Happy Hanukkah

I am so excited for Hanukkah to start tomorrow night.  As most know it will last for 8 days and boy do I stay busy.  Living in Chino Valley AZ,  people don't understand about kosher food, however thank goodness for 1-800 Kosher,  LOL.  Most don't understand what Hanukkah is, so I thought it would be fun to post the story.  I was brought up Jewish but I live a Christian Life now.  However,  I still celebrate a lot of the Jewish holidays.


In 168 B.C.E. the Jewish Temple was seized by Syrian-Greek soldiers and dedicated to the worship of the god Zeus. This upset the Jewish people, but many were afraid to fight back for fear of reprisals. Then in 167 B.C.E. the Syrian-Greek emperor Antiochus made the observance of Judaism an offense punishable by death. He also ordered all Jews to worship Greek gods. Jewish resistance began in the village of Modiin, near Jerusalem. Greek soldiers forcibly gathered the Jewish villages and told them to bow down to an idol, then eat the flesh of a pig – both practices that are forbidden to Jews. A Greek officer ordered Mattathias, a High Priest, to acquiesce to their demands, but Mattathias refused. When another villager stepped forward and offered to cooperate on Mattathias' behalf, the High Priest became outraged. He drew his sword and killed the villager, then turned on the Greek officer and killed him too. His five sons and the other villagers then attacked the remaining soldiers, killing all of them.

Mattathias and his family went into hiding in the mountains, where other Jews wishing to fight against the Greeks joined them. Eventually they succeeded in retaking their land from the Greeks. These rebels became known as the Maccabees, or Hasmoneans.

Once the Maccabees had regained control they returned to the Temple in Jerusalem. By this time it had been spiritually defiled by being used for the worship of foreign gods and also by practices such as sacrificing swine. Jewish troops were determined to purify the Temple by burning ritual oil in the Temple’s menorah for eight days. But to their dismay, they discovered that there was only one day's worth of oil left in the Temple. They lit the menorah anyway and to their surprise the small amount of oil lasted the full eight days.

This is the miracle of the Hanukkah oil that is celebrated every year when Jews light a special menorah known as a hanukkiyah for eight days. One candle is lit on the first night of Hanukkah, two on the second, and so on, until eight candles are lit.

I have noticed that most people only think about the miracles in the New Testament and most forget about the wonderful miracles of the Old Testament.

Happy Hanukkah

Linda 

Started Twinkle Twinkle Litte Star

I have a Grand-Niece,  Her name is Mattie and she is 16 months old.  Her favorite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  I was so excited to find a pattern on patternsonline.com.  I thought it would be an easy pattern,  but it's taking some time to do.  Thank Goodness I have plenty of time before Christmas.  I hope to have it done and framed by then. 

For some reason,  I can't post a picture,  but I will keep trying.

 I have spent hours getting ready for the Crazy January Challenge and I am so excited about it.  I found 15 patterns,  most were on the free sites (got to love those).  I went to Micheal's on Sunday and got all the floss and a few pieces of fabric and last night I got everything put into kits.  So I am all set to go, but they keep calling to me to start them.  LOL

 
Tomorrow being the day before Thanksgiving is going to be a busy one.  I am really really excited,  its been a few years since we have been able to afford a turkey and all the fixings.  I have saved up and really taken advantage of all the sales,  so really it was not that expensive at all.  I bought a big turkey so we would be able to have some for Christmas also.  I can't  believe how tough the last 4 years have been and it's so cool that we might just able to relax and enjoy the holidays.

I Finished Purple Angel and Moon

What a busy 2 days,  Monday I brought Frasier to a new Vet who we totally loved.  She was great with him and that is so important to me.  Today, I brought Frasier back for his echocardiogram and his results were pretty good,  It's a heart condition that will never get better.  However,  there has not been much change from the one that he had last year.  So that's pretty good for his age. 

I also heard from the eye surgeon for Roger and they can take care of both eyes for $1850.00  (Yikes)  If we come up with half then maybe they will let us make payments on the rest.  We are going to go down and meet with them next week sometime. So wish us luck cuz we really need it.

I couldn't sleep last night so I was able to finish the Angel that I am making for a friends Grand-Daughter and I think it came out really cute. 

