What I Did for Christmas Vacation: part one, the Eve

Mom & I & Jill's family & Wes' family went to Table Rock Lake at Branson, MO. Tribesman Resort was great. We rented a house for the 12 of us and had plenty of room. Next summer or fall we all want to go back.










When Mom & I arrived it was raining.










Christmas Eve was spent settling in and waiting for Santa. Here is my brother Wes helping his kids call Norad to see how far away Santa was.

Jill & her girls in their special PJs.

Cookie Exchange Success

My 5th annual cookie exchange party went great! I made these cocoa snowflakes and a candied ginger cookie. The assortment was wonderful. Ten guests came which is the limit to how many people can fit around the cookie table. We march around the table, "musical chairs" style, taking 3-4 cookies from each tray until the table is empty.
I was surprised and really grateful at the turnout since I haven't seen some of these folks in months. It felt like a family reunion.

Aren't you a cute bunch of bakers!

Cookie Party Coming!

Remember the Yum?

More to Come...

Christmas Cookie Exchange Party
Sunday, Dec 13 @ 3:00pm

Each person brings 6 dozen of one type of holiday cookie. We swap and each take home 6 dozen assorted cookies. Loads of fun and makes holiday baking much simpler. Bring copies of your recipe to share.

( No, I didn't make those cookies. I just swiped a pretty picture.)

Shiitake Makes Me Jealous

Norm's shitake logs are fruiting and mine aren't! We spent an entire afternoon last may innoculating the logs with a farmer friend. I didn't expect them to start until next spring, but I think since it was my idea... my logs should have produced first!

National Pumpkin Shortage? No Problem!

I didn't let the pumpkin shortage foil Thanksgiving. We had punkin-pie spiced cookies instead.
I just added the pie spice to regular rolled sugar cookie dough. This tart pan was used to cut out the pie shape and then flipped over and the inner ring was cut with a knife. I used a pizza cutter to "slice the pie" into 6 pieces and spaced them out to bake.

Now we can have our pie and eat it, too.

"I'll wear it, but I wont flap my wings."

Lazy pirates gather no treasure. They raid the candy stash in the middle of the night.

Me & Jill's bunch ready to trick-or-treat. I stayed home to hand out candy while they went soliciting.

Boo-tiful Halloween

Iced sugar cookies are more fun to make than to eat. We won't be giving the kids any of the vampire mouths because I found out too late that the red icing re-melts and stains when slobbered on.

Christmas Chullo Finished

I have one Christmas present done...7 more to go. This is my own design with wool and acrylic yarns.

Doggie Dress-up

Not quite Halloween yet... just feeling pretty.
This afternoon I'm making peanut butter & banana mini pupcakes for Puddin's birthday on Saturday. Nine years old doesn't seem that old until you consider that the world's oldest dog is only 19.

Adoption Day

Jill's adoption of all 4 girls is now final. We took these pictures outside the courthouse just after.
Chrissy, Miah, Bella(I want Lulu, Jill calls her Baby), and Abbi.

my own little basket of shame, part one

I just joined a Ravelry group called Basket of Shame to list and finish unfinished knitting. This is my first sweep at collecting everything that needs to be finished.

ballband baby blanket, 45% complete















pink toddler's sweater/jacket, 70% complete















christmas stocking, 35% complete

taupe child's chullo, 95% complete

skinny christmas stocking, 75% complete

gold small chullo, 95% complete

doll's christmas hat, 95% complete

babette blanket, 15% complete

rose child's chullo, 90% complete

stretchy socks, 15% complete

brown child's chullo, 25% complete

Playing Ketchup/ Let's Start Over

Some Christmas knitting...Jill's girls in the chullos i designed and knit. The whole bunch of bananas.
Last week it was so warm and nice that I dragged Mom out to start the garden. We planted lettuce, spinach, mesclun mix, swiss chard, and 2 raspberry plants.