Flypaper thoughts Boxing day edition

• Well it's the morning after
• Now I can start posting some of my project photos for things I made this year
• Never a production sewist, however this year I made
• 11 retreat bags (toiletry bag free pattern from Emmaline bags)
• Four dress shirts (All day shirt from Liesl patterns)
• One pair of Batman pyjamas (Movie night PJs free for both children and adults if you do a FB sign up)
• Two Sugarplum night gowns from Peek-a-Boo
• Two pairs of pyjamas, one for a 3-year-old one for a 36-year-old from Jalie
• Five slouchy head wraps a free pattern from Patterns for Pirates
• Three sleep masks for my flyers from a pattern in the top drawer in my sewing room
• One polar fleece jacket also from Peek-a-Boo
• There is probably more but this is all I can think of now
• My biggest urge this morning
• A bunch of tops for myself
• Please I don't want you to think I am that kind of productive sexist
• Doing all of this was an emotional release for me with so many family members all over the place
• Sometimes I communicate best with sewing
• And this year I needed to do that
• The day went well
• High point was the power going out about an hour before the entire city was ready to sit down for dinner
• Our meal was fortunately already cooked as we make it here at home and transport it about five minutes away to my daughter's because she has the huge table
• The meal is one of our gifts
• Imagine the poor folks who had semi raw turkeys
• To heat up our food we relied on my husband
• Who is kind of a sleeper cell waiting to come alive in emergencies
• With gear no one knew he has stashed in the garage
• Rigged up a small microwave attached to a car battery
• Apparently there are two spare microwaves I didn't know about in the garage
•  No one goes into the garage unescorted
•  Just in case
• You need an inverter to run a microwave when the power goes out
• No one knew what an inverter was or that we had one
• Ran a series of super long extension cords up two flights of stairs to the kitchen from the van in daughter's garage where it was plugged into the lighter thing
• We got the broccoli warm
• I put the potato casserole in front of the wood stove, where it actually cooked
• And the cabbage on top of the stove where it actually almost burned
• We lit a collection of candles and tried to keep small children from carrying them around
• It was very exciting
• So disappointing when the lights went on after a few hours
• So we turned them off in the dining room and ate by candlelight
• We had children roller blading in the kitchen
• Dogs eating the ornaments
• A poor and brave daughter-in-law who had a cold
• And then got reflux because I insisted she drink two tablespoons of Buckleys ("it tastes terrible but it works")
• Widely popular in Canada because it is made of pine needles and looks like mucus
• Which are characteristics that matter here
• "This looks like the stuff I am trying to get out of my body" Maddie said
• That was before the reflux kicked in as the pine needles went down
• Her living in California oesophagus undoubtedly gone into shock
• At this point the mother-in-law of the year decided to lie low on the medical front
• And not to suggest a mustard plaster
• Anyone else have mustard plasters applied to their chests as children?
• Highly sophisticated
• English mustard and flour mixed with water and the paste smeared on brown paper
• Then put in a tea towel and applied to small bony chests
• Works like a charm to cure chest colds 
• Providing you don't fall asleep with it on
• In which case you have to investigate home remedies for 3rd degree burns
• I realize that "my children survived" is not an argument that qualifies me as a medical expert
• Life in the Canadian winter
• In two weeks now we will be driving down and out of it
• Of to points south, Texas and then California
• To check on the kids who have recently escaped us
• They might need something
• A shirt
• Some advice
• Or maybe its us who need to see where this family is now
• At Christmas you remember
• And one of the things you remember
• Is the present moment is the one that counts