Finished American Cat

What a week,  I don't know where the time went.  Yesterday I took my husband to the eye dr's when he told me it looked like he was looking through a plastic bag,  It really freaked me out since he had a total detached retina in 2008.  The surgery was horrible and so was the recovery,  so I am always scared that something is going to happen to his other eye.  The good news is,  his retinas both look great but the bad news is he has secondary cataracts in both eyes and they need to be lasered which is an easy thing to do,  now its to just find the money to have it done.  We are waiting for the specialist to call us on Wednesday and we hope they will take payments. 

After running to the grocery store today to stock up on some great sale items.  I was able to sit and finish my American Cat Sampler today,  I think it came out pretty good.

Tomorrow is a big day for Frasier,  we are seeing a new cardiologist for him and I am excited to see how his heart is doing on his current meds.  Hopefully when I get home,  I can sit and stitch and maybe finish the little purple angle that I am making for a friends Grand-daughter named Hailey

Fisnished Snowflake

Yesterday was a great day.  I had a ton of errands to run.  I went to Micheal's and got some thread and some fabric.  I made the hubby come with me so we could both use a 50% off coupon that I got off their website.

I also had to go to 3 different grocery stores and my bill came to $240.00 and I only paid $125.00  Woo Hoo. I was so tired after all the errands that I didn't get to stitch   CVS,  my bills was $38.00 and I paid $2.10 and Walgreen's was $22.00 and I paid $6.00.  I love to save money and I get so excited.

So today I got up early and did my Monday cleaning and laundry.  The kittys needed to beds washed.  I put a pot roast in the crock pot with turnips,  carrots and potatoes.  I made gluten free gravy and biscuits to go with it,  YUMMY. 

Then I made a point to get Snowflake done and start on one of the angles that I need to have done by the end of this week so I can send it off to a friend for her Grand-daughter Hailey.

I am working with a silver fabric that has sparkles and its really weird to work with but I think it's going to look great when its done. 

Almost Done With The Snowflake

Today was one of those days.  Hubby works from home which means he is always coming out of his office wanting something.  I wish I could lock him in.  However I did find time tonight to stitch and I got a lot done.


I also wrote out what I want my next 3 projects to be and tomorrow I will check my stash and see what I have for threads and make a shopping list of the things I need to get at Micheal's.  I have a 40% off coupon that I can use on some fabric. 

New Project - Blue Snowflake

 I started this 2 days ago and my goal is to try to stitch at least an hour a day.  I would love to see this done in the next 2 weeks.

Red Tree and Critters

 I just finished this one and have already started a new project.  Woo Hoo

That's My Babies

That's Frasier and Nile's.  My 2 little trouble makers.  Both of my cats are special need.  Frasier has HCM. Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.  He takes meds twice a day to help and even thou his life will be short we are enjoying every min of it.  Nile's has Feline Pancreatitis which is pretty much at this time controlled with a special diet of no fat,  sugars or gluten. He is a crabby kitty but at night he turns into a lover.

New Blogger

I have always wanted to start a blog ever since I saw "Julie and Julia", but I keep putting if off.

So today is the day and I even think I have figured out what I want to blog about.  I love cross stitch.  I have been stitching since I was 12 years old sitting in the waiting rooms of hospitals.  My Mom was always ill with a horrible heart condition where she produced to much cholesterol and her heart pretty much turned to stone.  She spent a lot of time in the hospital and to pass the time I loved to stitch and make her bookmarks and pictures to cheer her up. 

Even after she passed away,  I kept up the stitching as I always find it calming and as we all know it,  life is full of stress and drama,  so stitching takes me away from that.  A few years ago,  in 2006 I was living in a travel trailer with my husband and 2 cats and we got hit by a tornado.  Most of our stuff was destroyed and of course I lost all of my cross stitch stuff.  I was heart broken and we never had the money to replace the material and threads that I needed to start again.  So this year,  I bought a few items off ebay and started using the 40% off coupons at Micheal's and now I have been able to start stitching again.  Woot !!! 

Well anyways,  I have no clue what I am doing on this bog,  so let me play around and see what I can do with it.

Hope everyone has a great day !!!