Merry Christmas

Long time no blog!  While we were in silent mode, 

we have:

 Visited Santa

Saw Wicked at the Fox.  It was excellent.

Also, made lots of Christmas presents, like

this little bag that Annabeth sewed for me, and

this scarf I made for Thalia (uber-cool Tardis voile from Spoonflower), and

an amigurumi Dr. Who, 10th doctor (found the pattern on Ravelry), and

this little knitted fairy-rat I made for Annabeth (again, found the pattern on Ravelry), and

this bottle cap necklace featuring Sherlock that Thalia made Annabeth, and

these Dr. Who ornaments Annabeth made for Thalia (Spoonflower fabric, again -- a fat quarter was supposed to be used for finger puppets, but she stuffed them and attached Tardis-blue ribbons for hanging).

Plus, of course,

cookie making time!

Which had more of a Hobbit theme this year (yeah, the kids went to see the movie in IMAX that first Friday morning -- cheaper prices, but still able to see the Star Trek preview).

Then we were pretty much ready for Santa!

More Merriment

This past week we continued our Christmas celebrations in Indiana, visiting my parents.  This shall be remembered as the Cupcake Christmas -- my sister-in-law provided dessert in the form of a cupcake sampler from a shop in Lafayette.  She cut them up so we could try the different flavors.

Action shot of a bacon cupcake sampling (the base is supposed to taste like pancake; the frosting was very light and fluffy, with a maple flavor):

I also forced the kids to play some of their recital pieces in the main lobby, which is always popular with the people around there, but fairly unpopular with the Thalia and Annabeth:

Then back home late Wednesday night, by which time I was thinking ahead to our next adventure, which was a wedding Friday afternoon.  I had absolutely nothing to wear.  So Thursday morning after taking Thalia to the doctor for yet another vax for the trip to the Dominican Republic, I went to Hancock Fabric and got some poly/rayon ponteroma (on sale for 30% off, plus I had a coupon for 15% my purchase -- woot!).  I used Butterick 5523,  purchased months ago on sale.

I slapped it together Thursday afternoon and evening.  Unfortunately, I chose the size to make based on my measurements and the fact that I had read a review that it was snug through the bodice back.  When I tried it on I looked like a little girl playing dress up in her mom's closet -- I was swimming in it.  That's when I remember that a prime measure for choosing a dress size when sewing is the shoulders -- mine are narrow.  So I took the sleeves off, undid the side seams, walloped about a half inch off all of the vertical seams, and sewed it back up (fortunately I hadn't serged it, choosing instead to use a narrow zigzag, which was pretty easy to rip out).  It was still a little loose, so I put a couple of tucks in the back, made the self-belt thingy, for which I covered a couple of buttons in the purple fabric (I had some large button forms already -- who knows why those were in the button box, but I'm glad they were there), tacked the belt over the tucks, and was ready to go.

In the meantime, Thalia had tried on all of her fancy dresses and discovered that the ones that were an appropriate length no longer fit.  She asked if I could take in the bodice of her 8th grade graduation dress (Simplicity 4070), which was now too big and baggy (as she's gotten taller she's apparently gotten more slender).  This time she styled it with a big black belt and taller shoes.

 It would be better with black shoes, of course.  And the bandaid (from the vax) on her arm brought to mind a tattoo, which I suggested as being sort of edgy with this dress.  Also, a black leather jacket would be edgy, not that she owns one.

So now she has visions of making another of these, but in red with black lace, for a future formal dance.  Also a leather jacket and 6 inch black heels.  No tattoo, though.

The giant Christmas tree at the Metropolitan Building:

View from our table up on the 42nd floor:

Thalia was seated at the other end of the room, with a view of the Arch.  And Rick was running around talking to people when someone offered to take the picture. The wedding was really beautiful, by the way.  The bridesmaids wore purple dresses with little belts in the back (just like me!), except theirs were floaty chiffon.

And I think that's the END of Christmas.

