So I got LOTS of little projects done this week. First I got the baby blanket finished and I am very happy with the end result.
So then I thought how about some washcloths. Ok really it was Alex wanted me to make him something and what yarn I have isn’t enough to do a large project. So I made some Fleur De Lis Washcloths
I don’t like the orange one much. I did a tighter stitch (which isn’t normal for me) and I don’t think you can see the design as well. Of course that might be because of the color. Claire has claimed the orange one and Alex nabbed the blue. Then Molly wanted one lol.
I like this pattern. I am saving it to make some more washcloths (maybe from bamboo) for teachers next Christmas. After getting her washcloth done I got bored. So I went looking around and decided to make a headband.
It has a button enclosure on the base of it that you cannot see. The lacy pattern made like an automatic button hole. She loves it and has been wearing it all day. I wasn’t sure if she would like it since there is pink in it but she wanted it. Now I need to figure out how to make it thinner and shorter so Claire can have one.
But I wasn’t finished yet. I am currently trying to finish up some acrylic yarn I have and make some ribbon candy Christmas ornaments.
I got some red, green, and white to make a more Christmasy type one. This particular one I need to run yarn through it so it gathers up like the candy and add a ribbon to hang it with. I am thinking I might attach these to gifts next year. And I want to keep one for me. And make one for each of the kids. Thankfully I can knit one in two hours LOL!
My next big project is a market bag featuring needles I haven’t used before, double pointed and circulars. I am actually starting that Monday when I go and buy what I need and head on over to a group of us gals gathering for a knit in. A couple ladies there can help me learn the new stuff and I am excited. I just hope I don’t get bored with the ribbon candy ornaments in the meantime lol!
When I was a kid, my mom would wake us up at 12:01 am on Christmas Day to open presents. When I had my own I decided I was not going that route. We usually wake up at a more normal hour, like 6 am. Then the kids get up and tear into their stockings while we wait for Daddy who takes 20 min to go pee and brush his teeth. Things were different this year.
In the hubs family each person takes a turn to open all their gifts. And at his aunts she seperated kid time from adult time. The kids presents all went under a tree in the informal living room. The hubs played Santa.
Once he passed around all the gifts, it became chaotic lol!
It actually took longer than I thought, although Molly (whom takes after her mother in regards to gift opening) was done in 10 minutes. The other kids actually showed off each and every gift. Once they were open my own kids started digging in.
Alex decided to start off with a truck set he got.
Claire had a specific book (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days) that she really wanted and that is what she started with first.
Molly also got a book that taught how to write stories (she is always writing stories!) and that is where she started.
Meanwhile the adults went to the formal living room to begin their present opening. One cousin went first, then Aunt Doodle went. Now Aunt Doodle has a lot of friends (she is VERY social) and all of her friends sent over gifts. Aunt Doodle will not open these gifts until Christmas Day when everyone is sitting by the tree. So she had about 40 more presents than everyone else. And she is in her 70’s. And every gift has a story. And sometimes she makes phone calls while opening gifts. Long story short, we took a break for brunch as soon as she was done with her pile. I had been warned that it would take a few hours but being warned and actually sitting through it is quite different. It wasn’t even that I wanted to open mine, I just had a sore spot on my butt from sitting there lol. Anywho the kids were itching to get in the pool so during brunch the hubs got it worked out to where he would go next so he could watch the kids in the pool. So we head back. Well we had alot of mutual gifts. So after he opened his 4 gifts just for him everyone encouraged him to stick around and we open our mutual gifts. Then he escaped and everyone decided it was my turn. No matter how many times I have done this I still get uneasy with all eyes on me as I open gifts. I am a fast gift opener. I rip wrapping paper, look at it, hold it up, make a “how cute” or “omg I love this” comment and move on. No stories. Nothing. It isn’t that I don’t appreciate what I got it’s just the eyes. I can feel them and it’s not pleasant. One thing that did cause me to really react was my nutcracker this year. Aunt Doodle has been getting nutcrackers for me the last couple of years and I really hope she keeps it up. I LOVE NUTCRACKERS! My great grandmother (who was german) used to have them everywhere and to have that tradition going again just thrills me. And this years nutcracker made me just about pee my pants.
It’s a PIRATE!! I love pirates!
Another super special gift didn’t come from family. It actually came from the Festival of Trees. Not sure if this happens everywhere but here when you lose a family member to cancer you can have their name added to a tree at the holidays. I remember making the donation and requesting my brother in laws name added. Well we received an angel ornament.
This is one ornament that will have a special place up front, near the top, so it’s easy to find every year.
This is a continuation of yesterday’s post. Today we will talk about hanging out in Homestead, Florida. Still going to attempt to avoid discussing Christmas Day because that really is going to be a long post!
After arriving we didn’t really stay up late. Mostly sat and chatted. Christmas Eve I set about exploring the decorations. I have always LOVED holiday decorating and I love to check out what people have on their tree….but only if they don’t do a themed tree. No offense but themed trees just aren’t adventurous enough for me. However, Kyle’s aunt did do a themed tree of sorts.
This small tree was decorated with handmade and hand decorated sugar cookies. It is freaking adorable! She makes this every year and as her many visitors stop by (and I am serious when I say she should install a revolving door at the front of the house) they can take a cookie or two with them. She let the 5 children take as many as they wanted when they left lol. I asked her if it was ok if I borrowed her idea and did the same here at home. She was absolutely tickled and said no one had made an effort to carry on that tradition and she would be honored. Warms the heart doesn’t it? The tree in the background I could not get a good shot of. It is well over 10′ tall and covered in an eclectic array of ornaments. I think I spent an hour staring at all of the ornaments and still didn’t see them all.
One of the other cute little items she had out was her Christmas Flamingo.
The flamingo has been a family joke and she has grown to love her flamingo. This one was a gift she received many years ago. I personally want to steal it. But now I can’t because I just incriminated myself
We spent our days relaxing. I got quite a bit of knitting done. The kids went swimming both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Although it is hot outside the water is quite cold. Colder than I expected. I didn’t jump in until Christmas Day when the water hit 70 degrees and outside temps were 85. The hubs spent all the time he could with the kids in the pool. They loved it and I think out of the entire trip that is the one thing they can’t wait to tell their schoolmates about.
We also watched lots of tv specials.
And eating alot. OMG did we eat alot of wonderful good food. Christmas Eve we had Oyster Stew and a Seafood Stew. I am not a fan of oysters so Seafood Stew was what I opted for. YUM! Christmas Day was “roast beast”. My mother in law made shrimp just for me, she also made me some cheesy eggs one morning so I didn’t have to eat the egg casserole that had sausage in it. I had informed her she didn’t have to cook special food for me but she reminded me that I went out of the way to make her a chicken for Thanksgiving dinner (she is allergic to turkey). I thanked her and kept quiet after that. I still don’t see it the same. I am just making dietary changes, it’s not like I am allergic to red meat and pork lol. But anyway it was sweet and my digestive system appreciated it. The one thing we ate that I really loved was the hubs cousins’ homemade pesto with pinenuts. Oh. My. Gawd. Even my kids loved it and they really don’t like anything!
And while we were visiting we squeezed in a trip to the Everglades. We discovered that our $10 fee to get in is good for 6 days. So now we are talking about taking a trip down for a week so we can spend more than a day at the park. It is awesome seeing all of the alligators, birds, and turtles.
Well we are back home from our trip to Homestead Florida. In short, it was a great vacation. I really didn’t think I could handle a holiday away from home and in a tropical location. Yea well I was way wrong. I have so much to say and so many pics to show that I think I will break this up over the next few days. I don’t want to overload anyone lol. So today, let’s discuss driving 900+ miles (we think) with 3 kids and a vanful of presents.
We set out Wed Dec 23 at 4am
Originally the plan was to leave at 3 but I overslept. Then getting 3 kids up and the hubs up was a wee bit challenging. But I got them moving and we headed out. We originally thought the trip would be 15 hours not including stops. Wrong, we got to Homestead at 7:00 in the evening. WITH the traffic in West Palm and Miami! But hold on, I am getting ahead of myself.
It doesn’t take long to get to SC, only about an hour to an hour and a half. Depends on traffic. And it was freezing when we left and our roads were icy. Once we got near SC though it was nice and clear. We filled up at Exit 10 cause they got the CHEAPEST gas on the entire trip, $2.37! Eventually the sun came up and traffic was light.
