A few of my favorite things

It's December 23 and I'm working on my annual "Do I really need to do that?" list. The absolute musts of Christmas preparations grow fewer every year.

This year's absolutes includes these wonderful little Chocolate Covered Cognac Cranberries from Oprah (I used Grand Marnier ... yum!).

This morning's first order of business was to finish these pillow covers for our solid green sofa pillows.
The pillows are resting on the turnover quilt that gave me pause a while back. Well, it's finished and it's absolutely beautiful with elaborate feather quilting done by Yolanda Sanchez who said she would do a "simple feather" design (O.K., I'm still working on the binding, but it will be finished by the time it's given to my mom tomorrow night).

My other favorite decorations of the year are these jars filled with simple things. I sprayed some pine cones with glitter to give them a little spark, added some ribbon to last year's pomanders and filled one of my favorite jars. It's simple and sparkly all at once.

And now it's on to some serious work. There's Irish stew to make, cookies and breads to bake, more cranberries to coat with chocolate, and gifts to wrap in time for a Christmas Eve trip to Racine followed by our own family celebration back here on Blueberry Road Christmas Day.

Here's to your own simple and sparkly Christmas. Enjoy!