One beautiful ballerina

Two beautiful ballerinas

Makeup already done--quick change into Mrs. Renee for the PeeWee Party

The cozy comfort at the Sow's Ear helps finish the handmade Christmas projects.

I have finished the handmade Christmas things--but no pictures til after the event.  I really wasn't sure it would all get done in time this year.  Now I only have one more pair of matching Christmas pants to make...that hardly counts as one of the handmade presents, right?  I use a machine for the pants...

better than a sharp stick...

A $2 hat from the local dime store along with scraps of fabric and ribbon in my stash, and I've made my first regency style bonnet.  I hope they get better with experience.

St. Lucia Day, and weekend blizzard

 It's that special day of year, again!  Elise made hot chocolate and served spritz cookies.

Elise learned how to play dreidel from a friend at school, so we used snack bears as counters and played together last night.  Albin's bears are having a street fight.

 Researching the PeeWee costume...

Seven or so inches of snow fell here this weekend, so it was time to clear the driveway and build forts with the neighbors.

7 year aged mac and cheese

Remember that taste test for aged cheddar cheese - ? Goal was to find the cheesiest cheese. We all liked the 7 year cheddar best (except Elise who said it made her stomach not feel right).

And after the 7 year aged cheddar is put into a pot of made-from-scratch macaroni cheese - yummmmm! Now THAT was cheesy!

cheesy taste test and weihnachtsmarkt

 The choices: 7 year sharp, 5 year sharp, and an extra sharp (of unknown vintage).  The winner: 7 years!

 Orange pomander craft at the school festival.

 Violin concert at the school festival.

One of the classrooms set up for kids to choose a gift for a loved one.  The whole festival was very well done, and well attended, too, considering the impending winter storm.  We had a lovely time, and wish I could've stayed longer.  I met a wheelwright, and I just found out yesterday what a wheelwright does!

We could only stay a few hours, as Elise had to be at ballet practice by midafternoon.  That rehearsal went well, and now the blizzard can snow us in, as we have nowhere else to be!

the good, the bad, and the disaster waiting to happen

 Fabulous finds at Half Price Books.  One set is for us to keep, the other for Albin to give as his white elephant present tonight.  I hope you can tell which is which!

Two animals that think my very snaggable netting for my little niece's dress is their own private playground.  Gah!

When the cat is away...oh wait. She's not away.

 Albin made a lair in his closet, now that the floor is clean.

Elise helped finish off the cookie making.  Would you believe that we have 25 dozen packed up for the school?  A lot of those are the pretzel kiss things, and they are so easy they hardly count, but still.  25 dozen.  We also have some for my Grandma in Texas, Karl's coworker who is bringing him home from the airport tonight (yay! he will be home again!), and the ones we will eat or have already eaten.  Unfortunately, the weather looks bad for Saturday, so not sure how many people will make it out for the festival after all.

buried in cookies

Yesterday we made dozens of spritz cookies--all snowflakes with blue sugar sprinkles, and those yummy things that consist of a chocolate kiss melted onto a pretzel with a pecan pushed into it.  Mine look sort of wacko, as the pecan is large and overwhelms the other ingredients, but they taste heavenly (especially the chocolate caramel kisses).   Today I finish the gingersnaps, and do a few batches of oatmeal cranberry white chocolate and seven layer bars.  I love Christmas baking!

We had local Chinese takeout for dinner last night.  We rarely eat out, and half the time we do it's just bringing home some of this lovely fried goodness.  The kids like chicken fried rice without onions, and I had sweet and sour chicken.  That sauce is just amazing.  There is no color like it anywhere in the natural food kingdom.  If I knew what it was, I'm sure I wouldn't eat it, so please, no one tell me.  We must all have our little vices.

For the first time all week, I am done driving by 10 am.  My hand doesn't hurt so much today, so I am off to the Sow's Ear for an hour or two of relaxed knitting and coffee.  Say it with me, everyone.  Aaaaahhh!  If only I can bribe Albin to come with me...

what the??

I need to bake oodles of cookies for Elise's school festival, as I have already mentioned.  The four types I planned to make are gingersnaps, spritz, seven layer bars, and oatmeal cranberry white chocolate cookies.  These are easy, fast, and popular.  So here's what happened to the five dozen gingersnaps I managed to bake so far.
1.  I ate one test cookie of the first batch.  We didn't double the spices right, and I wanted to make sure they didn't taste overwhelmingly of cloves or ginger.  They were fine.
2.  I left three dozen cooling on the table while I took Elise to ballet.  When I got home, Albin had arrived ahead of me and eaten one dozen.  (!!!)
3.   I was making space on the counter to move the cooling racks so that Elise would have the table free to make whipped cream for our pancake supper.  Before I could move the second rack, she whipped powdered sugar and cream over another dozen.  (I guess Great Grandma won't mind a little extra sugar on her cookies.)

Wish me well with the rest of the baking.  If this continues, the school will sadly get fewer cookies, and we will have far too many mishaps to eat ourselves...unless you are a growing teen aged boy (and then there is no such thing as too many mishaps).

mythbusters morning

Albin and I got two episodes in this morning.  (I saw lots of hand knit socks in one of them--I'd heard of those socks on Ravelry!)  We would watch all day, but he's off to math games this afternoon, and I'm meeting with the boiler people to talk about installing new equipment in the basement.  We also have two batches of gingersnap dough cooling in the fridge.  I hope to make lots of cookies for the festival at Elise's school this Saturday.

p.s.  Doesn't it look like Tiny is about to eat Albin's cereal?

science museum in Chicago

downtown Madison

cleaning Albin's closet

tree decorating--Christmas explosion in our dining room

animals everywhere!

more tree decorating