When we got to Georgia I was a bit more excited. It really felt like we were making progress. As a way to break up the monotony we stopped at the Georgia visitor center. The kids each got a road map and took potty breaks. They also argued over what movie to watch next. Oh yes, major tip…..borrow or rent a van with dvd player. How did my parents get by without this road trip necessity?? My kids were so amazingly well behaved due to the use of tv as a mind numbing drug for moms sanity!
We also stopped at the Florida visitor center. Kids got free cups of orange juice, maps, and checked out the Christmas Tree.
I loved their choice in ornaments.
Around the time we hit Jacksonville is when my enthusiasm waned.
I did most of the driving. A couple times the hubs took over so I could nap. But mostly it was me (and I promise I was not driving when I snapped the above picture). Jacksonville is almost 30 miles over the Florida border and hitting the border kinda thrilled me because I know it’s the last state to hit. BUT. It’s like traveling through Virginia……unbearably long with not much to look at but other cars. Somehow we got through it though. The hardest part for my hubs was when we hit West Palm. We stopped for a gas/potty break. Another tip, I highly recommend you train children to use the potty at gas breaks and time your eating breaks with your gas breaks just to minimize how many times you have to stop. Of course you always have that one evil child who purposely holds their bladder until 5 minutes after a break and no gas station or rest area in sight for 30+ miles. His name will be Alex. I think he does it just so we let him pee on a tree. ANYWHO, back to West Palm. We got our gas and ran to the bathroom and switched drivers which meant it was back to my turn. I think hubs did this on purpose. No sooner did we pull out did 50083957239570 cars suddenly appear. And when we hit Miami and had to get on US1 it got worse. Bumper to bumper traffic and we moved a foot every 5 minutes. I was actually pretty patient with it, I mean it’s Miami! But hubs bitched and it made our sitting time not so enjoyable.
We finally arrived and we all fell all over each other just to get out the car. We were met with hugs (many apologies to the family for my stinky butt hugging them) and liquor. Nothing makes all that driving better than being met with 7&7.
Our trip home was a bit more uneventful. We decided to spend the money on the toll roads and take the turnpike up to Fort Peirce. Trust me on this, if you are going to take 95 down and are going near West Palm, Miami, or further south….take the turnpike. It’s worth the money. I think we spent $10 on the tolls. We also opted to take two days to head back. We left Sat 26th around 4:30 and got just north of Jacksonville around midnight and grabbed a room. It helped ALOT!
Next blog post will be some random pictures about what we did. But not Christmas Day. That is a whole post in itself.
So yesterday we hit Walmart because I needed so many different things I thought I would save myself the hassle of visiting 5 different stores and go to one. I went straight to the Christmas center and looked through ornaments. I finally found some labeled mini. I looked at them and bought them even though I didn’t they were mini. Remember those mini christmas trees and mini ornaments? Yea, I can’t find those ANYWHERE in town! I have checked dollar stores, dollar generals, Big Lots, Targets, and Kmarts. Nada. So yea, I settled for what they had. I forgot Walmart got rid of their craft section (stoopid Walmart, now I remember why I hadn’t set foot in there….other than the obvious crowded reasons). So after last minute shopping and what not we went around the corner to J&S Cafeteria for some dinner. It just so happens to be next to AC Moores. So after we ate I ran over there to get the glitter….and picked up a couple knitting books lol. So we get home and I have 4 doz cookies that still need to be made for the teachers at the daycare. While I have those in the oven I whip out everything for the soaps. Man, was I excited. Until. Until I checked the size of the “mini” ornaments in the ice cube tray….too big. Way too big. So I panic because I am really out of time by now. I finish the cookies while racking my brain trying to figure out what next. I come up with what I thought was brilliance. Why not use a muffin pan? Oh yea that would work, right? No.
First, here are the ornaments I picked out. They came in packages of 6.
So I melted down the soaps and added just a drop of blue food coloring, then some glitter.
Looks good so far, right? Yea well then I put the ornaments in anyway, even though they were too big. First I noticed mine floated to the top (well bottom of the snowglobe) and I needed to let the globes cool just a little bit. Timing that was hard. Once I got them in place i had to hurry and put the white soap shavings on top so they would adhere and keep ornament in place.
