And....scene!

What a Christmas! It was sooo nice to have a day off. Doug and I spent Christmas Eve with each other. We went to a candlelight service and then drove around looking at Christmas Lights, as is our annual tradition. We enjoy going out to the country where people are more liberal with their decorations and electric bills. Christmas morning we went to mom's to see what Santa had brought to us. My youngest sister and her husband came too and the four of us squished on the couch.

Heather and Chad....did you have a good Christmas?

After some fun family time and watching my youngest brother rip through the presents (his new toys are the envy of the family...we've all spent the past few days playing Guitar Hero III and the wii) we went back to our house to meet up with Doug's parents.

We enjoyed some more low-key unwrapping and then dinner. After dinner we moved the Christmas presents into the kitchen to be assembled. I have my own little cafe now!

Isn't that cute? The table has leaves on both sides that pull out so you could (squishily) accomodate six, but since it's just me and Doug, folds down to have a small cafe table for two. The new hutch is sooo awesome. I have been longing for some more counter and cabinent space since we remodeled the kitchen this summer. Now my kitchen is *almost* 100 percent done. We just have to finish painting the cabinents and install the new nobs and get a curtain rod. Then...it's on to the living room.

Some of you may remember this past April we lost our beloved dog King. Doug got the most wonderful Christmas present from his boss this year that has been a work in progress since April....he had a local artist do a colored pencil drawing of our dog.

I don't think the picture does it justice. It is absolutely breathtaking how lifelike it is. There is a bit of a funny story behind it though....the artist needed a picture to base the drawing on, but Bart didn't want to call me because he wanted it to be a surprise for me too. So he got in contact with Doug's mom who broke into my house one day and stole some pictures out of my scrapbook. She was telling me the story on Christmas morning about how she didn't know where I was or when I was coming home and she was sweating trying to get in and get out as quickly as possible.

It was a great Christmas all around.....now I get to relax. (as soon as i get the Christmas decorations taken down).

PS. I saved my sanity this year by only knitting two teensy weeny gifts this year....two dishcloths for my mother-in-law. I had momentary delusions of grandeur wherein I imagined giving handknit socks to my mother, grandmother, father-in-law, sister and hubby. Mittens for my other sister and her son....etc, the list goes on. Then I remembered last year and the embarrassment of giving half-finished knits still on the needles and the teasing I still get about the state of mom's other sock and decided I'd rather spend a few dollars at the mall than stress that much about anything. Maybe one day I won't work in retail at Christmas time and I can pull something like that off. Yeah.....right after I grow extra appendages to hold all those needles!

SP Thank you!

Thank you, thank you to my Secret Pal Kristan . She sent me the BEST stuff over the past few months. Here are the pics from my last package.

She sent me two balls of the cutest twist yarn...the color is really hard to pick up on camera correctly...it's mostly purple and green with other colors twisted in as well. She also sent a neat-o knitting book, about the history of knitting. There was a sock yarn pattern to match the yarn she sent, swedish fish (yum!), a "K" shaped ornament which we hung on the tree when we decorated it last week, a tape measure, and a pack of tissues. Then there are the two things that were my favorites of all the goodies I have received over the past few months. The first was the needle roll that will fit my circs. It's sooooo cute. It actually matches one that I made for my DPN's. The other item that was the most thoughtful thing I've ever received in a package was a small package of gourmet doggie treats for my dog, Chance. Thanks sooo much Kristan! I have loved opening up the packages the past few months, and I have loved every single thing you've sent. Thank you sooo much :)

In other news, this past Saturday my mom, Beth, and I had the bake-o-rama.

These cookies are "Spritz" cookies that I made using a cookie press. I had never used a cookie press before. It took some getting used to but I loved it once I got the hang of it. My least favorite part of making cookies is rolling them into balls and shaping them, so I lean toward drop style cookies or other things I don't have to mess with. That makes the press perfect...just stuff the dough in and poof! cookies in cute shapes. I didn't opt to ice these, just leaving them plain, but I think they came out really cute. All-in-all we made five different kinds of cookies, several dozen each. We ended up baking for about 8 hours....that's a long time to spend preparing dough and washing dishes. There is still one dough prepared and in my fridge that I will bake up tonight. I'll post pictures of that one when it's done....I got the recipe out of a magazine and the cookies should end up being really cute. It's just a basic sugar cookie recipe with peppermint extract that you form into uniform size balls. Once the cookies are cooled you brush them with melted white chocolate and then dip them in crushed candy canes. Yum!

