12.27.08
It was just a couple days ago. . .
Well, Christmas is over. . .
Due to some unexpected circumstances, our Christmas gathering was a tad smaller, thus the smaller cake this year and fewer desserts. We also did something different in that this year we did a potluck-style dinner, instead of one or a couple of us having the brunt of preparing the whole meal. I think it turned out pretty well with lots of food, anyway. Even Aaron, my youngest son got into the potluck thing and made custard puddings for us! Here he is in front of his creations.
He did come up a bit short, so some of us split a serving. The ingredients are coconut milk, eggs, cream, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. At the rate this kid is going, he’s gonna have a lucky wife, heheh. I know I feel blessed that Brian is a good cook! At the very least, I feel I won’t have to worry about Aaron feeding himself out of cans and boxes when he finally goes off on his own. At 14 this kid already knows how to cook and follow recipes. He even whips up his own whipped cream.
I didn’t take pics of all the food as there turned out to be quite a bit! We had BBQ ribs, and beans and bacon, corned bread, cubed squash, raw kale salad; Brian cooked a pork casserole with more beans!, seasoned rice, and even sushi.
I did catch Brian loading up his plate. . .
Aside from lots of eating and yakking, we try to bring things to keep us occupied until midnight. So a group of us can be just yakking away, while another group is watching a movie, or we also play games. Our family has this long-standing tradition that on Christmas eve we meet at my parents’ house and we all spend the night. Basically it turns out to be a big slumber party. But instead of waiting until Christmas morning to open presents, we wait until midnight. When the clock strikes midnight we all drop what we’re doing and rip open all the packages, ha! Then we hit the hay and get up to more feasting in the morning, ha! My kids have gotten used to this, so they look forward to this. They also get into the spirit of preparing things, and this year they wanted to make some small gifts for everyone. About two years ago Matty made hats for everyone using a large corker. This year Matty drew some pictures and laminated them to make book markers. Here’s a pic of some of them in progress.
While most of his designs were of dragons and the like, he did think of me and made a girlie one that is actually part of one of his old stories he called, The Gooseberry Fairy. The Gooseberry Fairy lived in a place with lots of mushrooms. I loved his pictures of them, so he drew a little sampling for my book marker. Here’s what it looks like.
Aaron made book thongs for everyone using beads and Chinese knots. Here are some of what he made.
Andrew wasn’t sure what he would contribute, but he ended up writing a short story sci-fi and recited it to us.
Since we had a laugh last year with Matty’s “face assembling” game. He pulled it back out again this year and added more features. Here’s a sample of some of the goofy faces we came up with.
LOL We managed to get a kick out of it again this year, so maybe we’ll expand it more next year and add prizes, ha ha!
See, even my dad got into it. And yes, he is sitting on a “tiny” chair! That chair has a little history to it. Brian made it for the boys when they were very little. They have long since outgrown those chairs, but my dad took them and still uses them for things like gardening and arranging the wood in the fireplace, etc. So he told Brian this Christmas as he pulled out his trusty kiddie chair that, “These chairs are the best thing you’ve made, Brian.”
I didn’t knit as many Christmas presents this year as I pretty much ran out of time. However, I did finally get my feet wet with multidirectional knitting that I have been wanting to learn. Here’s a pic of my first multidirectional project. It’s a scarf or sash. The pattern is taken (and slightly modified by me because I’m using much smaller yarn) from a book by Iris Schreier called Lacy Little Knits. I think Schreier is another lady who belongs in the genius category of knitters. Once I got started on this project, I really loved it.
In fact I loved it so much that I decided to make a few more for my sisters, my mom, and my aunt. It was just a little something to add to the other gifts we got them. Here’s a pic of the completed scarves. Since the yarn is much thinner than that pattern called for, I added more stitches.
And here are the scarf recipients showing the different ways to wear them, heheh.
As you can see our Christmas this year was quite casual. At about midnight we all looked like we could use some makeup, especially me! Ha ha! My aunt had her sash around her waist, my mom had the pink one around her neck, as does my sister next to her in her scrubs (she just got of work from the hospital), my other sister wearing it as a hair band, and yours truly off on the far right wearing it around me neck. I love the construction of this scarf that I’ve started knitting a blanket for Matty using the same concept. I’ll try to take a pic of that once it’s done and share later.
Well, I could go on with pics, but I think that’s enough for now. Besides, looks like the boys are ready for reading. . ., so best be off for now.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Even though Christmas has passed, there’s still some partying left as New Years approaches! Woo hoo hoo hoo! LOL
Marlakins
