Yesterday afternoon I went over to Joyce's to check out her featherweight machine.  My plan is to sell the fancy embroidery machine I won a few years back (too much aggravation for me) and replace it with something simple(r).  Because when it comes to machines, nothing is ever really simple for ME.

Alex was over for candle-lighting last night.  

And I just happened <g> to have a gift for him to open.

It was a lot of fun to wrap, using different Chanukah paper for each "matruska".  The shoebox contained a wrapped cashew container.

Which held a wrapped butter box.  When box 1 (shoe) rhymed with box 2 (cashew) he thought he saw a pattern developing.  Which butter did not fit.  

Doesn't everyone wrap gifts inside a TP roll?  He still has no idea what's inside.

 Once he opened that, though, he was all smiles, and REALLY, MOM?

Because tucked inside was this small piece of paper.

Remember that day when I sat in front of the computer trying to order a ticket for him?  Now he doesn't have to reimburse me.

He was really excited about that!

After all his hugs I figured that might be a good time to ask him about my iPad (about a week or two ago it quit sending e-mail, although it still received it.)  It only took him about 10 minutes to fix it.  Of course he thought I should have been able to do it myself ("I've never done this before, but I figured it out, Mom") but obviously he hasn't known me long enough...

Of course after he fixed it, it sent the past couple week's worth of replies - so folks could be a little confused about stuff they thought we'd already taken care of.

I opened a gift from my sister, which turned out to be a quilting t-shirt.

I'm two-for-two; this could be stacking up to be the Chanukah of the T-shirt.  And if it ever warms up (!) I can actually wear one of them!

Good news this morning - I didn't wake up until 5:00!

Except for a trip to the grocery store (I need a couple of ingredients so I can whip up Joni's Swedish meatballs that I enjoyed so much) the only thing scheduled for today is the exterminator.  I'm hoping to whip up the binding for the Brazen Bluebird quilt I just got back from Jeannie.  It's looking like it may actually be totally finished by the time I get around to taking a picture of it.

And as cold as it is here (I know Karin and few others in northern climes are really laughing at me) it'll be great to have another quilt for snuggling under.

In the Random Picture that Made Me Smile dept: