A Very Harry Christmas

From back left: Hermione, Ron, Harry.
From front left: Snape, Voldemort

Introducing Potter Puppet Pals ornaments. I like to think of them as poorly crafted charmingly naive.  I spotted them on Pinterest a few weeks ago and knew that I had to figure out how to make them for Rebekah.

Mischief managed.

The Week in Review OR My Slip is Showing

Since it's only a little over a week until Christmas, I can't really show pictures of everything I've done, but here is a bit of what's been going on at our house:



The youth activity this week was making 'gingerbread' houses (no actual gingerbread was harmed in the making....).  Danny proved himself a genius and simply constructed a 'swimming pool' and then poured his entire bag of mini M&M's in it - thus bypassing the fiddly step of picking the good stuff off and eating it.  We were able to go straight to the eating.



I was able to earn some big brownie/matrimonial points with Steve by making a thermal slip for his mother.  It's just like a regular slip, but lined with fleece.  I would have gotten it done sooner, but when I asked Steve to find out what type of slip (half or full), he came back with the wrong answer: three quarters.  I then packaged said slip AND went to the post office today and queued up to send it off.

On Wednesday Alex finally got the wires removed from his mouth! That evening we canned 18 cans of stuff in #10 cans: Beanland soup mix, red lentils, sugar and powdered sugar.  We had to get it done Wednesday night because I only had the can sealer checked out until Thursday noon.  Yes, we had it a full week and yes, we waited until the last possible moment to use it. What's your point?

Best in Show

This was our year!  Granted, the competition was pretty light, but I think our pumpkins were pretty dang awesome.  I made the pattern myself - sort of.  I screen captured the ones that I had pinned on Pinterest, then enlarged them a bit and printed them up, traced with a push pin - then I cut out Ferb, Steve did Phineas. I'm pretty sure we'll be impressing some trick or treaters with these babies on Monday.


Not only did we get 'certificates', we also got some booty.



Pinecones, three ways.

Sherri called me up this morning and said, "I got the eggs!"  It was a bit of a non sequitur (the only eggs on my mind are the two dozen eggs I need to get for Daniel's campout tomorrow)...but we straightened it out.  She got the styrofoam eggs for making the pine cone ornaments.

So...for the last time, here are some more pictures of the pine cones I made - this time showing the tops. Every one I made is a little different, but most share elements.  For instance, I bought one package of assorted sizes of jingle bells - and used whatever size or amount I felt like.  I purchased one or two fake ferns fronds that were covered in gold glitter and cut them apart and hot glued various sized pieces on, ditto artificial pine branches...for the 'hangers' I used ribbon, rick rack and jute string and attached them with a combination of straight pins and hot glue.

It's beginning to look a lot like...pinecones?

I'm not as 'crafty' as I used to be...but every once in a while I get the urge.  My go-to place for scoping out new crafts is a site called One Pretty Thing (thank you, Keira).  I happened to take a glance a week or two ago and found the cutest pinecone - the instructions are on a site called The Hybrid Chick. It looked easy enough, and even better, it didn't take a ton of specialized equipment that I would never use again.  I used the pages from a Betty Neels book (The Mistletoe Kiss)...so I used mistletoe on the top.   The only things I had to buy for this craft were styrofoam eggs ($3.99 for a 4 pack at Craft Mart), straight pins ($1.99 at Fred Meyer for 250 - I may have used about half) and a sprig of fake mistletoe (on sale for $1.40 at Craft Mart - I only used half of a sprig on one).  Total time?  About an hour - maybe less.

Step 1. Cover the pointed end with a strip of paper about and inch wide.
Step 2. Fold a one inch square of paper so that it has a pointed end.
Step 3. Repeat step 2 a bunch of times.

Step 4. Pin pointed paper pieces onto the styrofoam egg.  The ones near the bottom should be overlapped some - you can just use one pin in that case.  Work your way up the egg in rows, adjusting your spacing as needed.

Step 5. When you have gotten pretty much to the top, add a ribbon for hanging and any embellishments you want.  I cut apart a sprig of fake mistletoe for mine...I also trimmed the mistletoe leaves down a little - so they weren't quite so long.

Ta Da. 
I'm calling this: "The Mistletoe Kiss.  Chapter One."