The pictures don’t show it well but the ornaments were actually peaking out so I dumped MORE shavings on. Then I shoved them in the oven in hopes they would melt a bit (they didn’t, just got hard). I finally just let them sit and cool and figured maybe it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Wrong.
You can’t even SEE the ornament?
So here is the deal. Don’t use a muffin pan. I am going to try and find some deep ice trays (cause I am determined to make these work!). I think you can’t see the ornament because there is more glycerin than in the sample I had seen. I am hoping I will be able to find some small MINI ornaments at the Dollar Store around Easter time. I am still flabbergasted at how difficult it was to get everything to do this. I guess I should have taken it as a sign and held off from making them.
Here it is, the first one my kids ever made! I hope that we get snow more often in the future. They enjoy it so much. I just hope if we get it, we get it without the power outages. There are still over 30,000 people without power here in WNC. My heart goes out to all the people without the power and the workcrews busting their butt to get the power back up and running.
We are supposed to get more on Thursday. We are supposed to leave Wednesday. We are faced with a new problem because of our dog. See normally when we go out of town we arrange to have someone come by in the morning to let her out and feed her, then someone comes by in the evening to bring her in and refill her water. We leave out an exceptionally large bowl for water so that she is well hydrated. But now with another snowstorm coming (and coming from the Gulf which usually does us in) I am worried that people won’t be able to get over here. She can’t handle being out all night and if someone can’t get to her she won’t be fed and watered well. My neighbors are all going out of town so I am worried. We are trying to find someone who can take her to their house. Otherwise I may have to stay home so that we can be sure she is taken care of. NOT something I am happy about. I checked boarders and most are full and the ones that aren’t are demanding more money than I can handle. Hell by them time we paid a boarder we wouldn’t have anything left to drive down! So yea, it’s not looking real holiday like for us. Well for me anyway. Hopefully we find out today what is going on with that and maybe have the issue resolved.
Also today we have a birthday party to go to. The kids will love that, it’s at CHuck E Cheese….the place I won’t have a birthday party at. Don’t get me wrong, Chuck E Cheese is a great place. It’s just ours is super tiny and has got nothing on Fun Depot. Fun Depot is similar but about 10 times bigger and offers laser tag, an indoor go kart track, outdoor go kart track, indoor putt putt, bumper cars, AND a batting cage. Yea, lots more going on at the Fun Depot! But anyway, we are going to Chuck E Cheese and they are excited.
Today I also finish my father in law’s scarf. Doesn’t matter if I use up the second skein or not, I am done. Been working on this thing for 2 weeks and I am seriously tired of looking at it. Been using the hubs as the model and I am sure that despite the fact it doesn’t reach the tops of his pants yet, it’s ok. Why? Cause hubs is much bigger around then his father. So yea, it’s gonna be done today. YAY!
Oh and last night’s Winter Solstice ritual was cancelled I was so looking forward to it but I don’t blame them. So Molly and I will probably do something small here at the house tonight. She will love that since I usually work alone lol.
Oh and check out this cool timelapse video of the snowstorm!
Plastic cookies are those premade dough cookies you can buy through school fundraisers and at the store. They don’t have that homemade taste. I am not even sure how to explain homemade taste lol. But anyway, it’s cheating and I cheated yesterday.
True to my plan I spent the morning cleaning, wrapping gifts, apple butter making, cookie baking, and I ended up knitting in the evening. Not all of the gifts are wrapped. I ran out of tape when I got down to one kids Santa gifts. Way to go mom, way to plan for plenty of tape! Oh well, that I can work on tonight. As I wrapped I discovered the oldest doesn’t hardly have anything in comparison to the youngest. The middle child has more than oldest but not as much as youngest. So guess what I get to do Mon night? yep, even it out.
The cookies went well. They are premade and premeasured. I just placed them on a cookie sheet and shove in the oven. I felt bad for cheating but it was nice to save the mixing for this weekend with the kids who want to make cookies so bad they are about to explode. I also misread the label of these cookies. I said 24 in each, yea no…..48. I had 3 different kinds and I cooked them all. 12 dozen cookies. And my homemade batches will make around another 4 dozen all together. Guess what the kids are going to eat on the way to Florida???
