Such a happy Christmas

I just don't want to try to capture it here in words.  Words can't describe what a comforting nice time these past three days have been.  So much fun, joy, love, noise, laughter, food, contentment.  A few times, I've just wished time could stand still, and I could savor everything going on around me.

Emily and Ryan just plan such a good time for us all.  Sometimes I think Emily just wants everything for us, too much.  Too worried that everyone is not perfectly happy at all times, that everyone doesn't get the perfect gifts, that someone is going to be disappointed about something.  She was sick last year the whole season, it seems, so this year she was present and active and cheering us all on.

I'm not sure of all of their activities that didn't include me.  I know there were many!  But  we all six gathered here Monday afternoon for stockings.  Six people seem like a big crowd in this apartment, but we had such a good time.  Cats running, children playing and chasing cats, coffee drinking, snack eating, stockings emptied.  I never get very good pictures when so much is going on, but here are a few:

The girls got their rest earlier at home and refreshed their eyes for the upcoming night.

Elise somehow got her hands on this sweater and gifted it to Emily who totally enjoyed it.  It brought out her popcorn knit dancing mood.

The girls loved their Nutcracker ornaments from Aunt Carol.  She always finds the best Clara and Sugar Plum Fairy.

Best gift ever - up to that point!  It's a compact with a built-in brush and lip gloss!  I think there were bottles of nail polish and Fancy Nancy things in the stockings too.  

They can always count on Dad to fix little complicated toys that come in the candy packs.

And get rewarded by a special hair brushing from that pink brush.

Ryan says he likes his Auburn socks that matched his basketball he got today.   Good thing, because grown-ups, especially guys, hardly ever get anything good in their stockings.

I'm sorry I didn't get close-ups of these cute pencils and erasers with matching post-it notes.  Katherine's is a cat in a box (still holding that brush), and Graysen's is a mermaid.  They've been asking for little notebooks like some I have, so they got those and are now all set for taking notes.

This scarf!  One afternoon after school, Graysen said she would like to have a scarf for her neck.  "I wish I had" are battle cries for grandmothers, so when I was in Issaquah doing last-minute things Tuesday, I kept that in mind.  Target had nothing that I could find without unicorn heads hanging off them, but when I went into Small Threads to consign some clothing of theirs, I passed by the scarf section, and there were several but only one that I thought was cute.

Couldn't resist the price of $1, so I snatched it up with the pencils and erasers and maybe a couple of Calico Critters things.  They do sell new things there, so I take in the old and get the new.  Except for the scarf, of course.  That's the first thing she saw and grinned so big.  She whipped it around her neck a couple of times and wore it the whole night.  I caught her in front of a mirror admiring her look later on.  She was fascinated by the tiny white buttons trimming the edges and the little bow.

This is what things turned into once Ryan stretched out on the floor.  I hope he wasn't planning on napping.  

 This is right before I confiscated the pencil that I was sure was destined to poke out an eye.

That was the first of three good times.  I'm worn out now and ready for bed.  I'll have some more tomorrow, including pictures of the ham Ryan made and those smashed potatoes.  And tracking Santa and getting some good conversation with just Elise and Emily and me.

Just got this picture.  It's about the way I feel.  But without the cheetah.  I do have new pajamas though.

Baking and Other Nonsense

I'm not sure why I bother.  I did have some success with the pumpkin bread during the fall and decided I needed to add a little something to the gift cards of the apartment staff.

I have a cranberry nut bread that I seemed to remember making a lot, or maybe it's just that Mama liked it and copied the recipe and then made it a lot and talked about it being so good.  I don't remember it being that wonderful, but I looked for the recipe to give it a try anyway.  The only place I found it was in Mama's cookbook, and it did make me sad to see it in her good handwriting before it got shaky.  I remember her sitting at my table in Columbus on a sunny Thanksgiving day copying it.

Divinity was her specialty, though.  I can't even begin to imagine how many batches of divinity she made throughout her life.

She loved making sweets, and every Christmas when we got to Andalusia on Christmas Day, she would have a table just filled with candies and cookies and brownies and pies.

She was a really good cook and loved doing it.  I missed that gene somehow.  I don't really love it like she did.  There are all her old favorites there - mostly desserts, but cornbread and biscuits and casseroles and vegetable soup.  I hope the girls will enjoy it one day.

So, that cranberry bread.  I first tried it with half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose but didn't really like it that much.  The second batch (muffins) I used the original recipe and didn't care for it much again.  I think I don't like that orange juice is used for the liquid along with grated orange rind.  I put them in the freezer and figured the girls would enjoy them this winter.  They're filled with fruit and nuts, so they're not the worst.

Now Elise has discovered them and proclaimed them the best "bran muffins ever."  That was another one of Mama's standbys.  I guess they won't stay in the freezer for long now.

They look pretty even if they are two different sizes!  I sliced one loaf for whenever the Win-Bins come by to do stockings.

No one needs all this extra food, but I like to pretend to be a good hostess.  Carol sent a tin of delicious Southern cheese straws and praline pecans, so I put them out too.

We didn't end up going out to eat after all because Emily and Ryan aren't feeling well, which was fine with Elise and me.  Any chance I get to stay home and stay warm is a plus.  I've got the stockings filled and ready though.  The girls know Santa only comes to their house, not Mimi's house, so I get to do it over here.

I finished the last of the sewing I'm going to do.  One of the gifts I'm giving the girls is a spa set for their dolls.  I just looked at it today when I wrapped it, and when you turn the faucet, it sounds like running water.  I think they'll like it.



I made towel wraps and towels and bathcloths for all the dolls, and that was not the most fun I've ever had sewing.

First I tried one made from an old baby towel with the binding already on it.  It was fine and easy enough but kind of a faded blue.  Then I tried putting binding on, and putting binding on stretchy fabric is a nightmare.  Then I used the same pattern with armhole cutouts but no binding and rick rack and that was better, but the final one where I just used a hemmed Dollar Tree microfiber towel and sewed a length of rick rack down the front was what I was looking for.  Whew.  I wish I had just done that from the beginning.

I found a package of baby bathcloths at Dollar Tree also that are perfect for towels.

I can't remember if I posted pictures of the dog beds I made for the doggie spa, so I'll do it again.  Graysen wanted a dog for one of her dolls, but I refused to pay the American Girl price for one and ordered three of them on eBay for less than what one cost new at AG.


 I had bought the doggie spa used and so made some towels and then decided to make dog beds for all of them.  They were simple in concept but not so simple to stuff and sew neatly, but I think they'll do.

Those paperwhites I started last week are doing just great.  They could bloom by Christmas.  

Emily brought my Grand Diva amaryllis over and left it outside my door.  She was going to give it to me for Christmas, but she called this morning all upset that she didn't read the directions and was supposed to have put it in a cool dark place for weeks.  I don't think it matters.  It looks big and hearty, but I'm not sure how that pot is going to hold it if it is, in fact, GRAND.

My second blog post nearly 10 years ago was about the very same flowers.  We keep trying.  I didn't know how to enlarge pictures back then.  I do like that moss I used though.  I need to go see if I still have some to hide those ugly bulbs.  Katherine used a paper punch to make those yellow flowers for me that are in there now.  That amaryllis was pretty, but my new one is a Grand Diva, so no telling what it will be like.  

The next 3 days should be busy, but I'm sure I'll be back with pictures and happenings.  The picture I just got from Emily showed both girls lying on the couch with cucumber slices on their eyes.  Guess they're getting rested up for the excitement.  

I imagine their mother needs it more than they do after being with them for nearly 3 full days.  

Another Sunday Morning

It was a full week but not one that I enjoyed that much.  I'm not sure if it ever stopped raining - I mean pouring, not that mist that's doable - the whole week.  Thursday afternoon, we all came in from walking home from school and put shoes, socks, raincoats, pants, gloves, hats - everything - into the dryer.  The rain was coming down hard, and the wind was blowing our hoods backwards.  Umbrellas are just useless (and considered wimpy) on days like that.  I can't remember every being so glad to be inside once we got home.

So what else happened besides weather?  Seems like a lot of crazy stuff.  Oh, Elise and I felt one of the earthquakes.  It seems there were eight, but only one was strong enough to shake us a little.

I took the gingerbread houses to the school on Monday morning after I signed the girls in.  I went back to the car to get the box (in the rain, hurrying), and as I went to take the last step up into the classroom, my foot caught on the step and I fell forward.  Thankfully, I didn't drop the box but braced with my arm and saved the houses!  Still made me jittery the rest of the day, to think of nearly falling.  Maybe that's the reason why Katherine's decorated house didn't make it home Monday afternoon.

