Knitter's Eve

I went with my neighbor-friend Amy to the knitting store, Capital Yarns. We wandered around lovingly touching all the skeins of yarn. We dreamed of all the projects we could make, cashmere is so very nice.

I found the various projects made by the store staff to be very impressive. There were so many neat ideas, inspirational. I loved the great use of color and texture, there are some very creative ideas in the knitting world. I thought the beaded purple scarf was divine. The elegant white lace-like shawl was exquisite. Oh one day I hope to be that skilled. All in due time.

I decided to buy some yarn and two sets of needles, a 13 and 15. I have been wanting to use a larger grade of yarn, all that tiny stuff takes so long, I'm eager to get things done quicker. Amy is taking on the new project of afghan making. It's going to be a long-term project. She found a book that has good ideas and she's going to try on her own. A woman with a mission.

Silver n 'ol blue

These earrings are made from blue pressed glass beads. I used silver findings, rhinestone head pins, silver tube beads and silver seed beads. These are the first pair of earrings I made. The start of my newest hobby.

His notes filled the air

My Grandpa would whistle when he was happy. And since he whistled a lot he must have been a very happy man. With a smile and a whistle he would putter around keeping himself busy.

When I was little he and Grandma took care of me while my parents worked. Being a very curious and active child Grandpa was a perfect person to follow around all day. Very interesting person indeed. He would sit on the front porch and with a handful of tools turn a soda can into an airplane or a pinwheel. I thought that was the neatest thing. I hardly have a memory of him being still. He constantly was doing something, mostly with his hands. This trait has made it way to me. I have a difficult time sitting idle. I can't just sit and watch television, I must also be doing something in addition. Usually knitting or something.

I'm gonna whistle a tune for you grandpa.

Merry Christmas 2005!

Two sleepy little girls had to be woken up this morning.

Stockings filled with little somethings were left on their beds. They were so pleased with those little somethings that is all Santa needed to bring. The girls were just plain happy with that little surprise. Olivia was so happy that she said "I have to tell Santa thank you for my pretty gifts". Awww.

When they saw the booty left behind by Santa they were not very interested in leaving the house. With all the excitement we were distracted by the fun. We rushed around to get dressed to make the 8am mass. Mass was wonderful, singing and it was all together beautiful. So peaceful.

We returned to eat a quick breakfast of eggs and muffins, no time for eating. It was on to the important task of opening the gifts. Daddy made sure that each of us had a specific spot for our gift piles to form. That way we would know where our stuff was and then when opening was over we would know what to put away. This of course was mostly a good guess, as the hours passed everything kinda migrated all over into one big giant mess. After the first few gifts the girls wanted to open the toys and play. To heck with the rest, they preferred to take it slow. Oh, no, couldn't let that happen, we forced them to keep on moving. There will be none of that playing stuff. It's seek and conquer, mass unwrapping and moving on, no time to pause. Time to play will come later.

With all the encouragement it took 3 hours for the girls to get through the gifts. An hour later we discovered an unopened gift hiding under a pile of wrapping paper and gift box debris. Olivia had no interest in opening it, Leah had to. It was only clothes, so bummer. Daddy and Mommy spent a long time wrangling open all those beautiful toys in those perfectly packaged boxes.

Bloody hell! Bloody hell!

Marketing-packager-creator-inventor people you should be cursed! Why does a single Barbie need to be adhered to a box with enough tape and twisty ties to bind a toddler? I say forget the whole make the product look pretty in the box on the shelf thing, just toss the product in a ziptop bag and toss it on the shelf. That would be so nice. Imagine the time parents all over the country would save, not to mention all the cursing.

The physical work involved with removing all those toys caused Mommy and Daddy to be wiped out, I needed a cup of coffee and a brisk walk to perk up.

The house remained an absolute mess all day. The girls went wild playing with all the new and interesting things Santa and family gave. Daddy decided to make some sort of order by designating one large box for each girl. There they could put all their stuff and play with it as desired. Yeah right, that worked for a second. At least it was a good idea.

Supper was a little early, and rather simple, ham, rice and green beans. Simple and everyone ate. There were plenty of cookies for dessert. Mmm. Cookies.

