A winter afternoon at the beach and a Christmas finish

Hello all.   I have had a good week -  busy but somehow quite satisfying.  
The HDHBEM had her second surgery on Monday and is now recuperating.   She feels there is some inprovement in the vision in the left eye already and we are hopeful that when she has her followup visit to the opthalmologist in a month that the all clear will be given.   Then she will no longer be half blind and my "little brother" says that the HDHBEM will need to be Fully Sighted Half Deaf Elderly Mother!   Well, we wait and see!  Thank you all for your good wishes.
Yesterday afternoon she and I went for a drive to Eastern Beach  - here's a crazy shot.   FSHDEM didn't want her photo taken and I hoped to get her reflection in the mirror.   No such luck -  only the roadworks and the rubbish bin.   Oh dear -  well I do not have great photography skills :-(

I stitched the next in the Prairie Schooler Starry Night series  -  my nephew and his wife get one each year to add to their Christmas tree.   This year I hit a road block!   Instead of the 32 count linen I have used to date I somehow pulled a piece of 28 count linen out of the stash and stitched happily away.   But,  too big!   So instead of a rectangular finish I made this small "lantern" which has turned out quite cute.

Progress has been made on the Kogin Needlecase.   I hope to finish the actual stitching tonight and complete the construction during the week.   While I like the blue of this I'm not 'in love' with the actual item but am determined that it will not be left unfinished.  

I am still waiting for my thread pack for Heirloom Nativity Sampler to arrive so will probably have to start my Shepherds Bush "Angels Song" as I have all the supplies necessary for that.  But here I am running ahead of myself, there are still six more Christmas Ornaments to finish!!

Tomorrow morning I go for a check up on my pacemaker -  it will be interesting to see if this little friend is feeling as exhausted from gym workouts as I am. Five years ago when I receivd this one (my third), the surgeon said 'he' would have eight years of life but I 'he' and I keep fairly active so every six months I get a battery check.  

Apparently the inbuilt computer records all the data and I plan on asking the technologist to give me a copy - not that it will make much difference to either my limitations at the gym or to my trainer's energetic encouragements!   With my nephew's wedding coming up in January I am motivated to keep fit and hopefully slim then more easily find something suitable to wear.   Despite it being still winter and the temperatures closer to 5 degrees celsius than to 15 degrees, the shops are full of Spring and Summer fashion -  but, I am not motivated to go looking ....yet!

Anyway, have a great evening everyone.