My Christmas and Swap Gifts

Well, after all the build up another Christmas has been and gone. It is now late afternoon on Boxing Day in New Zealand (26th December).

New Zealand is the first country to greet each day and we are therefore also the first to greet Christmas. I thought of my mini friends around the world and imagined you still preparing for your Christmas Day or fast asleep hoping that Santa would visit.

Guess what I got on Christmas Eve? - A COLD!!  Luckily I felt reasonably okay and my husband Pete, daughter Jamie, our friend Ben and I travelled the hour to have Christmas with my family and my nephew's 'in-laws to be' and relations that had travelled over from England. My nephew and his fiancé are getting married on 4 January. A group of about 22 of us had a lovely Christmas day but by late afternoon my cold starting setting in again and we drove the hour back home where I pretty much crashed out for the rest of the day. I had fully intended to get a blog entry done yesterday but I just didn't feel up to it.

We were all rather spoilt with lovely gifts from family and friends. My husband bought me Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 (photo editing) and Adobe Premiere Elements 12 (video editing) for Christmas so hopefully I will be able to use those to improve on my blog entries once I have learned how to use them.

Our Christmas tree.

 One of our dogs, Smudge, proudly showing you his new

black and yellow socks he got for Christmas.
 

While my mind is struggling to function properly today I just wanted to thank my two swap partners in Fabiola's Christmas Chain Swap 2013 for the wonderful Christmas gifts I received from them.

First of all, from Francesca of Italy - Blog: Mini Ricamo  http://miniricamo.blogspot.com
I received this exquisite little mat of such fine needlework. It is a beautiful design and lovely colours. I just know it is going to look fabulous in one of my mini houses.

 

My other swap partner was Maribel of Spain. Blog: Miniaturas Isabel http://maribel41.blogspot.it/
From Maribel I received:

 This exquisite little tea-pot with blue roses.

 

 This lovely cushion.

 

 This crocheted baby carry-cot with bedding.

I had the perfect little baby doll to tuck inside.

 

 Beautiful crocheted scarf beret and cap and a lovely towel.

 

Everything together. What a beautiful range of hand-crafted items.

Thank you so much Maribel. Your work is just beautiful.

I love miniature crochet and have always wanted to learn to crochet, so I have set it as a challenge to myself to learn crochet over this Christmas break. I have bought Jamie and myself a crochet hook each. Wish us luck! Now I just need to find a tutorial.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas day shared with family and friends, celebrated in a way that is meaningful to them through traditional, family and cultural traditions. For me Christmas is about special time spent with family and friends.

I will post a blog entry soon on the swap gifts I sent to Maribel and Francesca.

In the meantime I just wish to send you my best wishes for your Christmas break and best wishes for a Creative 2014. I look forward to following your blogs throughout the year. I am hoping to be much more creative in 2014.