As the holiday season heats up I decided to get my toes operated on.  What was I thinking?  This is time of year when everyone is running around. Not me.  In the last few days I had to learn how to do my holiday shopping on line. My DIL helped me figure out how to get free shipping whenever I could so that was very helpful.   Usually my husband and I would go out to dinner at this time of year and start making lists over a glass of wine, then we would head out to stores and shop til all hours and go back the next day to finish up.  Instead, this year I have been looking over the advertisements in the New York Times and shopping on line.  Now all I can do is hope that I will be getting the items that I purchased in time for me to wrap them up and put them under the Christmas tree.  I am sure a few of you are thinking, "well why didn't she shop ahead of time if she knew she was getting her foot operated on."  I did do some shopping but then the lazy side of me left the gifts in the basement waiting to be wrapped.   I am surely going to need some help getting that stuff wrapped but I have to share with you my holiday coup.  I happened to have bought our 5 grandchildren several outfits each at that store with target logo.  Instead of worrying about gift boxes I simply bought 5 of their store brand reusable shopping bags.  Since they are red with a little tree on them, I found them to be the perfect holiday gift holder and the child can use them to hold their toys after Christmas.  Smart idea, don't you think? 

All of this means that I suddenly have to rely on the goodness of others to help me get my responsibilities taken care of by Christmas Eve.  Fortunately for me I have found helping out is what a lot of folks like to do.  My grandchildren have even stepped up to the plate. Little Tyler will be here Friday night to "grandma sit, " as he puts it.  I am sure he won't mind decorating the tree one bit since he will have a leg up on hiding the pickle.  Hiding the pickle is a tradition that we picked up a few years ago.  Hanging a glass pickle ornament is the very last thing that is done to the Christmas tree.  On Christmas day when everyone is gathered, a hunt for the pickle ensues.  The person who finds the pickle gets a prize.  I have to tell you that when this tradition was started in our family many years ago we had plenty of "Bah Humbug" types.  All these years later it is funny to see them ask when we are going to hunt for the pickle.  Little Tyler also loves to wash the dishes and vacuum, so when he gets into that mode on Friday nite I am going to have to remember that he only wants to help me. 

I have also been watching the other parts of the Ann The Gran blogs and forums and I am so impressed at how helpful everyone is to each other.  At the same time I have been able to share some of the issues that surface in the forums regarding Brother machines with the proper parties at Brother International which in turn enables people to connect with one another to enact changes when necessary. 

I had to chuckle over LaRue's recent blog about projects gone wrong.  It reminded me of one of my yearly trips to tape a PBS show for Martha Pullen's Sew Beautiful.   Each year when we agree to be taped, we are sent a pattern that will be the common topic for that year's show.  One year I got my pattern and dutifully made an outfit and I was really not happy with the end result.  Most of us who head down to Tuscaloosa, Alabama each spring are finishing our projects in the hotel room the night before and this particular year was no different.  I finished up the garment and groaned.  Shortly thereafter I was heading to dinner with Martha and I just knew she was going to ask me about my project. All through dinner I tried to think of what I would tell her and then I had a stroke of genius.  As we strolled out to the cars I pulled Martha aside and told her that my topic for the taping was going to be about what to do when a project does not come out as one might expect.  I told her how I was going to show the audience how to take a garment apart and re-design it to suit.  Thank heavens she thought that this was the best idea since she herself had had the same experiences over time.  I, on the other hand, was proud of myself for taking control of the issue and making good from a bad experience.  In the end I figured I had to be helping out hundreds of viewers just like me. 

So during this busy season keep your eye out for ways to help others and I guarantee you will be glad you did. 

Happy Holidays

June