UFOs - Friend or Foe?

I'm back from my parent's house in Alabama, where we had a very nice Christmas. Christmas, incidentally, is still going on! Christmas is not a day; it is a season. It lasts twelve days. (Hence, "The Twelve Days of Christmas".) The first day of Christmas is December 25th, and the twelfth day is the Feast of the Epiphany, on January 6th, where the visit of the Magi is celebrated. Thus, my decorations stay up until after sunset of the 6th of January!

I took a few photos of downtown Cotton Creek, AL. This is facing north: This is a shot facing east:

You can see that it is a hotbed of activity. Our traffic light blinks yellow in one direction and red in the other; we aren't big enough to warrant a green light. Here is the gas station where the truckers, hunters, and loggers stop for breakfast and dinner (i.e. lunch):

Here is a shot facing west, and the crazy man with the hat on his head, dressed in shorts with no shoes, is my 73 year old father:

It was about 38 degrees when these photos were taken. Daddy believes walking in chilly weather with no shoes makes him eccentric, but I told him only rich people can be eccentric; as it is, he is merely crazy:

A typical local barn:

One of the laurel oaks that must be a hundred years old:

The only other store in Cotton Creek whose owner is my second cousin once removed (I think):

The church, whose steeple has been blown off by lightning more times than I can count:

This pretty much says it all:

Finally, this is my parent's house. It is the white one:

It was built by my great, great grandfather, Warren Payne, in 1918. It's a typical old house, with no central heat or air conditioning, or anything much modern. Several, but not all of the rooms, have gas heaters that you light with a match and pray that you don't blow yourself up or burn the house down. I don't touch them. I like sleeping in a house built by one of my ancestors; it feels friendly and very right, but I will note that my mother comes to visit me frequently in VA. I think she likes staying in a modern home with central heat and no mice!

Of course, today is that time of year when folks start thinking about resolutions. I don't make resolutions, but I do make "goals". My sewing goals last year were three:

1. Make myself a quilt for my bed;

2. Make a heartstrings quilt; and

3. Make a double wedding ring quilt.

I did all three and had a great time doing them all. The double wedding ring is only pieced, not quilted, but I count it as done, given that I'm not doing the quilting!

So, of course, I have been thinking of what my goals for 2010 should be. One of my goals is to visit my friends more. A friend died very recently and I attended the memorial service today. Given that people that I know, who are my age, are dying, has brought home the fact that nothing is more important than friends and the time to visit them is now. So I plan to inflict my presence on the following:

1. One visit will be to Susan and Ron. Their kids are now teenagers and they must be weary of them, so maybe my visit would be welcome, or at least tolerated. I swear that Susan's Beef Wellington recipe is no inducement. No, really.

2. A visit southward to Mark and Cynthia. They have 2 year old twins and don't go anywhere these days. I believe they would love a visit from an adult from the outside.

3. Another visit southward to George and Pam whom I haven't seen in ten years. It's time to remedy that.

4. A visit northward to Laura and Dan. You get a couple of glasses of wine in Laura and you can get her to tell the squirrel story. No better entertainment than that.

5. Nearby to Laura and Dan, a visit to Laurie and Marty, the wonderful parents of my godson. I need to visit so he remembers what I look like. Maybe I should take him, like, a gift or something.
6. And of course, another visit to Glen and Tammy!

So beware, dearest friends, I am coming, and I like to eat!

Sewingwise, I have decided that 2010 is the year of the UFO. It is my sincere goal to finish some of the quilty UFOs hanging around. I think UFO's are like unfinished homework, they just drag down on your creativity. I'll discuss my list in a separate post, but my own rules for finishing UFOs are:

1. If you give the UFO away, unfinished, for someone else to finish or use in anyway they see fit, that counts as finished.

2. If you finish the UFO as something other than intended, for example, an unfinished quilt becomes a finished wall hanging, it counts as finished.

3. If you get the courage to just throw it away, it counts as finished. You have made a decision upon it and you no longer need to take action. I doubt I would ever do this, however, but we will see.

All of this applies to quilting projects only, and I am free to continue to start and stop as many garment projects as I wish. They don't take near as long, and frankly, I like wearing the clothes. Speaking of which, over Christmas I did show Melanie at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe my tunic that I made from fabric from her shop - a lot of fun! I also bought from her some fabric to make some curtains for Mother's kitchen. After 25 years, Daddy finally "got around" to painting the kitchen. I used a white fabric with cherries on it by Robert Kaufman called "Confections". I thought it looked very "county kitchen".

I hope you and yours are having a wonderful holiday season. What are your goals for 2010???? Do UFOs make you crazy, or do you peacefully co-exist?