Scarves

for the special olympics.
I managed to knit two. It wasn't yarn that was fun to use but it was the yarn company's yarn that is sponsoring the special olympics. One is just a 2X2 ribbed and striped blue and white. The other is just the blue and white held together in garter stitch. I'm glad that I am finished.

I tried to knit the Collar a hat to go with his new scarf, but I ran out of yarn. It makes a nice hat for Game Boy. He likes this one. I told him he could give his other one that matches his knucks to his brother, but he says no. He has a hard time giving things like that up!

Christmas Dinner

We did something different this year for Christmas dinner. The boys requested Chinese turkey (yes, from that movie) but I couldn't find any. We went with goose, because it plays a big role in lots of stories (okay, so they are all versions of A Christmas Carol but that's okay). I forgot to take a picture of it.

Patiently waiting for the goose.
Poor Game Boy is just wasting away. We never feed him. Our menu was simple: goose, red cabbage with apples, and mashed potatoes. Of course we had wine. I think it might be illegal to not have wine with festive occasions here (ha!).Dessert was also new. (No creme brulee this year. We'll have it sometime though, because it's a once a year treat.) Instead we had chocolate lava cakes. Oh, my goodness. It was also amazing. What is really funny is that my cousin who lives in California, made it too. It's a keeper.

We Celebrated

The last time it was just us for Christmas was 2000. That Christmas was memorable for a few reasons. It was the year that The Collar broke his ankle (bad enough) and I was on bedrest during the pregnancy with the Wiz. Luckily, I'd been on bedrest for a while, so all our presents were bought on the internet that year.

The boys were able to stay in their pajamas all day. (They both got bottoms that had frogs on them this year.) The Collar told all the parents to let their kids come in their pajamas to church on the Christmas morning service, so they did!

We opened our stockings before church. The Wiz found a sock monkey in his stocking. The Collar found a key hole scarf.After church, we opened the other presents. The Wiz got a digital camera. He took a lot of pictures. I think that there are even pictures of me! Game Boy was REALLY excited. He got my old laptop. This means that he can play Spore, which the BBFs gave him. The Wiz is happy, because he can play on the desktop more, since Game Boy won't be hogging it all the time now. I'll post more later.

Merry Christmas!

to you and yours from

What I Did Yesterday

Yesterday it didn't snow. It was also the Collar's day off. That meant we could finally go Christmas shopping. (We're having goose this year. The boys actually wanted Chinese Turkey (duck), but I couldn't find it. So we're having goose, like they do in A Christmas Carol. It took some interesting foot work to do it (we had both boys in tow), but it happened.

Then I worked on the gifts for the staff. Remember the mini sweaters? Yes, those were part of it. I also made (with some help from the Wiz) tiger butter and peppermint bark. Then more gift bags. I made eight of them.

Snow, snow, snow.

I know. I know. I KNOW. All I write about is the snow.

It's really the only game in town right now. It keeps starting again. My car is buried even deeper than this now!Game Boy is entertained. The Wiz is not. He doesn't have enough body fat to stay out longer than 10 minutes. Game Boy is building a huge fort near the front sidewalk.

I'll admit, sometimes it's pretty,
especially when the sun is shining. I think we'll have a white Christmas.

I'm Cold

So I knit a hat and mittens for me. (I probably won't really wear this hat either, even though I should.)


The yarn is from my friend, LC, from awhile ago. (A year or so?) It is KnitPicks Shamrock in Reilly. I still have most of one skein left, too. Maybe I can knit a neckwarmer.The mittens are an Ann Budd recipe. I added a few rows here and there, but otherwise pretty much followed along. I used size 7 needles. I started these on Monday evening, and finished this morning as I was going over the student emails and the like.

The hat is from Yarn Harlot. An Unoriginal Hat. I did one change: I used size 10.5 needles aka 6.5 mm, because I don't have 7mm dpns. It fits me a bit snug, and it also fits the Wiz, who thinks he should get the hat. It might wind up his--I hate wearing hats. But it is a good looking hat, I think.
A close up of the cables: pretty easy, but interesting to do and to look at. I started it at noon, and finished it about 3 and a half hours later. Not too bad. I think it would make a good gift, too. I'll probably knit it again some day.

Maybe I'll wear it.

We Went for a Walk

to pick up the Wiz from school. Here are more snow pictures.



It was all of 2:45 when we were walking home. I am still having trouble with how low in the sky the sun is in the afternoon.

More Snow

Total was about 7".

The boys have never seen so much at once. The Wiz thought it was great, until he got cold on the way home from church.Neither have the dogs. Maisie is sure she's going to catch a squirrel. Whenever she's outside right now, she spends all her time staring up in the trees.

The only problem is we have a tree that is going to have to come down. There's a car underneath that tree. (The 'burb isn't damaged.)

I just like this picture. The bright berries on the naked tree limbs with the snow just says something to me (besides, wow, we did get a lot of snow).

Snow!

Today is probably the most snow the boys have ever seen. It's been snowing since about 7:30 this morning. We have about 3 or so inches (it seems we actually have 5 inches), I suppose.

It's a good thing I finished these:
new mittens for the Wiz. Knit on size 2.5 needles, using Knit Picks Felici in Provence yarn. I used Ann Budd's recipe from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. He loves them. They aren't the warmest mittens, but they'll be great for those cooler mornings. He has thinsulate mittens for playing in the snow and for really cold mornings.

I finished another pair of pajama bottoms for Game Boy. These ones are tan plaid flannel with bears on them. (I have coordinating material for both boys, but since someone reads my blog sometimes I won't tell you what they are.)

It's also time for these:

more cloth gift bags. After a few years, we'll really have a collection. Last year's after Christmas sales apparently were mostly snow men. The Santas above are the only fabric that don't have snow men on them!

Seattle III

Yes, we went to Seattle again. Full immuno work up (6 vials of blood, poor kid), but we did something fun this time.

A college friend of the Collar's and mine lives in Seattle, and we met him for dinner. We had sushi. The Wiz loves sushi, and this place is great. They have a list of gluten-free sushi and even keep bottles of the tamari sauce so I even got to have wasabi and sauce. It was lovely. Catching up with an old friend is good too. It had been 16 years since I'd seen him. We're going to try and get together next time, too.

After The Wiz's appointment (we arrived at the hospital at 8:00 and finished around 10:45) we went to the Seattle Aquarium. It is the first time we were able to do something fun in conjunction with a hospital day. I think he had fun.