Family Time

The past week, although busy, has permitted some knitting time. The Andean Chullo Hat is coming along.

Jim left on Monday after a nice visit. Tuesday we dropped the pups off at the kennels, and on Wednesday we drove over the mountain and north to Portland. It was still daylight when we arrived at Peter and Alexa's, but we had to eat and put our things away before we could open some presents on Christmas Eve, especially things we didn’t want to take to Wisconsin and back again. I read one of my Christmas stories to the boys.

We had to get up at 3:00 AM on Christmas morning, so we could shower and dress for our trip. Our shuttle picked us up in time for us to leave for the airport by 5:15. The sun was just beginning to peek through the clouds when we took off.

We landed in Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport about lunchtime and went to pick up our vehicle, which was big enough for the six of us. After we arrived at our daughter Karen's family’s home, we admired their tree. (No lights, because their kitty eats them.)

We had supper (pizza picked up the day before and baked on Christmas Day). Our son and his family left us there, because we were staying in the guest room. They went on to their motel. The next morning they came back for a late Christmas celebration and my birthday. First the stockings:

We opened presents. One of the highlights was David's guitar, a gift for his son Zachary. He was thrilled.

We had a nice dinner. The Portland Stuarts went back to their motel for the night. The next day, they came back, and we spent the day playing games and doing various things. One of the highlights was watching some people reading the first act of the play David wrote. There was no action, sets or costumes, and I had to turn my hearing aids up, so some parts were difficult to follow, but the parts I heard clearly were very interesting.

On Sunday the final part came to David's eye-control device arrived, and Peter got it set up for him. The device has a headset that allows him to control his phone using his eyes, as he's no longer able to move his hands. 

He’s learning how to use it to control the TV, as well answer his email and anything else we do with our phones.

We have a few more days before we fly home on New Year’s Day.

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Andean Chullo Hat. Making great progress.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Nobody's Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre on the AudiobooksNow app. Not much progress again this week.

What's on my sewing machine: Put away.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The boys come back from a soccer game in Good Sports.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog, and they are reproduced in print with a few changes.

The stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After and Money in a Jar.

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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