Member of the Pack

 Sometimes, new members of the family are last minute, and unexpected but pleasant surprises.  (We've had surprise new members of the family before, such as Lulu.)

 This is Davy, the Boston Terrier.  We found out he was going to come and live with us on Christmas Eve.  The boys didn't find out until Christmas morning.  They found out that he was coming because I put a picture of a Boston Terrier with the note "Merry Christmas from Davy.  I'm coming to your house next week."  It took them a little while to realize it meant we were getting another dog.

 He's a bit hyperactive (he's been kenneled for a few weeks because his owner has become very sick), but that should settle down soon.

He does have a constant expression of OMG! on his face, but that is endearing.

This one isn't thrilled that he's here, but she's keeping an eye on him.  Always.  Her displeasure is lessening, and I think they will be just fine in a few more days.

A Christmas In Pictures

 Midnight.

 7:00 am.

 7:30 am.

 7:35 am

 8:30 am (it's not a gift, he just decided it was time to play the dulcimer)

 Wiz's first MP3 player

 Game Boy's Kindle (it'll come in handy in high school, right?)

Star Wars land speeder.

No other pictures of snoozing, watching movies, or eating dinner.  All of those took place, but aren't the most exciting of subjects.

It was a lovely Christmas.  We had a good time, and we enjoyed the day.

Now I'm tired.

Ready?

 New gift bags.

 New pajamas

 Camels wearing hats

 A tree with presents starting to collect underneath its branches.

Tamales ready for dinner.
Church in 1 and a half hours.

I think we're ready.

Doing the SP Thing Again

I got a box in the mail.  The very best kind of box--one from a secret pal.

 Everything was wrapped in great penguin wrapping paper.

 There was a slug from Flushed Away for Wiz

 and one for Game Boy.  (A favorite movie of theirs--they used to sing the songs from it in harmony together.)

 Left over yarn bits for more ornaments, including a pattern for wonderful tiny mittens,

 with one even knitted up for me.  (Aren't they adorable?  There's something about small things that are just fabulous.)

 A great hat pattern with the perfect yarn (sorry for the color--it just won't come out properly).  I want to knit it and wear it and call it my own.

And a can of Cincinnati chili, which I put on the table at the Collar's place.  He picked it up, and started drooling.  I think he'll be having it for lunch soon.

All in all, a fabulous package from my Secret Pal, Michelle.  Hopefully my downstream will like her package, too.

Pictures

 Curlycues on a hat

Mini-hats

Thanksgiving

 Hosted by pumpkin pike

 pretty flowers

 an early snow (see, the willows hadn't even dropped their leaves yet!)

and our hackberry tree.

Still sick.  Working, but no energy left for anything else.

More Finished Objects

I have now knitted 27 hat ornaments.  I have gotten a little bored with plain, so I came up with this type:

 little stranded hats, with an XO pattern.  These two are the best ones.

 I also finished Wiz's piano teacher's fingerless mitts.  These are Monkey Fingerless Mitts, by Michelle Johnson.  It's Dream in Color Rustic sock yarn, in Maple.  These were fun to knit and I might knit a pair for me, too.  (I don't think one can have too many pairs of fingerless mitts.)

Soon I have to pick up Wiz from his piano lesson, and I'll give these to her.  I hope that she likes them!

And I'm Knitting

but mostly I'm working, and going to meetings, and hanging out with the boys when the Collar has a meeting.  I haven't managed to go to knit group (Game Boy now has youth group, and the Collar goes too), so Wiz and I are on our own then.  Maybe next year?

Currently I'm knitting several things:

Sitcom Chic (I'm working on sleeve number one, but haven't knit on it for awhile because I'm doing this instead:

 This is monkey mitt #1 for Wiz's piano teacher.  I have begun the second one, and probably will get to the thumb gusset today.   After that, I'm knitting hats and mittens for her daughters.

I am knitting this year's ornaments.  Hats!  Lots, and lots of hats.  Above are 15 hats and I'll make at least 30.  They are pretty fast knits, but I'm sure I'll be tired of them soon.  They are very cute so far, and I'll still have lots and lots and lots of sock yarn left over.  I don't know what I'll do when I run out of left over sock yarn bits.  (Actually, can that ever happen?)

More Halloween!

Game Boy's Pumpkin

 Wiz's pumpkin had 4 faces, but they were hard to capture

Both of the pumpkins

Dynamite!

This year's skull meatloaf, a cheerful fellow.

Game Boy's cape, with the hood he added.

I need to write a real post.  The boys are busy with music and sports.  We're busy with life, the universe, and everything, and together we wind up with a crazy schedule.  Now that winter's on the way, I might actually write more.

Halloween and the Like

It's that time of year. Time for spooky-ish meatloaf

Bunnicula or a vampire bunny, woo!

and making Halloween costumes.  Game Boy wanted a cloak, I had no pattern.  Somehow we achieved a facsimile of a cloak.  Not too shabby for pulling it out of the air.

I know, I'm boring lately.  I've knitted a bit (shh, it's Christmas ornaments, but no one wants to talk about that!), and I've been running (not this week though), but can't seem to get my act together to write in the blog.  I'm trying to, however.

Setting Down Roots

We've been here 26 months now.  

Once I read that someone was going to live as if she lived in her dream house.  I've been trying to do that ever since.  (I did work on the house in Richmond, but we moved shortly after I made that decision.)  One of the ways I'm trying to do this is to make curtains, hang art, frame posters, and so on.  I might even paint.  Usually I only really do those things if we are getting ready to sell the house.  This time, I want to do those things for us--so we get to enjoy our hard work.  (Or my hard work--a lot of it falls to me to do.)

Of course, since I'm trying to pay off debt, I'm not spending much money on that.  However, since I have been given lots of fabric as the BBFs find it at their house, I can do some of it on the cheap.  

Exhibit 1.  Curtains for the singleton windows in the living room.  Fabric is obviously Indian, and it matches the drapes on the picture window(s).    It also goes very well with the other decor in that room.  (We could still use furniture in there, but at least it looks pretty.)

Happy elephants parading on the windows.

Exhibit 2.  Heavier curtains for our bedroom.  These are more for better privacy and better light blocking.  I loved the other ones, but they just don't work keeping the light out.  Maybe these will be better.  There's still another window (our house has many, many windows), and I want to find something like a tapestry to put on it.  It's behind our bed, and if I do this correctly, I can make it look like a picture instead of a window.  And it will block more light.  As the sun comes up in the summer at 4 am-ish, that would be wonderful.

 Add these to cleaning the Harry Potter closet, I had a very busy and productive day.

Alpacas!

We live close to an alpaca farm, Wheatland Alpacas.  Last Sunday, they had an open house.

Baby!

Llama! (But no duck.)

This one had weird eyes, but seemed quite interested in us.

 It was fun, and we had a great time looking at the alpacas.  They sell all sorts of alpaca products, so I'm probably going to go buy Christmas presents there soon.