Better late than never, right? Brad's stepmother asked for a snowman ornament with our names and the year on the back. We're all very sure that she meant something like a ceramic ornament that you get from Hallmark with our names and date put on with a sharpie, but I do have this inate ability to overdo... well, quite a lot. So I spent 7.25 hours from December 23-24 2007 making this: While we're on the subject of ornaments, I finally finished the ornament from last year (I cross-stitched it last year, but didn't do the sewing and cording until this year): And, on Christmas day, I designed (leaning heavily on Lizzie Kate charts) and stitched our annual ornament (5.5 hours). Every year I pick something that is representative of our year. In 2007, we bought our "forever" home. More importantly, though, we figured out how to be our busy, ambitious, overworked selves and still put each other first and really became a family, thus the "The M*******s" title at the top. Here's a look at all six Christmas ornaments: First year is pretty obvious, the second year is the year we bought our condo (and got a fireplace) and adopted Leilani. The third year, I was in grad school at SDSU while Brad was at UCSD. The fourth year was our last in California, and we were also enjoying wine tasting together. The fifth year was our first real wintery Christmas. The last Christmas gift is from a book that my mother-in-law sent to me. She expressed her appreciation for the feather trimmed tops, so I made one for her for Christmas. Yarn: 6.5 skeins of Muench String of Pearls in navy Needles: Addi Turbos US 7 Date Started: December 2, 2007 Date Completed: December 28, 2007 Time: 7.75 hours for the front, 7 hours for the back, and 2 hours for finishing for a total of 16.75 hours. The top is finished with peacock feather trim.