Random Bits of Christmas

We went to a 9pm Christmas Eve service (and Rick sang the actual words to the song, not switching up   Nobis Pacem with Obese Possums as he had threatened).  It was a lovely service that ended up with everyone holding lit candles while singing Silent Night.  Annabeth had never been to anything like that before, since we stopped messing with that sort of thing when she was little and we were living in northwest Ohio where it was too cold and snowy to be dragging a little kid around to Christmas Eve services late at night.  

Of course, that meant that we didn't get home until fairly late, particularly since on the way home we discovered a large subdivision totally lit up with luminaries, thousands upon thousands of them.  They probably do this every year, but we'd never seen it before since we'd never gone out on Christmas Eve before.  We ended up driving around it some just to look at all the luminaries, and got slightly lost.

So, home late, and still had to finish up the annual treasure hunt -- Rick had to finish writing the clues, which this year were a takeoff of Madeline since he and the girls had been reading that aloud a few days before.  Then the clues had to be hidden (the kids were in bed by this time, and theoretically asleep), and the final gifts hidden away at the end of the hunt.

Which meant that when the cat came in the room and stood on my nightstand announcing that the Christmas tree lights had come on at 5:45am, I was totally dead, and tried to shoo him out of the room.  Except the kids were up by 6am.  Self portrait of how I look with less sleep than I need to function rationally:

In spite of the lack of sleep, it was a fun morning.  Santa brought Thalia the latest Percy Jackson book, a fluffy Panda Pillow Pet, and a sweatshirt from the Lotus Casino (which all makes sense if you've read all the books):

I got this swanky vase that they'd found at an estate sale. (This Christmas featured quite a bit of secondhand shopping and some crafting -- Dave Ramsey would be proud):

 Annabeth was thrilled to get convertible mitten/gloves, and as a bonus they were Hello Kitty themed (these were from Thalia):

Oddly, no pictures of Rick opening gifts.  Be assured that he was quite happy to get a Thor Christmas tree ornament.

Next, omelets for breakfast, along with smoked turkey. I was surprised to find a bit of bone in mine, since it was supposed to be boneless turkey.  Then I realized that it was actually a large chunk of one of my molars.  Ack!

Rick headed out to go to church.  The rest of us opted to be heathens, figuring we'd already gone to church the night before.  I took a nap and sulked about my broken tooth.  Thalia lounged with her Panda Pillow Pet

 and Annabeth apparently painted her nails and took dozens of pictures with the camera, which I just now found when I loaded the photos to the computer.

The rest of the day was spent quietly -- fire in the fireplace, watching movies, playing with gifts.  A nice way to spend the holiday, other than the tooth issue.

So far ...

So far we've had a rat in the tree:

We've gone to see Beauty and the Beast:

We've made butter cookies:

And decorated them (after an emergency trip to the store for sprinkles, etc., when we realized we were almost out):

Including a special cookie Annabeth made for Santa (which I think is so awesome I sort of want to lacquer it and keep it forever):

And had our special family reading of the Christmas story while the kids used the manger scene to act it out:

Still to come: the Christmas Eve service at church, which we usually don't go to.  But Thalia and Rick are singing in the choir.  And Rick has discovered that the words "Nobis Pacem" sound a lot like "Obese Possum", and is wondering if he can get away with singing it that way.

Busy Hands

Annabeth went to a birthday party earlier this week.  She made a scarf for her friend out of fabric she found in the basement, plus some  pompom fringe.

 I had purchased this fabric years ago, probably from Sewzanne's.  Never used it, obviously, and now the kids aren't interested in wearing things with little pink ballerinas.  But her friend loved it -- she studies dance, so it was very appropriate.

Also, I've been knitting a scarf for myself.  Something to do while waiting, which is how I seem to spend a lot of my life.

 I had the yarn, Lorna's Laces sportweight in Cranberry, in the basement for about as long as I had the fabric.  I think I was going to make the kids warm socks; the red color reminded me of Little House on the Prairie.  (I had amazing intentions about what I was going to make the kids over the years.  Also, we have interesting supplies squirreled away in our basement, some of which are holdovers from those projects that never saw the light of day.)

