to put next to Tommy's hanging from the mantle.   Starting next year they will be married and can fill each other's stockings;).  

I used a whipped straight stitch which looks more complex than it is.  I see how the fabric puckered but I'm calling good enough good enough. 

Kaela's twins were "blessed" at church last week - it's a special prayer where a baby is blessed and prayed over.  Their names are announced in the prayer, wherein a special blessing is also given.  It is more or less comparable to a baby christening.  Often this blessing is given by the baby's father, and no two blessings are exactly the same.  Joe did a great job (twice!) and there was such a spirit of love in the meeting.  Lots of family came into town for the occasion and we held a big luncheon at Kaela's place afterwards.

The babies are growing by leaps and bounds and we love being their grandparents! 

Meanwhile with a little more free time I'm getting our place in order... 

And David and I decorated for Christmas - this is our first year (in the U.S. anyway) with an artificial tree. Charlotte just loves it.  "What's this?" repeated 100 times, looking at each ornament.  

I've switched around my upstairs.  There are two rooms up there - a guest room and a bonus room (plus a hallway bathroom).  I've decided to combine the guest room and sewing room into one.  

Here's my the guest/sewing room with just about ALL my "stuff" moved into the closet, to make the room ready for company: 

We put three (!) twin beds in the bonus room and we are calling it "the dorm".  I put denim duvet covers on the beds.  They will be durable, and more or less "go" with any quilts I put at the foot of the beds!

My little nephews were so excited to be the first "dorm" occupants.  Here they are at Kaela's, decorating gingerbread cookies: 

Meanwhile, Noelle, my oldest, turned 30 - my how time flies.  I loved making her a cake - like old times - and bringing it over to her place.  We ate sukiyaki, YUM.   

David and I went to see a performance of Handel's Messiah one Sunday in Cary. 

And a Black Nativity performance in Durham last Sunday: 

Both performances absolutely knocked our socks off and got us into the Christmas spirit for sure. 

I'm starting to bake Christmas cookies, which I love to do.   Each year I try at least one new recipe for Christmas time.  Sometimes a new cookie, sometimes a new cake, or even baked donuts one year.  

The other day I tried this Hot Cocoa Mix, from a New York Times Cooking recipe that I simplified slightly (in terms of the proportions of chocolate to powdered sugar - I just used two bars of chocolate and didn't worry about exact measurements) and I really like it a lot!  I'm going to experiment with different chocolate bars.  Next up: raspberry dark chocolate combined with Cadbury milk chocolate.

Hot Cocoa Mix: 

1 C (105 grams)  powdered sugar

scant 3/4 C (90 grams) cocoa powder 

1/4 C (120 grams) dark chocolate (I used a 3.5 ounce (100 grams) Lindt 70% dark chocolate bar)  - chopped 

1/4 C (120 grams)  milk chocolate (I used a 4.4 ounce (125 grams) Lindt milk chocolate bar)- chopped 

3 tsp vanilla bean PASTE 

3 pinches fine sea salt 

Mix all together thoroughly in a blender.    Store in a large mason jar.  

Stir into piping hot milk-  2-3 T or to taste, per cup.  This mix will make about 12 cups of cocoa. 

YUM. 

I hope to post again before the end of the month but if not... 

  xo Merry Christmas to all my quilty blogger friends!  

Cynthia 

Full circle visit to Hiroshima - part 2 of 2

To continue on with last weekend, on Saturday after visiting Hiroshima Castle, we took two trains way out into the outskirts of Iwakuni about an hour and a half away... 

I mean, this was the train station.  We are talking rural.

Our destination was the "Chicken Shack", a "you HAVE to go eat here" place up on the mountain.   It was a difficult walk, but paved, and not too too long.  We took 100 breaks, and made it up to a beautiful sprawling complex.  Fresh crisp air, smells of grilled food being prepared, not crowded, just wonderful.   Good social distancing measures in place, and we ate outdoors.  We deliberately went at an odd time in the middle of the afternoon, to avoid any crowds. 

 

A lot of the seating was like this - kotatsu - sitting at the low table, with your legs covered by the thick cozy quilts - 

But, that style of sitting is really too difficult for us at this point, so we opted for bench seating along a long communal table. 

The grilled chicken really was so excellent and the "meal set" came with a local soba noodle dish: 

Lot of beautiful spots to explore on the sprawling property: 

Checking the train schedule carefully, we made our way back down the long winding road,  to our little train station to catch a train to Iwakuni and then on back to Hiroshima to sleep. 

Gaming and Sleeping teens across from us on a train;): 

Sunday morning we trained back out to Iwakuni to attend church at this little LDS chapel just steps away from the train station.  The building used to be a car dealership.  It was a very small congregation (English speaking), maybe 20 or so adults and lot of kids.  I got emotional walking in, because the "vibe" reminded me so much of the late 80's when I attended church there.  Back then we met somewhere right on the military base.  But the homey friendly low key feeling was the same as I remembered.   The topic for the day's meeting was HOPE.  David and I both gave talks. He was there by assignment and he asked me to also speak.  I was very nervous but I just loved being there!  

Then immediately following church, we made our way back home to Tokyo - by train, train, bus, airplane, taxi, home.  I am still recovering, lol. 

That is Fuji-san in the distance: 

Tokyo is so sprawling... this is just a small fraction of it - so beautiful at night as our airplane descended: 

We did not put away our suitcases because indeed we have decided to go ahead with our plans to visit grand baby in Texas for Christmas..... leaving on Saturday.  This was a really hard decision, and we went back and forth (me in tears) over the past few weeks.  I'm trying to NOT think about the hotel quarantine when we get back to Japan. 

In the meantime... in our neighborhood we are sure enjoying the "winter illumination" near us in the park whenever we happen to walk through at night: 

It is so beautiful, the combination of the autumn leaves and lights.  It is just so uplifting.  

Thank you for reading.  I hope your holiday plans are just right for you, with minimal stress!  And that your hearts are filled with gladness. 

xo

Cynthia 

December mini quilt - Nativity

Another little collage quilt.  I had fun making this and worked on it over a number of days this month, while listening to Christmas music and pondering on the miracle and joy of Jesus' birth.  

You will see lots of other minis on Wendy's blog The Constant Quilter.  Thank you for connecting us all through this year Wendy! 

It's meant to be fairly abstract and yet say "Nativity".   Mary is wearing a pink robe complete with selvage hem.  And Joseph is wearing a yukata.  Why not?  Lots of bright circles of light radiating from baby Jesus. 

One of my favorite Christmas songs is the brief and soulful "Star of Wonder" by the Roches.  It's on their 1990 Christmas album We Three Kings, one of my most favorite Christmas albums ever.  

I used  asanoha (hemp leaf) fabric for the stable.  Asanoha has a connotation of "protectiveness" and so is used in children's clothing traditionally.   

It measures about 13"x17".  The backing is one of my favorite tenugui.  The name of the pattern escapes me.

However you might be celebrating this season, I hope you are finding light and joy in your life, and shining that light too.   It is unlimited!  

Love,

Cynthia