Highlights of gifts the girls were excited to see:
Leah: Magic of Pegasus Cloud Queen Barbie and a pink and purple unicorn
Olivia: Pink pony and Strawberry Shortcake princess doll with carriage

Happy tamale Eve

It is our little family tradition to have tamales for our Christmas Eve meal. Well actually this is a carry over from my husband's family tradition. My family has cabbage rolls, which is funny now that I think about it, both traditions include a meat mixture rolled into a leaf. Interesting.

I had planned for a nice southwestern meal. One that would make Martha proud. I picked up the frozen tamales, come on now, do ya really think I was going to attempt to make them from scratch? I'm bold but not el stupido. I bought the tasty avocados, what nice guacamole they would make; the mango, cilantro and tomatoes, what yummy salsa you would make; the key limes, what nice compliment they make for the beer; shrimp, what zippy cocktail they make. Everything was lined up and ready. But it didn't quite happen as planned.

Here's how the day went:
Woke up 730am, girls were hungry and energetic. Daddy fed them yogurt and juice. Mommy & Daddy exercised then showered.

10am Mommy and Daddy ate a hearty and heavy breakfast of huevos rancheros, to go along with the southwestern theme, gotta be consistent, eh.

11am-1pm The whole family raked and bagged the neighborhood leaves. It was our Christmas gift to the neighbors. That sure was a new way to spend the holiday, if anything we got some exercise. But we will NOT have any more leaves blow into our yard. Everything looked so much better afterward. It was eerily quiet around the street, no one was around, perhaps at relative's homes. Maybe everyone was home but were afraid that if they came outside that we would force them to help. Ehh. Maybe we would have, who knows. The girls had fun jumping in the piles. It was fall deja vu.

By lunch time I was still not hungry, see that's the beauty of huevos, they fill you up for most of the day. Daddy suggested that we go to McDonald's (the Narnia toys are in the Happy Meals) for lunch. The girls were very excited to go there, I hope it's not for the food as much as it is for the play area. The girls ate their food all the while eyeballing the play area. We were asked after every bite if they had "eaten enough yet" before they could go play. I tried to eat a salad, still too full, why did I even try to eat anything? Good grief I'm stupid. I don't even know how Keith was able to eat that cheeseburger.

We watched the girls play in the play area, they had a ball. It was odd being at a fast food restaurant on Christmas Eve, especially since it was just as busy as any other day. Way too weird. Although I was very irritated with a lady there. Her bratty little boys were spitting on any child that happened to come out of the slide. What was the mother doing? Oh nothing but chattering on the phone with someone. Good thing an older kid told those boys to stop, I really didn't want to have to tell that woman to control her children.

230pm We came home to a phone message, our neighbors invited us to a little party at their house. We of course were not hungry at lunch and didn't expect to eat until really late anyhow so we figured we head over. Besides they always have good food, they have good taste.

230-5pm Everyone did their own thing. Daddy watched football and played a computer game. Leah and Olivia played dress up and watched a movie. Mommy made jewelry.

5pm There was tons of food at our neighbor's house, and we even brought along our tamales, we knew we'd be there most of the night. And what did we do once we got there? Why eat of course. There was caviar, latkes, breads, cheeses, meats, spirits, desserts, so much good food.
Dang.
I'm really not doing well at the preventing weight gain goal.

After the party we came home bathed the children and put them to bed so that Santa could do his job and deliver all those presents. The big day is only hours away and it is going to be a whopper!

Merry Christmas!

Making our Christmas cookies

Today we are dedicating the day to baking cookies. I already made dough last Sunday, whew, what a good idea. Glad I was actually thinking for once. With the premade dough the hard part is over and the fun part is for today.

The plan is to to bake date pinwheels. Those cookies were so hard for me to make, the dough was not very cooperative. I do hope they hold up and produce a decent cookie as these are Keith's favorite. He has been begging me to make a few, his mouth is watering thinking about eating them.

We will bake and decorate sugar cookies thanks to great-grandma Wolf's awesome yummy recipe. The best sugar cookies ever. So we've got to roll them out and add "lots of sprinkles" according to the children. There are so many cookie cutters that there should be a nice variety of shapes. And of course we need to make a few especially for Santa.

