Thursday, December 26, 2019

Really Random Thursday, 12/26/19

I thought last week would be my last post of the year, but I have a few more things to add.

Saturday, Ella turned 6!
She wanted a Paw Patrol party, and that's what she had along with some of her friends.
The party included a bounce house.
And a pinata. Yes, it is December and she is barefoot.
She is spunky, opinionated, stubborn, and we love her so very much.

Doesn't everyone have a suit like this for the office Christmas party??
A funny thing happened last week, although it is one of those things that is only funny in retrospect.
Mark is the executor/power of attorney for my aunt, who passed away the end of July. She had her accounts with Bank of America. Mark and I have had our VISA credit card with Bank of America since we were first married and they have always taken good care of it. However, having said that, we have not had good experiences with the banking aspect of BofA. All of my aunt's money was in Bank of America, and Mark has had nothing but trouble with them, beginning with getting on her accounts as power of attorney. They were incredibly hard to deal with--no one wanted to help him with the required paperwork and he has spent countless hours, both at the bank and on the phone. Anyway...a few weeks ago he was tired of dealing with them so all of her money was transferred to a trustee account in the bank where we have done all of our banking for the last 40 plus years. He was required, of course, to provide a death certificate to BofA. And I should mention that her last name is not the same as ours.

So last week I used my credit card to pay for a small purchase. It was declined. They ran it again. Declined again. So embarrassing! I came home and called customer service, thinking that, as happens with more frequency lately, some merchant had been compromised and I would soon be getting a new credit card. Nope. No fraud alerts on our account. So they transferred me to the fraud department. At which point I found out that the card had been blocked as "our records show that your husband recently passed away. Our condolences are with you." What??? I told them it was my aunt who had passed away and Mark was simply her trustee. And that they had been provided with her death certificate, not his!! They transferred me to the estate department. The estate department would not unblock the account until they actually spoke to Mark and could verify that indeed he was not deceased. When he called the estate department, he said, "Just so you know, you are talking to a dead guy." Click. They hung up on him. I guess they thought it was a prank call. He finally was able to return from the dead and we can once again use our credit card. But BofA, sorry, this did confirm our dislike of you.

I did some last-minute "3D" sewing. I made two little sewing/mending kits.





A super fun project was to make quilted and lined candy bag zipper pouches--from real candy bags! They are easy and fun. I can tell you that more of these are in my sewing future!


The other day, I taught Charlotte and Gabe to do a little bargello project. Bargello is similar to needlepoint but your yarn travels over more squares on the canvas. They both caught on very quickly. Bargello was one of my previous creative phases, back in the mid 1970s. It's making somewhat of a comeback and I was happy they each wanted to learn.
Charlotte's project so far...
Gabe's project so far...
Every year, if you are on Instagram, you can get a representation of the most prevalent colors in your feed throughout the year. These were the colors most often seen in my feed for 2019.
We started out Christmas day with breakfast at Denny's, as we do each year. #coffeephilosophy
I love setting the table for our Christmas dinner. So many special things, from the table runner and placemats made by a dear lady in our church, fun glassware, and beautiful dishes I bought years ago with some money I inherited when my grandmother passed away.

After dinner, and a scavenger hunt, it was time to open presents.



We tried for a family picture but it didn't turn out well (a variety of factors...lighting, distance). Oh well. Good memories.

These were better.
The crazy ones are always the best.

And at the end of the evening, all they wanted to do was work on their little bargello projects. Go figure...


Thanks for reading along in 2019. See you in the next decade!

7 comments:

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Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said... #

Looks like a really great birthday and Christmas celebration. So nice that the children are creative and like working on the plastic canvas projects. They look beautiful so far.

Robby said... #

They are rockin' that bargello (and I always wondered what that was). My sympathies on the BofA fiasco. My MIL used them and when she passed (in a tiny town where people still remembered my DH personally) it was not a good experience to deal with her stuff even when all the legal documents were tidy and up to date. He also moved the money away as soon as possible.

Thanks for a colorful look at 2019. Here's to good things in the new year/decade!

Debbie said... #

Fun post and love ending the day with a little bargello. Precious!!

Susan said... #

I had to laugh at your effort at getting a family photo! We did a similar thing, trying to line up the camera/ phone and setting the time! I love your sewing kits! They look very professionally finished, with their gingham binding and snaps. Your Christmas table looked really beautiful. Thanks for sharing your family time with us. Happy 2020!

Carla said... #

Merry Christmas Cindy! I always love your random posts and this one was super great!

Anne / Springleaf Studios said... #

Merry Christmas dear friend. Wishing you the best!

OPQuilt said... #

Merry Christmas--what a wonderful post telling us all the fun things in your family...EXCEPT the BofA thing! ACK! Mark is, of course, a saint to do all this (and we used his trivet when we served our Christmas Dinner and sent him good karma). I hope you have a good New Year's Eve (ours is looking like leftovers and a movie). Glad you are heading in to the New Year healthy!!