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Happy Birthday Teagan!

12/31/2016

New Year's Eve is my granddaughter Teagan's birthday. When she opened the doll dresses I made for her on Christmas, the first thing she said was "Can you make me some more for my birthday?"
Fortunately I had started early with my Christmas sewing this year, and I already had two ballet dresses done before everything went on hold..... an elaborate white one, and a sparkly blue one....

I don't do well with tight deadlines, but I managed to start two more party dreses during the week. Time was at a premium, so that meant working every spare minute, even when there were guests. But I finally finished this morning.

Now they are all wrapped up, and I'm heading off to her party.....

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Goodbye Mom

12/28/2016

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This morning we laid our Mom to rest.

I think she would have liked the service. Most of the family was there, and even some of her
old friends from the days years ago, before her Alzheimer's. I was so glad that they came.

Now it's time to heal.

I'm not sure if I will still try to do some of the Christmas things I'd wanted to do. The entire last two weeks, with the holidays in the middle, were completely hyjacked by the ongoing family tragedy. But there's still Orthodox Christmas coming up on January 6th, so I can still start all over if I want.
I'll see. First there's still some doll dresses to make for my granddaughter whose birthday is in just three days, on New Year's Eve. I made her doll dresses for Christmas, and when she opened her package, the first thing she said was "Can you make me some more for my birthday, Grandma?"
So I'll see what I can whip out in just two days.

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Goodbye Princess Leia

12/27/2016

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Another celebrity gone in 2016.

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Gingerbread Snowflake

12/24/2016

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We spent last Sunday at my son's house, decorating his gingerbread cookies,
and he gave me one of the big gingerbread snowflakes that I decorated....

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My Mom and Me

12/24/2016

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Another great photo from long ago...

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the New Sewing Machine

12/23/2016

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I was in need of some major retail therapy yesterday, so I bought a little miniature
sewing machine for my mice. So now they can sew themselves some clothes....

I don't know if they were more surprised that I bought them a sewing machine,
or in the fact that it looks like I'm expecting them to start wearing clothes.

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Feeling Sad

12/23/2016

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The only doll photos that seem appropriate right now....

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Memories

12/22/2016

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One of the saddest things about my Mom's Alzheimer's is that she never really got to know her greatgrandchildren. My Mom loved children and babies. There are plenty of pictures of her with her grandchildren, and here she is with all ten of them....

With my daughter Mary (in the middle front in photo above)

And with me, when I was a baby....

When my eldest son was married....

And her first great-grandchild arrived....

And the Christmas eight years ago, when there were three little great-granddaughters....

But by then she already had Alzheimer's, and she never did get to really meet the rest.
My nieces did bring their babies over to visit her, but by then my Mom no longer knew
who any of us were. Every time we had a big family gathering it would make me sad
to think how much she would have enjoyed seeing all the little children, and how they
all had a great-grandma they would never get to know.

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Goodbye Mom

12/22/2016

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My Mom passed away in the night.

We knew the end was very near, as she passed into "Comfort Care" over a week ago. But our Mom was stronger than anyone expected, and she continued to fight. The whole family came together yesterday to keep vigil all day, and well into the night. But she waited until everyone was gone, before finally slipping away in the wee hours of the morning.

Jantje Wendelina Reitsma Dykstra
June 1929 - December 22, 2016

She was a wonderful, vibrant women, whom Alzheimer's stole from us long ago.
In some ways it's a relief that her struggles are finally over, but no one is truly ready when
the end does finally come. So now we have a funeral to plan. But it's also Christmas.

Any Christmas spirit I may have had, evaporated over a week ago, when we knew the end was near. We are all numb and exhausted from watching and waiting, but for the sake of the grandchildren we will go through the motions, and Christmas will go on.

We will miss you Mom

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More Christmas Gifts

12/20/2016

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I'm so glad that I did most of my Christmas gift sewing earlier in the month. In addition to the long blue 'Princess' gowns, each of the girls will get a ballet costume for their dolls. It's what they all wanted. In fact Teagan said she'd like seven of them for her birthday!!! There's just 10 days left before her birthday, so I don't think I can pull that off.

I'm also working on a special One-of-a-Kind train set for one of my grandsons. He loves his trains and he loves to go for rides on the GO train (the public transportation system in Southern Ontario). So we ordered a blank wooden train set that's compatible with his BRIO trains, and Jan did a little modifying, and replacing of the freight cars. We couldn't duplicate the actual double-decker passenger cars, because we had to stick to the standard Brio train car format, so I had to use 'artistic license' to paint the passenger cars in a design they might have had if there really were single level cars today. Not the easiest thing with my crappy eyesight and shaky hands, but I think they turned out rather well. I hope he likes them.

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