Apple butter making went so much smoother yesterday. First my mother in law let me borrow her apple corer/parer tapletop clamp thingymajiggy. I want one. Normally it takes me an hour to core, pare, and chop the apples for apple butter, depending on how much I am doing. What I did yesterday would have taken about 30 minutes. But with the thingymajiggy I got done in 15 minutes. And I didn’t chop the apples. I followed my normal recipe and tossed it all into the crockpot. Turned it on high and 4 hours later I used my hand masher to smoosh up the apples. It turned out perfect. Oh man do I love using the crockpot for the apple butter!
After all of that I took an hour nap. It was nice to nap. And when I got up hubs and kids were walking in the door. So I sat an knitted the rest of the night while hubs took care of dinner.
Depending on weather today will depend on what happens. We are supposed to get around 3-6 inches of snow but the school hasn’t been called off yet. It’s not quite 6 am. If it ends up being called off then I may have the kids help me make some cookies today just to keep them occupied. Otherwise I am heading into the office. I hope to have the last scarf done by Sunday night. I don’t think it will take that long but that is my deadline.
Pain = cramps. Why am I cramping this bad??? I quit the ciggs, I figured that is why I was in so much pain last month. What happened to my painless cycles?? I MISS YOU!! Oh well, at least I wasn’t real late this time. As a matter of fact I will be getting over this right when we head to Florida. Which is good cause who the hell wants to be cramping in a car for 15 hours with 3 kids and a snoring hubby?? No one I know!
So since I am hurting, bloated, and feeling quite pissy I decided to stay home. I have no work to get done so all I would do is sit and knit and watch hulu. Which would get me further to the end of that scarf but when I thought about my to-do list here at the house I decided a day off would be best. In the last hour I have cleaned up the dining room and living room. I grabbed all the presents that need to be wrapped with the exception of homemade gifts and the stuff we ordered that isn’t here yet. So I am taking a break before I tackle the pile that is waiting. Then I will get cracking on more apple butter. This time I am making that in the crockpot, why I never thought to do that before I don’t know. I was talking with someone on twitter about canning and they mentioned using their crockpot. I really like that idea much better. After that I am going to start on some cookies. Mr.P has a client who did one of those cookie dough fundraiser things. Anyway they had received a dozen free boxes from the company and were disbursing it out to whomever they knew. Mr.P brought home 3. Each one makes 2 doz cookies. AND I have some oatmeal cookies I am making AND some choc chip I am making. But I think for today I will just do the premade dough ones, leave the others to do this weekend with the kids. Then we will give some to the daycare and a neighbor of ours. I am trying to move away from the cookie thing because everyone does cookies and people get cookie’d out. Well I should say that that is what Mr. P’s two daycare clients have told them. Lil Man’s daycare no one seems to do that. I only know that because the director mentioned how much she missed us between the time Claire was there to when lil man started. She had stated that I spoiled her lol. We also make them Easter candies too. This is their last tray of Christmas cookies and next Easter is their last candy. I could try to put them on the list later on but I know I will forget.
A question to ponder: Do you ever struggle with being nice? I don’t mean just at this time of year but just in general. In the last 6 months I have struggled with the idea that it just doesn’t pay to be nice. It seems like every time I try I end up pissing someone off and lots of drama ensues. Drives me crazy! So anyway, think about that. Any advice on how to get past that would be appreciated. I don’t really want to be mean and I am not looking for alot of “thank you, you are wonderful” comments by being nice. I just want people to shut the hell up and be nice to others. Maybe that is another blogpost. This just sounds too cryptic but I don’t want to dredge it up right now cause I am pmsy and would cry.
Ugh, sorry. I didn’t want to leave it on that note. Oh well, it’s time to eat!