When I picked her up, I noticed she didn't have on her shoes.  It was pajama week, and the kids tend to lie around on the floor in clumps in the afternoon, so you have to step over them.  I started back to the classroom to look for them, but she said, "Kai frew up on my feet."  Oops.  One of the teachers brought me a baggie of her shoes and leggings.  Luckily, they have extras at school for just those occasions.  And luckily Kai just ate too much candy and was spinning around and not sick enough to go home.  So then we went back to pick up her little house.

She worked so hard on it, and it was beautiful, and I had to hear every single piece that went on there.  But it was on a slippery plate, and I was juggling her lunch box, book bag, art papers as well.  I told her to wait on the porch while I put the stuff in the car and would come back for her so her feet wouldn't get wet.

And dropped the house.

Even though it landed on grass, it shattered into 20 pieces.  I looked back to see how she was taking it, expecting wails and hand wringing, but she was already on her way, wet feet and all, to salvage as many gumdrops and chocolates as she could from the grass.  Crazy girl.  She didn't care a bit about the house.  The Tuesday/Thursday classes made more the next day, so she got to bring one home after all.  Still...  More of that hurrying too much on my part.

Plenty of judgment from these guys.  Even the goat is coming out of the barn to share my shame.

Her class baked gingerbread men and had them run away and chased them all over town before they found them in the candy shop.  Back a couple of years ago, Graysen was scared she would see one running, but Katherine was hoping to.  I said, "What if we saw a bunch of gingerbread men running down the street right now?"  She said, "You could try to run over them, but you know gingerbread men are faster than people."  

I'm not even sure what went on the rest of the week.  Some of this:

I ask Graysen to explain it to me.  She thinks I'm kidding, but I really need help.  I found the Eureka web site and some videos for helping and some extra work sheets.  I guess number sentences and 10 boxes and things are helpful down the road, but it's so confusing (to me).

And this.




We drank a lot of hot chocolate and read stories by the fire.  The little gift they opened was very much a success.  We've played all four card games, and it's amazing how much better Katherine does when she can see her cards.  It's still not clear to her that she has to actually have a card in her hand before she calls for a match in Go Fish.  She just asks for what she would like to have whether she has any more or not.

And this guy came to live with us.  I don't remember thinking we needed another cat, but Elise was at a meeting somewhere and just happened to walk into a shelter where he was.

We don't know what his background was, just that he was found outside and picked up.  He had a broken tooth and had surgery for that.  He has been, and still is, terrified and skittish.  He doesn't scratch or hiss, but he just acts like he wants to disappear.  For the first two days, he didn't respond or make eye contact but slept in a laundry basket in my closet.  Thankfully, he has a good appetite and is using the litter box, but that's about all.  She took him back for his followup at the vet, which terrified him all over again, and he's supposedly fine.  We're hoping he will learn to trust us.

For an hour or so at a time, Elise will bring him to my bed and hold him and let him get used to our voices and being outside the closet, and he's started to purr.

He spent most of the afternoon there yesterday.  Elise and the girls named him Bowie.  I've stopped fighting their name choices.  It does fit, because we say, "You're such a good boy-ee (Bowie)" a lot.  We probably didn't need another cat, but it makes me sad to think about what would have happened to him if we hadn't brought him home.  I think he's going to be okay.  He shows a little interest in things around him but is still scared of noises.

This girl is NOT so sure, though.

She is curious but will growl when she gets near him.  It doesn't seem to bother Bowie what she does, and one day maybe they will be friends.  I think the girls will enjoy a cat that will let them brush him and pet him as opposed to Layla who attacks them playfully but sometimes scratches in her enthusiasm.

Elise, Emily and I took the girls to the Nutcracker Friday night.  Or Emily took us.  This is why I'm glad to have young people to take me places.

As if I don't have enough night blindness, I couldn't find my glasses that night.  I did find them in one of the usual places - but with something laid on top of them - when I got home.   I felt like I was in a kaleidoscope.  Luckily, I don't need my glasses for anything but driving, and we were on about the 10th row, so I could see well.

I'll have more pictures from the others.  Mine are blurry, and I didn't take many.

Dancing in the parking garage.  We went to the smaller one in Bellevue instead of the big one in Seattle, and it was a good choice.  We could leave our coats in the car and walk in unencumbered.

We'll being going back to the Fall City Road House tonight for our Christmas Eve Eve Eve dinner since tomorrow doesn't work for Elise.  At least, the rain has stopped, but there is a lot of flooding near Fall City.  

Picture of the Falls yesterday.

The restaurant is across the street from the Snoqualmie River, but I'm trusting my drivers and the young people!