Groundhog's Day

"There is no way that this winter is *ever* going to end as long as this groundhog keeps seeing his shadow. I don't see any other way out. He's got to be stopped. And I have to stop him."

Happy Groundhog's Day!  I need to find my copy of Groundhog's Day...for our once a year watching of my favorite movie about groundhogs.

What's your favorite movie dedicated to an obscure holiday? 
And now we dance.

Farewell to Christmas....

The tree is down...and while it was a pretty tree, I am happy to reclaim floor/window space.  While I'm at it, I think I will go ahead and take down most of the rest of our Christmas decorations.

Steve has already given me another major project...he tore apart my office this morning so that the new internet router could be installed behind my desk (it happens to be the most central place in the house, darn it).

I plan on focusing my efforts on cleaning up Christmas...and shall place a virtual invisibility cloak over the whole mess.  Since we don't really have an invisibility cloak, I shall borrow heavily from Douglas Adams and wrap it all in a "SEP Field" (Someone Else's Problem).  That way, even though it is still there, it will be undectable.

Cruise Control

Steve surprised me with a new sewing machine for Christmas.  As I opened the wrapping paper I was a little dismayed to see the amount of buttons this puppy came with.  It looked complicated.  Within about 10 or 15 minutes I had the bobbin loaded, the machine threaded and started sewing some test patterns.  Turns out it is pretty easy.  You can even push a button and it will sew on its own.  Cruise control.  It is pretty darn awesome.  This machine does not come close to Stephanie's fancy one - but for a point and shoot gal like me, it's just fine.

I don't plan on getting rid of my vintage Kenmore...when my sisters visit we will be able to do twice the sewing.

Christmas Toy

It may not be anywhere near the fanciest camera in the family - but it sure beats the sucky Nikon I had. 

I do like a good point and shoot camera, because that's the kind of girl I am.  I used to have a Kodak EasyShare - several years ago - that's the camera we took to Europe...but then the rechargeable battery started to get less dependable.  Then came the Nikon.  On the one hand, it's great that the Nikon is prominently featured in a song ("I got a Nikon camera...") but that doesn't make up for the dark, fuzzy pictures.

Bring it on Kodak.

A Load Off...

Buying your Christmas cards in September is no guarantee of getting them out in a timely manner. Trust me, I know.

I usually try and send my cards out the week right after Thanksgiving . Not this year. This year I'm just happy that I remembered that I had already bought cards.

Family letter insert: lame, lame, lame.

Lame, but done.

I have the first batch in the mail. Now Steve gets to address his cards....yeah, I don't do his. Brilliant strategy on my part. Brilliant.

2 Weeks Notice

2 weeks from today: Nathan and Rebekah's wedding!

Less than 3 weeks until Christmas.


Let's panic now and avoid the rush.

Full Plate

Steve gets home this morning! Yea!!

Thanksgiving on Thursday, as usual.

Black Friday Seminary Bash...what was I thinking?

November 28th through December 2nd: Birthday (Cindy), Birthday(Sherri), Birthday(Sara), Birthday(Keira), oh, and Steve's Birthday (not necessarily in that order)

Christmas season....

Wedding season...

Serenity now, insanity later.

British Holiday

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Thanks to David for reminding me that today is Guy Fawkes Day.

I wish we could have a bonfire and burn an effigy - but that's just my inner pyromaniac speaking...I would never burn anyone in effigy. Really. I mean it. Seriously.

Pac Man

It's too bad that I didn't take pictures when Danny started this project on Tuesday. I think he spent about 6 hours on it on Tuesday, 4 hours on Wednesday, 4-6 hours on Friday... and pretty much all day today. He finally had it finished to his satisfaction at about 6pm.

If he had planned it out ahead of time, we maybe could have started saving up large pieces of cardboard. As it is, we pretty much didn't have anything bigger than an orange box...if that big. I think there is possibly more duct tape than cardboard involved here.

It was not a costume to run around the neighborhood in - we sent Alex with him to make sure he didn't run into any little kids. His costume was a big hit - everyone recognized the iconic shape and color. I'm practically teary-eyed when I think about all the hard work he put into this costume.

Practically - but not quite. Just wait until Monday morning when school starts and he has to pay the piper (me) and catch up on his late assignments.

Argh, maybe.

This is my effort at pumpkin carving this year. Not too bad considering what I had to work with.