And we've had the annual cat-in-the-Burger's-box photo.

Every year someone sends us something from Burger's Smokehouse.  Every year the cat wants to sit in the box.  And we take the same photo of him in the box every year.  Another Christmas tradition fulfilled.

Ten on Tuesday: 10 Things I have to do before Christmas

Bridgett participates in the Ten on Tuesday meme, and when I saw her blog post today I thought this was a particularly good topic since it involves making a checklist of things to get done this week, which many of us are doing anyway, so it's sort of like multitasking blogging (okay, was that sentence long and run on enough?).  So here's mine:

1. Take Thalia to the county health department for a typhoid shot.  Which isn't particularly festive, but seemed like a clever time to go do it because we're not slogging around to lessons and classes this week.

2.  See Beauty and the Beast at the Fabulous Fox.

3. Wrap presents.  Nary a present has been wrapped by me yet.  The kids have done theirs.

4. Receive more presents from UPS and/or mail.  Because they've been shipped, but haven't shown up here yet.  Which has put a crimp in that whole wrapping scenario.  In the meantime, attempt to not dwell on what will happen if they DON'T show up here.

5.  A bit more shopping needs to be done.  I have the items in my mind, it's just a matter of locating them in a store (this is usually the dreadful part, since merchants seem to have  a startling lack of ESP about what I want).

6.  Make Favorite Butter Cookies from the recipe published in the Post-Dispatch in the early 1980s.  These are the official Santa cookie of our household.

7. Finish pants that are half done.  Actually I don't need these until next week, so I could spend Christmas Day sewing.  Hmmm, that sounds rather attractive ....

8. Help make a present for a family member who I don't think reads this, but maybe they do.

9. Get hair cut.

10. Find time for a nap.

Holiday Weekend

A trip to St. Charles Christmas Traditions, which was about 40 degrees warmer than last year.

 This year the kids collected about 17 or 18 out of 33 character cards, which was much more than last year.  They wanted to find The Town Crier, but alas, he was either on break or else just not there Saturday afternoon.  (The Town Crier falls into the category of people-we-know-playing-characters, thus the appeal, particularly since they must stay in character while talking to us).

Sunday was nearly an actual day of rest, for a change of pace.  In the evening we had a piano recital.

Annabeth warming up beforehand, hence the hat and jacket.  She played Chopin's Waltz Op. 64, No. 1, The Minute Waltz, and also an arrangement of The Holly and the Ivy.  She did a great job with both.

And here's Thalia warming up to play a duet of Sheep May Safely Graze with her teacher, followed by Joplin's The Entertainer (original version).  And she, too, did a great job.

I videoed both kids playing, but not sure I want to subject the world to that much piano recital (the Joplin piece alone is about 7 minutes long). 

We're now taking a semester off of piano.  Thalia has too much school work this year  to spend the practice time. And Annabeth wants to take the opportunity to try violin. (Optimally I'll mention this to the people in charge of the Musical Theater debacle -- that Thalia's giving up piano due to lack of time, while still stuck in a musical not of her choosing which is sucking up a few hours a week  -- and they'll feel racked with guilt, particularly since the head of the place is first and foremost a piano teacher.)

We're rounding the curve and just about in the straight away as we head towards Christmas!  

Status Report

1. Santa has been visited.

2. Cards (most of them) have been completed and put in the mail.

3. Fall Product sales are over, paperwork turned in to Neighborhood Coordinator, money deposited.  I'll turn in our troop's proceeds today.  I already threw out/recycled most of the flotsam.

4.  Co-op is over for 2011.  So are theater classes.  Last ballet class is later this week.  Feels like acres of free time spreading out in front of us.

5.  The Christmas dishes have been unboxed and are in use.

6..  Creeping closer to the "done with the presents" finish line.

Ten days to go!