I had intended to make the special most delicious cookies I know but those take a ton of time and are so delicate that really I have to make them when I have the kitchen to myself. Maybe I can work them out tomorrow, it's just not Christmas without great-grandma Stekli's Hungarian butter cookies.

Enough writing off to the kitchen I go. I'll bake and take pictures, maybe if they aren't all gone before I find the camera.

New Hobby

I'm into a new hobby. Jewelry making.

I always wanted to do this never had the time or $$$ to follow through. I have selected some supplies and jumped right in to creating. I am focusing on earrings since I like them, and have a hard time finding pretty dangily ones that don't cost $20+ a pair. So now I can choose my own colors, styles and make the perfect earring. The more I practice the better I'll get. I have neat ideas but need to work on my techniques.

I am having a blast and love making things. I hope I can stick with this one.

Children's party

There was a children's party at work today. I brought the girls in to spend the day as my assistants. They were very helpful and had so much fun. They happily filed papers (recycled my office paper) and chatted about the mystery of seeing Santa later on that afternoon.

They learned how to make space rockets from Captain Jason, who also was a very good hide and seek player. They drew pictures of castles, ponies and Broncos, thanks Derek! Shehla took them for a walk around the building treating them to candy and hot chocolate. Which they were so very excited about.

4pm Off to the party we went. Leah was mesmorized by the carolers. She sat and watched them, lost in her musical world, until I had to tap her and ask if she'd like to see Santa. It was nice to see her so interested in the music.

We ate some cookies, stood in line and waited patiently to have a moment with Santa. They both happily sat on his lap and politely asked for a pink pony (Olivia) and a Pegasus Barbie (Leah) before taking a moment to have a picture taken. Santa reminded Olivia that ponies were a lot of work and that if he were to bring one that she would have to promise to take very good care of it. After Santa we decorated some cookies and watched the carolers for a little longer. By the time that was over they were very tired and ready for home.

It was a very exciting and busy day. Olivia slept the whole way home. Meanwhile Leah talked non-stop, for an hour, about everything from Santa to her friends at school and there odd habits. At one point I had a glimpse of the future, Leah as a chatty teen.

Passing of a loved one

Today my Grandpa will be taken off the ventilator. He had a stoke recently and has experienced all sorts of trauma affiliated with it. He has been unconscious and not responsive. The day has come to say good bye to Grandpa.

As a child I always thought he'd be here forever, he was a constant in my life. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that he will be gone.

Christmas cactus

I talked with the Great Aunts last night. Margaret and I talked about Christmas cactus plants. My plants are very small, pint sized compared to her very large bucket sized plant. She inquired about the blooms on my plants and indicated that hers were well on their way to a beautiful display. It has been a long tradition within her family ever since Great grandma began keeping a Christmas cactus. Margaret has carried on with this tradition, using the tried and true ways to care for the plant. As we discussed ways to keep these cacti happy she told me of her secrets to a successful bloom.

Then she told me about what happened to her Christmas cactus. As she was cleaning the family room she set the cactus, ripe with pink blossoms on the floor, was distracted by something and walked off. Upon her return she noticed that all the blossoms were missing, along with a good portion of the greenery. At first she was perplexed. Then she realized that it was the dog. Lucy ate the plant! This of course caused another bit of panic and confusion. Was the cactus poisonous? Would it make the dog sick? This was solved by numerous phone calls to poison control and vets. All is fine. The dog will live and, no, the cactus is not poisonous.

Please remember that if your Christmas cactus is just about to open its blossoms, do not put that plant in a location for a hungry pet to nibble on. What a shame. Here's hoping for next year.

Stealth tactics

My husband told me a story about an attorney. This seasoned, successful attorney was happily married to a strikingly beautiful woman, so there was no need for his eye to wander. A proud gentleman, dearly loved his wife and children. He never fooled around. However he had a very interesting strategy for his office. He would hire the most beautiful, model beautiful if possible, assistant he could find.

I can see your eyebrow raise.

You see he would hire these beautiful women as a distraction. These lovely women would provide the most subtle sort of diversion. This center piece would cause competitors to focus on nothing but this striking woman. An ingenious tactic. Leaving people wondering about this attorney's ability to hire and retain such a pretty assistant. And of course what else could be going on.....why else would he hire such women?

That's brilliant. So long as the assistant remains eye candy and nothing else.