I knew I was sick when I was home for two days, and didn't even pick up a crochet hook! I did finish another doily - I'm not sure about the colors, but the pattern turned out pretty! The thread is variegated, and next time (if there is a next time) I will do this in a solid color so you can see the build up of the pattern.

Well, I survived Christmas just fine, and then went down with a major cold that has sucked all the energy right out of me!




Christmas was fun - Mom and Dad were here Sunday afternoon through Tuesday morning, so we had a fuller house than normal. Mom and I went to Christmas Eve services at my church, and then home for dinner (Chicken enchiladas!) AJ and I took Jasper for a walk after dinner to look at the Christmas lights, and he ran ahead with Jasper (who did not want to walk as slowly as Mom was walking) and then lost me when I took a right (even though I told him my route before we started!) He brought Jasper back so he could look for me alone, and panicked his dad, so they set out in the truck looking for me. Since Ralph panicked, he didn't take his cell phone, so when I came home a few minutes after he left, I couldn't call him to tell him to unwind a little bit. He was a little over-stressed on Christmas Eve! (It is a small neighborhood - 4 streets by about 6 streets, but they are large blocks. It is about 3/4 mile from one end of the neighborhood to the other. It would be tough to get lost in!)

Christmas morning was calmer than it used to be - since AJ is almost 14, there isn't the same "shock and awe" that Santa came, nor the immediate hurry to open presents. Don't get me wrong, he is still very anxious to open presents, but he can at least wait until everyone is up now, and not go and wake them up! Dad even got up early (for him) for Christmas, so AJ didn't have to go and get him.

AJ's big present this year was an I-Pod Nano - and he was severely disappointed when he couldn't immediately download songs - I-tunes was so impacted from everyone trying to download songs, he couldn't get on until late in the afternoon. I finally had him load a couple of my CD's he liked, and then he was OK! Jasper got her favorite toy - a big green spider! She loves this toy, and even after she tears it up, we have spider legs hanging about for months (still good for tug-a-wars!). I try to get her one every six months or so, because she just loves this guy!

I think I am pretty much ready for Christmas now. I delivered the Christmas Tea, cookies, gloves and snowflakes to Alli's school today, and they seemed to go over well. Alli wanted to go home as soon as she saw me, and was such a little pill I didn't get to stay long and talk to everyone. I did the last (I hope!) of my shopping today - picking up a spider toy for Jasper, and extra wrapping paper. I wrapped everything today, so the only things left on my to-do list are to finish up the ornaments for Ralph's office (put the strings on for hangers on the snowflakes) and make Alli a Pikacho blanket. (That, and clean up everything I have ignored this week while I finished everything else.) I baked the last of my cookies today too, and Ralph delivered two batches to the neighbors today, with one more left to deliver. I still have some cookies left for us!

Both kids finished school today, so I won't have to run in to town as much to fetch kids back and forth. I think I did four trips yesterday because basketball practice changed at the last minute. AJ will be bothering me tomorrow for something to do, as both of the neighborhood kids he plays with have something going on, and can't play with him. I think I will put him to work cleaning house! That probably won't last too long - it isn't too bad, it just needs a little "freshening up". The kitchen is a mess, mainly from all the baking I did the last two days - including the sugar cookies - decorating sugar is all over the floor. I swept it up, but it needs to be mopped!

I finished a couple of projects - one that has been hanging out for a while, and one brand new one! I started this doily around Thanksgiving, but put it aside to finish up Christmas projects. I only had a few rows to do, so I took a break from snowflakes to finish it up!

The second project is for a Christmas present, and it turned out ever so cute! It is a doll cradle purse, and is for a 3 year old that I know. (Cindy if you are reading this, don't show Rachelle yet!)


The inside of the purse is a cradle that folds up to become a purse, and it will just fit Baby Lily, I think. It turned out better than I thought it would, and I hope it gets lots of use!

Back to Normal? I am on vacation next week, so maybe life will be "back to normal" for a while. I have Monday - through Wednesday to finish all my shopping, wrapping, and most of my baking etc. For Christmas, while the kids are in school. They are out Thursday and Friday, so we can have some fun with them too! Even Ralph is on vacation!