Here's what I had to work with:

• a slightly undersized, under ripe pumpkin (it was the biggest homegrown one we had left - I wasn't about to waste valuable bunker money on something as ephemeral as a carved pumpkin)
• a bum left wrist.
• a burned right thumb.
• I forgot to put on my glasses, so I had to squint at the pumpkin the whole time I was carving it...come to think of it, I probably did look slightly pirate-ish.
• I carved it while Danny rewrote his History essay...the one he had just about finished (all but the bibliography)...before the computer died.

If I had had a larger pumpkin, I definitely would have tried something with more scope...possibly Star Wars related. I've been know to carve a mean Darth Vadar.

Pioneer Day

I think we must have had a Pioneer Day picnic every year when I was a kid. For a while it was always out at the church berry farm. The true mainstay was Brother Opager's home brewed root beer. It just wouldn't have been the same without that root beer.

I especially remember the games one year. They had "Find the Needle in the Haystack", climbing a greased pole, and catching a greased pig. I was not old enough for the pole or the pig, but I was the right age for the needle in the haystack. I don't remember if I found the needle, but I do remember looking for it. The "haystacks" were pretty small - a foot or two tall and 3 or 4 feet around.

Good times.

Sparklers

We never go anywhere to watch fireworks on the 4th of July. Except for occasional vacations. But when we are at home on the 4th, we stay home.

Up here on the ridge we have a great view of all the fireworks that everyone spent a fortune on.

I limit Steve to about $30 for fireworks. Yeah, that means we have rather wimpy fireworks, but on the other hand, no one lost an eye...or a finger...

After the thrill of holding sparklers, we spread a blanket on the front lawn and watched Steve, Danny and Cory set off our fireworks, and more importantly, we watched all the cool fireworks our neighbors set off. And they were much more generous with their fireworks budgets than I am.

Art, Poetry, Technology and Hallmark.

I warned my family on Saturday that I expected Mother's Day cards.

I'm not an easy mom for kids to make breakfast in bed for - I'm usually up hours before my kids - and I see no reason to have a lie-in as a sop to my children's consciences. So, cards it is.

Here is a sampling of this year's offerings.

Best in Show goes to Alex:

Nathan gets the RFF (Robert Frost Foundation) Poetry Award for his writing effort:

Mom,

You bake bread

You wake up at 4am to teach the dead

You broke your arm

Yet you still work on the family farm

You wash our clothes

You may be the only one who really knows

How hard you work

Or how you put up with all our quirks....

...But I do know that I love you.

(And I know you love me too.)

Steve wins a small award for earliest card (he gets a big award for building the garden - and having all the boys help with it). Danny for using the computer to generate a card with lovely promises of absolute obedience...

David left me a voice-mail (from my "favorite son" - so I would know it was him), then he called later on. Stephanie and family came over twice - and brought me a lovely lilac bush - that I told her she didn't need in her yard, since they are selling their house....

Last but not least, we got to talk to Andrew.

It was a nice day.

Grandma was Green

You can tell this is an Easter picture from our Easter bonnets. Too bad Sherri didn't have one - but at her age she probably wouldn't have kept it on.

Easter just isn't the same as when I was a kid. Grandma Hanna often provided our Easter "baskets". They consisted of a plastic cottage cheese container with a green pipe cleaner for a handle and recycled Easter grass. I think she used the same ones every year. I wish I had a picture.

Inside the basket was an assortment of non-delicious candy. Stale Peeps, stale "Circus Peanuts"(a sort of peanut shaped marshmallow creation), jelly beans, "Orange Slices"(jelly type candy coated with sugar) and best/worst of all her homemade fudge. Compared to the circus peanuts and orange slices the fudge was almost gourmet. If you can call dry, bitter fudge gourmet. We always ate our fudge. It may not have been great, but it was chocolate.

Thank you Grandma.

Stinky Eggs

It's no big secret that I don't like eggs. Boiled eggs are probably #1 on my list of least favorite ways to eat eggs. #2 is a tie between fried and scrambled.

ANYway...my refrigerator smells of boiled eggs. Quite strongly. Yuck. I can pretty much count on it smelling that way for the next two or three days. That's about all I can stand - at that point any remaining Easter eggs are given the old heave ho. We will be serving deviled eggs for lunch tomorrow...possibly for dinner also.