Monday, November 28, 2005

Glad to be home...

Our trip to Iowa was pretty uneventful. The flight out of Cleveland Thursday morning was a bit of a roller coaster, though! After watching the weather forecast - which was rather dire - we switched our tickets from a 7:40am flight to a 6:00am one. Good thing, too -- the snow and wind had already begun to pound the city at 6, and we spent 20 minutes on the ground being de-iced. Ack! But we made all our connections after that, and arrived at the family homestead around 12:30pm.

The family gathering was ok....kind of obvious that DH and his siblings were of secondary interest to his step-mom, who was pleased as punch to have her 3 sons and their wives there. They all got bedrooms (with doors) - including my in-laws' room, and DH and I thought it was obscene that the boys would allow THAT to happen - and we got mattresses in the living room. They SAID they drew names for the rooms, but since we were the last ones there.....who knows. It doesn't matter, really. I had a good time chatting with DH's sister, and getting to know my BIL's new girlfriend. She is very sweet - and a bit "alternative," which is very cool, given the excessive Christian Stepford-ness of the step-brothers' wives. And she crochets!! She was working on an afghan in alternating orange and rainbow bands - very funky. (Apparently when her grandmother died, the family found a LOT of skeins of rather bizarre colored yarn.)

My ornies were....well....I'm not sure how they were received. The youngest step-SIL thought it was cool that her gift was handmade (she got the beaded blackwork one). The oldest step-SIL thanked me twice, and seemed happy with hers, too (the little Christmas boy-sprite). The middle one -- and IMO, the weirdest of the three -- didn't say a word. Not even a thank you. Hmph. In fact, I think I saw one of the babies trying to EAT that ornie (the little checkered tree). *sigh* Maybe from now on I'll just stick to making ornaments for myself and my stitching friends...

At least I had some fun packages waiting for me when I got home...my latest eBay acquisitions had arrived! John Clayton's "Bookworms" was here, along with both the 2000 and 2002 JCS ornie issues. I'm especially pleased with the 2000 issue -- I've already picked a few I can't wait to do. I might just use that pink hand-dyed I got from Silkweaver for Just Nan's butterfly...the pattern calls for it to be finished as a little pouch, but I could simply stuff it and give to a little girl I know who loves butterflies. Since it isn't especially "Christmasy", she could hang it in her room all year round....

OK, enough with the stitching fantasies for today, must get back to work.....

4 comments:

Kim said...

Glad to hear you had a safe trip. Family gatherings can always be a bit stressful, but it was definately nice of you to bring them your handmade gifts.

Anne S said...

Glad to hear you survived the trip OK ... and the hand-made ornies were wonderful - I always think I'd treasure a hand-made gift much more than a bought one, mainly 'cos as a stitcher I know how much work and effort - and thought - goes into something like that :))

Casa Pearl said...

Glad you got there and returned safely! I love stories about others families - makes your own seem close to normal! LOL And it's the SILs loss if they can't value your wonderful work.

Carol said...

Welcome back Erin! Yikes, your in laws sound about as crazy as mine! Yikes, again!!!! Nice to be home, isn't it? I have felt the same about giving out stitched gifts - so many just don't appreciate them :-( Hope you have fun playing in your new stash :-) Woo Hoo to that!

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