I survived the Bank's Christmas Party! One thing led to another, and I ended up in charge of a lot more than I want to be in charge of! I made the invitations, name tags, table tent cards, ordered the food, was the go-between for the facility, band, photographer and carollers (high school group came in during dinner and sang carols for us) assisted with decorating and the entertainment (and ended up being part of the entertainment - NOT what I signed up for!) Next year, I want to just sit back and relax! That probably won't happen either, but maybe I won't get such a big chunk! Actually, it would be easier next year, and I learned a lot this year!

AJ ended up being our "babysitter" for Alli this year. Her day care provider usually watches her, but they were out of town, so I volunteered AJ to watch her. He volunteered his friend down the street to help him, and I think everything went all right! As soon as Ralph got home, they both went back to Dallas' house for a sleep-over. I will have to catch up with him today to see how it went!

We got vandalized Friday night! Nothing too major, but three teenagers hit the neighborhood and trashed between 15 and 30 lawns. (The number of lawns varies between reports) One of the kids lives just up the street from us, and the kids were caught at the scene of the crime! We had one of the neighbors handing out information sheets in the morning, and three very sorry teenagers at our door in the afternoon. One neighbor said that the estimates were around $60,000.00 for all the lawns. I think that is a little high, but...what do I know? The kids offered either to fix it themselves, of if we wanted, we could have it fixed by someone. Ralph told them he would get some estimates, and get back to them. We both think the kids need to fix the lawn themselves (nothing like manual labor to drive in a point), and since we didn't have a lot of damage, shouldn't be too much for them to handle. For us, they just need to throw out a couple of handfuls of seeds, and the lawn will probably look better! Some of the lawns were trashed a lot worse. They took out a fence and broke a waterpipe at one house the next street over from us. One good thing, we met a lot of new (to us) neighbors! If Ralph was outside, everyone that drove by stopped to talk!

The Christmas Season is underway! I had my annual kid's party (cookie decorating & ornament making party) last weekend, Ralph's company party was last weekend, and Alli had her Christmas party put on by the Board of Realtors for special needs kids - let the whirlwind begin! I had 6 extra kids here for the cookie party - three girls and three boys, for a total of 8 kids at my house! Add to that 3 extra adults, and you get a very busy house!

I decided (at the last minute of course) that Alli needed a new Christmas shirt for her party, so I got a red sweatshirt and painted a Christmas Tree on it, and glued sequins that I had on the tree to decorate it. My original plan called for me to sew the sequins on, but, as usual, I ran out of time. I will sew them on this weekend, as when she wore the shirt, some of the sequins came off, and I am sure more will come off when I wash the shirt!

To add to my "busyness", AJ made the basketball team for U-Prep, and on Tuesday and Wednesday had practices at 6:45 a.m. and again at 7:00 p.m. We are only doing p.m. practices now, but the time changes almost everyday. Monday and Wednesday, it is at 7:00 p.m and Tuesday it is at 7:30 p.m. and on Thursdays it is at 5:00 p.m., and that is just next week - the week after that is different. I may not survive basketball! Luckily, one of the neighbor kids also made the team, so we can carpool for practices (we already carpool for school)

Since I have the day off, I may catch up on a few things - like this blog! As you can see from my projects, I have been busy - just not talking about it! The Turkey Butt pin is from Thanksgiving, and I haven't typed anything since then!

I think the Turkey Butt pin turned out very cute, but next year I may try to turn it into a turkey front!




I am making the Angel Pins for co-workers - if I get them all done! Each one by itself doesn't take long, but to make 9 or 10 of them, along with everything else, I had better get to work! They are about 3 1/2 inches high, so would work well for a pin. I have also been thinking about putting a "tail" on it and making a bookmark out of it.
















These gloves are for the teacher's gifts this year. AJ has two teachers he would like them for, and Alli has one teacher, but about 8 aides in her class! I also will make one set for her morning bus driver (the afternoon is a man - probably wouldn't use them!) They work up very quickly, and use up a lot of my left over specialty yarns, so I may make more to give out too - just depends on my time. Since these take less time than my snowflakes, I may use them instead of snowflakes for some people. (not everyone - too many people count on a new snowflake each year!)