Thanksgiving...Hope you had a safe and delicious day!!!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and made it to your destination with no problem.  Fortunately we stayed here in Ocean City, well Sara and I did, our Mary and her family drove to

Baltimore for the day to spend Thanksgiving day with Brian's family.  So it was pretty quiet here which was fine because this has been a really bad week for us.  Tuesday I was sitting at home, T.V. blaring, soda by my side and needlework in my hand when I got the call from Sara..."Mom, the church is on fire and someone died."  Of course that led to a lot of speculation and at one point during the day I was told Father David had died.  Just as I was coming to grips with the grief of that statement,  I was called and told he wasn't dead but was in critical condition at the hospital  It was someone else (as it turns out the man who set himself on fire while in  Shepherds Crook, our food pantry), and of course that let to Shepherd's Crook catching fire.    Anyway, as I was taking some relief in that and the fact that it was the offices on fire not the church, which is attached, and  seemed to be weathering the fire alright.  Anyway, by the 6:00 p.m. news Tuesday, Father David had died, the church offices were destroyed and the church suffered water damage and smoke damage.  When your parish priest dies it is similar to a family member dying.  I know he will be replaced eventually but this process can take a couple of years and in the time it takes,  people will once again be leaving to go elsewhere.  While I do serve on the Altar Guild, December is my month, I'm just not sure how I'll feel walking back in there knowing David died here...it's a sad reminder...and we're in flux once again.  Our church has been devasted in the last 20 years due to a couple of ministers who should  never have become ministers.  We were just getting our church moving forward in a positive way with Father David and now this.  So I'm feeling down about Father David's passing on, his wife and 3 children now without him, especially difficult at holiday times and our church which will now go through another period of turmoil.  Mercy, it's almost too much to handle.  I've always been told that God doesn't give you more than you can handle....I hope this is true.  Because in the coming weeks we will have to pull together for each other and to help Brenda and the boys get through this.  Anyway, that's my week, and I did have a wonderful dinner at Sara's.  She did the turkey, candied sweet potatoes, stuffing and dressing (glad I finally learned the difference...duh)..sauerkraut, and a sweet potato pie, and I did the cinnamon rolls, sautéed brussel sprouts (Sara's Favorite), mashed potatoes (my favorite), sweet pickled peaches (tradition), pickled beets and a new pie, Sour Cream Apple, so to say we had plenty of food is an understatement...there were 4 of us, but today we had the next day turkey sandwiches which are sooo good.  To help me weather the storm I am also stitching like crazy.     Sorry for the awful photo's of my works in progress but I just couldn't take the time to iron them just to show you what I've done...obviously I have a way to go on both of them.  But I've also finished 7 Christmas gifts, and a Thanksgiving etui for Sara which I will put up on the blog later.  The first picture you see is a SamSarah Design that Sara saw from the truck show when Patti was here for Jamboree.  It's a series called...Flock....and the series consists of several charts with the different sections and a set of specialty buttons.  While it is cute when it's done, it's too contemporary for me but Sara just loved, loved, loved it...so I'm stitching it.  It really is a nice stitch, some of the charts are fast and can be done in one night so that's always exciting.  I ran out of 4 of the colors last night so decided to start a new project until I got the colors from the shop.  So then I started doing Drawn Threads "Give Thanks" and I adore this piece.  I'm a strong advocate for Drawn Thread anyway, and have stitched several of her charts.    I pulled the wrong fabric count but decided to use it anyway so I'm stitching it  over 2 on 28 ct., in the silks suggested, except for 2 colors we didn't  have in stock when I first pulled this so I've substituted (as usual).  But this piece is fun and interesting...oh so interesting.  She uses many specialty stitches in each element so the vase that I'm currently working on is using at least 4 specialty stitches....fabulous.  I can't wait to get back to it.  Because I do have to pay attention I won't bring that to work with me.  But since Lizzie Kate's  "A Little Snow" arrived today....well you know I'll work on this right in the shop...nothing better than a new project.  Fun, Fun, Fun.  I am endlessly entertained as long as I have my stitching.  The weather is beautiful this weekend, especially since at first they were calling for rain this weekend, but the sun is out, and the temp. is around 50 during the day but down in the low 30's at night.  I hope you are enjoying the same glorious sky.  Hope you are enjoying the holiday, brief though it is for most, especially those who had to leave their Thanksgiving table to go to work...ugh!  Talk to you soon.