Happy New Year!

It is already New Year's Day 2008...how did that happen?? It seems that I am in an accelerated time warp where days and weeks speed by way too fast to savour. This past week has been a frenzy of family and friends, travelling, cooking, and partying, and I am too old for all this frenetic activity! I have enjoyed our great Canadian winter weather when taking my dog for a walk. Here are two photos from Boxing Day, when all the trees were covered in sparkly ice/frost. On the right is the view I have when walking by the river at the end of our street...just beautiful.
Since my Mother-in-law is too ill this year to qualify for health insurance to travel in the US, we decided to meet in Niagara Falls for our Christmas Celebrations. It was farther for our American relatives to drive but it worked out okay. Here are the views from our breakfast table...the photo on the left is the American Falls and on the right is the Horseshoe Falls.

We have lots of wonderful memories from this past week. I was delighted that I was able to accomplish as much as I had hoped, getting all my presents finished and wrapped on time for each celebration.
Now it is time for some much needed rest and relaxation. If you can believe it, I have not even opened the box to see my new sewing machine! I hope to do that today. I am disappointed that I do not have the energy to sew the mystery quilt projects that are going on today. So much quilting excitement, so little time! Kim, one of my fellow stashbusting bloggers, told me about this mystery at Planet Patchwork and there is also a mystery over at About.com (although I don't like the "pop ups" at this site) . There is also a video mystery quilt posted at Quilt Bug which looks interesting. I am still hoping to be able to do Bonnie's Quiltville mystery quilt although I am already 4 steps behind!
I wish all of you, my wonderful blog readers, a healthy and happy 2 008. Thank you for the encouragement and ideas that you have shared with me this past year...here's to lots of quilting time this year!