Merry Christmas everyone! I thought I'd post some pictures of my Chrismas tree ornaments. I could have posted pics of the entire tree, but that would involve picking up the general area surrounding the tree, and after last night's shift at the hospital, that just wasn't going to happen. A lot of my ornaments were purchased on my trips overseas so it is always fun to get them out of storage and decorate. I'll also have you know that I waited until AFTER Thanksgiving before I put it up! I'm usually excited for Christmas as early as June, and I've been known to put the tree up on or before Halloween! And of course Christmas came far too early this year, as it does every year for me. I will have Christmas day off and I look forward to spending a quiet day at home with a big plate of breakfast, some Christmas specials, a pair of knitting needles and some yarn, and then a long and glorious slumber! Travel safely everyone as you make your way to family and friends to celebrate.

Merry Christmas To You and Yours!

High Quality Item

My family finds great humor in tackiness. Here is one small example of such joy! Years ago I actually PAID MONEY for this ornament at a Big Lots store because I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, and wouldn't it be a great gift item for my then new-to-the-family sister in law? I wrapped it up and it ended up on her pile of gifts as they were dispersed from under the tree. I will never forget the look on her face when she opened it! You could tell she was trying to be polite but she just couldn't quite hide the confusion in her facial expression! When I told her it was meant to be a joke, she laughed with relief and since then it has become the traveling lucky present! My brother in law got it the following year and it was prominently displayed in my sister's glittering china cabinet. My brother was the recipient the year after that...and he lost it or forgot about it, but my sister in law unearthed it this fall and has since returned it to circulation. My sister received it this year and no doubt it will resume its place of high esteem.

PastryPro!

My sister in law drew my name for the gift exchange this year and she got me EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED! I leaf through and drool all over the King Arthur Flour baking catalog every month, and this particular item had caught my fancy. It is a PastryPro pastry blender and was supposed to be super tough! I have gone through quite a few pastry blenders in my time because I bend the tines all out of shape and using a wire one is right out. You can imagine how thrilled I was to open my gift and find this inside, and when they say it is tough, they weren't kidding! I bet I could do a handstand off this thing and it wouldn't harm it at all! Thank you Amy!

Additional: Please note the tacky Christmas Tree Diorama Display in my bed room! ;) I'll post pics of my proper tree on Christmas!

Get OFF my needles!

Happy Birthday Melissa! And since I probably won't see her til next week, I think it is safe to post a pic of her present here! This is knit from some stash yarn that my mother gave to me YEARS ago. It's a mohair/wool/acrylic blend that I've never known what to do with, that is until Melissa pointed out that she used to have a beige scarf like the one patterned in Handknit Holidays. Scarves are usually knit with short rows back and forth until they are the desired length. THIS scarf was knit lengthwise increasing in each stitch every fourth row to create the ruffles until it eventully became wide enough. You start out with 100 stitches and end up with over 3,000! And I don't know why, but it just seemed like it took so much longer to knit than a conventional scarf. Maybe it was just because the rows were SO long...what we would call a knitting black hole! I used my NeedleMaster needles and at the end had about 4 feet of nylon cord rigged up between my two needles!

Were you ever in any doubt?

I stayed up all last night to finish these in time for Christmas lunch today! I had the RECIPIENT of one of the bags pick me up two zippers at 2300 or so, and then I went back to the store myself to obtain the final needed one! They are filled with little goodies like popcorn, a candle, a smelly soap, chapstick, cocoa mix, etc. I really hope the girls like them! I really didn't spend much on the goodies, and all the fabric and trims I already had so I was good about "use what you have" for this undertaking! You'd think it was April. It's sad to think that I STILL have 3 more to make, but that Christmas lunch insn't until next week!

Deadlines!

Earlier in the week I spent some time dinking around when instead I should've been cleaning, but I found something to occupy my hands while I was busy wasting time and delaying the inevitable. I wrapped all of my co-worker bath bomb gifts with glittered tissue paper, bagged them individually in plastic, and tied them with jute twine, you know, for that rustic look. ;)

We had knitting night here on Sunday with Brenda the Hooker and Melissa, and even DeeDee managed to make an appearance. Melissa tried her hand at needle felting and we later had our first crafts related injury! And of course we took a picture of it--she bled and EVERYTHING!

And tonight I spent some time fooling around making a beaded tassel out of perle cotton with an elephant charm. It will go in one of the gifts that I hope to start AND finish today (including the remaining FOUR of the same I have to get done TODAY). I will post pics of those when (and IF!!!) I get them done before Urban Family Christmas Lunch tomorrow. This added gift is for the as yet unnamed friend ;) who collects elephants and I remembered I had this tiny charm. He must be carved out of stone of some sort, and was brought to me by my college roommate after a trip to India. He has been sitting inside the brass box she also brought me and I've never really known what to do with him. I think he will like his new home though :)

Baptism

We baptized my new niece Annika this last weekend. My Grandpa Maynerd came and we had a very nice lunch together as a family. My brother and his family had been home with my parents for much of the week and had Thanksgiving together and I got to have a bit of Thanksgiving that weekend since I worked over the holiday. My mother embroidered and sewed a hardanger baptismal dress for Annika and the hardanger baptismal towel (she makes all the baptismal towels for our church). You can always tell if it is a big deal at our house if Mom has the farmers rose norwegian dishes set out! She also put out all of her norwegian Hennig figurines as a centerpiece! The fiddler is hers, but the rommegrot girl is mine and will be given to me if I ever move into a home that would house a china cabinet! Annika was such a good girl during church and didn't cry during the service.


And since I wasn't home on the actual day, I made the traditional holiday frosted sugar cookies when I got home. These are known around our house as "Rest Home Sugar Cookies" because years ago my mother (a degree holding Home Economist) gave a demonstration/activity at the local nursing home on how to bake these cookies. This is the only recipe I've ever known for frosted sugar cookies, but apparently all other recipes call for chilling the dough and it's a big production. These are mixed up and baked (you still have to cut in the butter but oh well) and then frosted. They are funny though because the cookies are always quite crisp when baked and I like a soft cookie. I use the Wilton frosting recipe and once frosted, the cookies have to sit out for a few hours so the frosting will "dry" on the surface and soften the cookie (these can only be made in the fall/winter/spring. They will not dry as they need to during the summer). Then they are packed between waxed paper. I didn't have much brown food coloring paste as you can see, so I decided to go for a fun "Technicolor" look! Just think of all the carcinogens in those artificial colors! I would also have you note the SHAPE of these cookies! I am very fussy about how they look when frosted and will not accept offers of help to frost. Those Tom Turkeys are an awkward shape and are very time consuming to frost, but then Thanksgiving only comes once a year. I really love Valentines day (hearts) and Easter (eggs are way easy, but the bunnies are a bit of a problem), Halloween is ok (pumpkins-yes, ghosts and black cats-no), etc. Either way it is an all day activity, but I always make at LEAST a double batch so we have some in the freezer and some to send home with people, etc. Cookie anyone?