This Weekend

Round one of Christmas was completed Friday night when some of the relatives came over.  Grandma and Grandpa were on their way from Indiana to Kansas City, and stopped at our house, plus an aunt and uncle came by.  We all had dinner and exchanged gifts.

Thalia had a chance to show off her new hat:

Yes, she is aware it looks rather like a chicken landed on her head.  She found it at an estate sale, and realized it would be perfect for Eulalie MacKecknie Shinn (Music Man).  Actually, it'll also be good for Elsa Schraeder.  Or, for that matter, Hello Dolly, Easter Parade ... lots of posssibilites for about $10!

Annabeth stuck with the more traditional Santa cap:

That party broke up late, we all got to bed waaaaay too late.  And were up the next morning so Annabeth could go to a dress rehearsal of the Christmas musical her choir was in at church.  And Thalia worked at the Christmas tree lot at church (required service hours for kids going on the trip to the Dominican Republic -- in addition to raising the money to pay for the trip, getting all the required immunizations and paperwork, and all the other falderal surrounding traveling overseas, they have a bunch of service projects and meetings they're required to attend).

Then zoom home, grab sandwiches to eat in the car, and off to Thalia's ballet class in a drastically different part of the county.  Followed immediately by a trip to a Panera's in yet another part of the county so Thalia could meet with some kids from her history class -- they're going to be debating feudalism in class, and were getting their arguments lined up.  They're the pro-feudalism team, in case you wondered.  I spent the time talking to another mom who decided to hang out there.

In the meantime, Annabeth and Daddy went to the climbing wall and indoor pool.

After that, it was home, order pizza, watch Christmas movies (White Christmas followed by Rudolph) and generally collapse.

And up the next morning to get to church for the Christmas musical!  Except what we didn't realize is that the music director (who is also Thalia's new voice teacher) had decided Thalia should be song leader.  Well, Thalia knew it, but hadn't bothered to tell us.  So she was up there doing a great job of leading everyone in "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly" before the musical started (particularly crappy picture since I wasn't sure about the etiquette of snapping pictures in the middle of worship -- I'm pretty sure  it's considered bad form):

Then on to the show, Arrest These Merry Gentlemen.  Which, by the way, is a cute musical.  It's sort of a send up of Dragnet.  Annabeth played Jo Sabbath.  She had watched some Dragnet videos to prep for the role.  Really, all the kids did a great job.  They did it for 2 services, by which time some of them looked sort of exhausted (the little girl in the white dress behind Annabeth's elbow was one of those  starting to fade, but she sang an absolutely awesome solo and totally stole the show by being so flippin' adorable).

Then lunch at Elephant Bar to celebrate a successful show.  Followed by more climbing wall and pool -- the climbing wall is now closed for the rest of 2011 for maintenance, so it was important to get those last hours in, you know.  The girls spent the evening babysitting for the neighbors.  Rick and I planned to spend the time planning and executing on Christmas gifts, but instead spent the time researching washing machines, since our 10 year old machine has started randomly filling with water when not in use.  A festive end to the weekend!

And now plunging into another week ....

The Past Week

In the past week we've:

Opened presents:



Sculpey rat and cat by Annabeth:


Matching totes for girl and doll designed and sewn by Thalia:


Had our traditional treasure hunt:

Usually the clues are rhymed couplets, but this year Rick did them all in haiku


one of which really struck the kids as funny


and if you read Percy Jackson books you'll know why and recognize the last line of this haiku. Plus you'll understand why the syllable count is actually perfect.


Got a Wii:


Ate a lot of omelettes (Rick got a nice omelette pan for Christmas, and spent the day perfecting his technique):



Built Lego(and if you're a Percy Jackson fan you also know why this building is a good one to have):




Visited Grandma and Grandpa:




Organized the basement (no pics, but the wrapping paper is so organized that you're going to need to submit a requisition if you want anything from that area because it is PERFECT right now, and you'd better not start rummaging around in it).

Had Aunt Vi and Uncle Chelsea over.

Played lots of Wii,Skittle Bowl and air hockey.

And read a lot. And watched lots of movies.