I also owe you a picture of the aprons and the crazy story behind how the aprons came to be...but that's for next time.

Coming soon.....

.....the official thank you for my SP. I was all set to do a big post with pictures and all but I left the info with her blog addy at home. :-( Sorry, SP!!! I did LOOOVVVVEEEE all the goodies though. You really know me well! I don't want to post the pics without a proper introduction to the person who's been spoiling me for the past few months, so next time. I'll try to get it up this weekend.

As we get closer to Christmas the store is getting busier and busier. It's good because it makes the days go by so quick, but bad because it can be so stressful. I'm ahead of the game though, all my Christmas shopping is done. (Notice I didn't say Christmas knitting. I'm good, but not that good.) Hubby and I put the tree up on Wednesday.

(Doug insisted that Chance help decorate and put the star on the top.) Now my house is filled with the wonderful aroma of pine needles. I am so happy to be done with the shopping so I can enjoy the rest of the season. I love putting on Christmas music while I knit, or watching the holiday specials on tv. Tomorrow my mom, Beth, and I are having bake-o-rama. We are going to bake tons of Christmas cookies all day long (or until we keel over from the sugar). I have a few recipes I want to try out from some magazines so I'm looking forward to that. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to share. In true "I'm-so-crafty-I-must-be-sick" form Mom and I are making some cutesy holiday aprons for all the women in our family. We bought generic red aprons and are sewing Christmas trees to them using yo-yo's (the gathered circles of fabric). I am also writing down all the cookie recipes we are using and tying them up with a cute ribbon and a cookie cutter. Then we are sending those crafty things along with a tin of cookies out to the women in the family that live far away like both Grandmothers and my middle sister. Whew! I'd better get back to work on the aprons.....

...pictures when they are done.

Shop till you drop....

...and then work till you drop. That's how my day-after-Thanksgiving was. My mom, sisters, and I always wake up uber-early to hit the sales. I don't know how I've managed to be so lucky, but the last three years working at Target I've always closed or worked a mid-shift. This year we split up at the beginning, some of going to stand in line at Sears and some of at Wal-Mart. We all got in our lines at 4:30am and then joined up in line at Target at 5:45am. I always get weird looks from my unfortunate coworkers who are dealing with the crowds when they see me among the psycho shoppers. My dad calls this phenomenon "sports shopping". We aren't the gung-ho groups you see running down small children or anything, and we mostly go just for fun, although some of the deals are so incredible you'd have to be crazy not to get them. I love the fact that I can get all my Christmas shopping done in just about one day and then spend the rest of the season decorating, baking, and enjoying time with family. After we finished up with all the crazy shopping I had just enough time to change clothes and grab lunch before I had to go to work to clean up the madness.

Anyway....Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone! The past two weeks have been extremely crazy for me. My dad had a minor heart attack on Tues, Nov. 13th. He's fine now, taking it easy and resting a lot, trying to ease back into things. My sister came home from boot camp on emergency leave to be with the family, which was a blessing in disguise b/c that meant she got to spend Thanksgiving with us. Then my birthday was that Thursday, the 15th. Then we went into pre-Thanksgiving crazy-time with all the preparations. I always host Thanksgiving at my house for my whole family and Doug's parents. Usually it results in anywhere from 9-15 people eating. This year we only had 9, but still that's a lot of food to prepare. Suffice it to say I've been a mess the past two weeks.

Shortly after my birthday my friend Beth took me to see the Lipizzaner Stallions.

They were so elegant and regal. I'd never been to see them, but I recommend it to anyone who likes horses. Very entertaining!

Names, names

Just for fun....

YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) = Shadow Civic
YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav. ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) = Cookie Snickerdoodle (I abbreviated Cookie for my two fave flavors of Cookies and Cream and Choc Chip Cookie Dough)
YOUR "FLY GIRL" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of last name) = KSny...which I have been called before as a nickname at work, believe it or not
YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) = Blue Dog
YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) = Ann Louisiana
YOUR STAR WASH NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) = Snyka
SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink, put "The" first) = The Green Margarita
STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) = Romance Skittles
WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names) = Jean Alan
PORN STAR NAME (name of first pet and name of first street you lived on): Shadow Lamb (I used the earliest street address I can remember....which was in fourth grade. I must have lived a million places before that but I can't remember the addresses.)