Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is enjoying the New Year! For those of us here in the Northeast US, we're in the middle of a deep freeze - holy COW it's cold out there!!!!!! (All the more reason to stay inside where it's nice and warm and stitch!)

We had a great Christmas - our son Nick's first one. I still can't get over how lucky we are that he's such a good kid. So cheerful and laid back, and so good about letting people hold him. My 5 year old nephew and 7 year old niece were just over the moon about their new cousin, especially since they were allowed to hold and feed him. Who knew kids could get so excited about that? It was very cute to see them all together, and my nephew even shared his new Star Wars toys with the baby.

On the stitching front, I'm planning on taking on a one a week ornament challenge - more on that later. Also, my lovely MIL gifted me with Butternut Road's Celtic Banner chart and the cash to purchase the fabric for it. I know the pattern has been out for a while and some of you have stitched it, so I'm wondering what to do about the border. The chart calls for Caron Wildflowers in Cedar and Black Forest, but as I've searched the net, I've seen a few negative comments on these threads. I've never stitched with them, so I know nothing about it. For those of you who have either used these threads or stitched Celtic Banner, what can you recommend? Use the threads, or substitute something else? Perhaps the same colors in the silk threads or maybe a DMC conversion? Any thoughts on the subject would be most appreciated.