So I ended up battling the stores yesterday. I needed to get the supplies to making snowglobe soaps. I am about to cry again because the trip was unsuccessful. I went to AC Moore’s because I had a 50% off coupon AND a coupon to get 50 extra points on my rewards card with a $25+ purchase. Easy peasy considering what I needed. Went straight to the soap and candle aisle. Their soap supplies were severely lacking. All they had was goats milk, olive oil, and white glycerin. I need clear glycerin. The goats milk and white are not useable at all. The olive oil I don’t think is because it has this funky yellow greenish tint to it. And when I dye it blue, will we be able to see the toy inside? Yea, I don’t know. So I didn’t buy anything for the soap project there. Instead I called the hubs and he gave me Michael’s number and I called them. No dice, they don’t have clear either. Now I am stuck because we don’t have alot of craft shops here. So I continue on picking items up. I got yarn for a scarf someone wants me to make and yarn for baby bibs I am making as a gift for a pregnant friend. I also went ahead and picked up a knitting magazine which had some amazing shrug patterns and christmas ornaments we could make for next year. I also noticed they had some kids stuff on sale. I ended up getting three different types of Blendy Pens, one for each kid. Couldn’t beat it when it was almost 50% off! But I am still upset about the glycerin. I got on Twitter to my local peeps to get suggestions on any other place and I got one lead. When I called they don’t carry soap making supplies, they only offer methods on their website. Why would you offer a craft method/technique on your site but not carry the supplies??
I also went by Cracker Barrel……twice. They had this awesome plate that says “Christmas Calories Don’t Count”. Absolutely adorable and perfect for my mother in law. She had made a joke at Thanksgiving about how she was going to pig out because Thanksgiving calories didn’t count. So I go and they had one plate left but it had marks on it. I have made some pottery in the past and it looked like paint splatter that someone missed before putting the plate in the oven. The end result actually looked like food stains. So I didn’t get the plate. They had a mug with matching spoon that said it so I grabbed that. Or so I thought. I got it to the office and showed it to my father in law and it actually said “Santa I can explain”. I looked at him and mentioned I thought I grabbed the right one. The mugs were originally $5.99 but Cracker Barrel had them on sale for 40% off ,so I paid less than $4 after tax. At lunch we went back to Cracker Barrel and I grabbed the right one. I didn’t do an exchange, the other one can go into the gift closet for someone else at some point in time. We ate and as we checked out I asked the girl if we could open the box and make sure i was getting the right one. WHY I thought to do this I don’t know but I am really glad because the spoon was broken into 3 peices! It was the right mug but bad spoon so the lady went over to the display and checked the last mug and grabbed the spoon from that one.
After that I was tired! I still had to go by the grocery store for some baking supplies and bread, cereal, and dog food. I have to go back out for one more thing and some stocking stuffers next Monday. I have decided I can’t wait to get on the road lol. Cause that means no more stores for me!
I think it’s due to my lack of sleep last night. I woke up at 2 am andcouldn’t go back to sleep. BLAH!
Anywho, we got an email from Swiss Colony that 4 of the items we ordered aren’t available anymore. Fortunatley we have a backup plan for 3 of them.Not sure what we are going to do for the 4th person. GR! Here I thought things would go smoothly.
Yesterday the girls started knitting again.
Hopefully they stick with it this time. It was nice just sitting and knitting with them last night. I found it interesting that Claire has picked up the basic knit stitch much quicker than Molly. They are at different intellectual levels. Wait, that sounds like one isn’t as smart as the other. It isn’t so much that as they are equally smart but just in differing ways. Once the kids were in bed I had joked with hubs that perhaps Molly needed a more difficult method to understand it. Don’t ask me why but that is just how she thinks. When she explains math or science to me from school and I mention a simpler way to think it, she gets angry and says it doesn’t make sense. There was a recent argument over doing long division. I kicked out the old school method and she says they use it sometimes at school but she doesn’t get it. How she does it looks more long, drawn out, and difficult. At various parent/teacher conferences, her teacher has told me she is the same at school. At least it’s not me!
Anyway, I plan on trying to encourage them to keep it up. We battle alot of how long to spend on the computer. Since I have picked the needles back up I am not online as much. And now with some commissioned work and projects for each month, I won’t have time for online stuff in the evenings. Speaking of which, I found a site that is going to run a “can along” for all of 2010. Each month a different type of food is showcased and everyone uses a recipe with that food to can. I signed up to participate and I am thrilled! I really cannot wait for that to start next month. I had told Mr. P I wanted to start canning at least once a month so that I can understand it better and try to find new things to make. Looks like the perfect setup to me!
I was so looking forward to it but I don’t blame them. So Molly and I will probably do something small here at the house tonight. She will love that since I usually work alone lol.
