Saturday, December 30, 2006

Wow, so much to catch up on.....

I haven’t been blogging, what with the kids out of school, Joe home for the week on vacation, and Christmas festivities. Sorry! We are such slugs, sleeping in way too late.

I’m glad we didn’t depend on the Trail of Lights for our Christmas photo – we went on what must have been THE most crowded night! An editing note on the Christmas photo in the previous blog…the original I posted was the icky version before Target’s cleanup job. My friend Jackie took it, cleaned it up for me with her amazing software, and sent it back to me. Thanks Jackie for letting everyone enjoy a much nicer photo of my kids!

We had a great repeat of our Christmas Eve tradition: attending evening church, then to dinner with other families from church. Previous years found us at Kerbey Lane Café, then at IHOP, but this year we tried out the Village Inn. It’s much closer to all of our homes, and the food is good. They were so nice about taking in a party of 30 (yes, of course, we warned them days ahead!). Because we had some time between the end of the church service and dinner time, we drove through an area of Austin my parents used to live in, to look at the Christmas light displays. With no snow, they really do up the yards and houses here. It’s so pretty, and the yards are outlined in white lights with a number of painted plywood figures in the yards. The cul-de-sac with the geese is always my favorite.

Sadly, I didn’t take any photos this year on Christmas Day! Again! I just get to enjoying the time with family, that I forget. We had my sister and parents here for Christmas Day; we opened presents and had lasagna for dinner. So nice and easy because I can make it a day ahead, and just threw it in the oven while we opened gifts! I did start a Flickr account (linked in the sidebar) for photos. I’ll add photos of completed knits as I remember to take the photos.

One of my favorite gifts this year was this from Joe. Last year he gave me the tool case and I loved it…it was hard to wait for this case! I’m making socks like crazy now, and to have a beautiful case made from vintage fabrics…that’s just icing on the cake.

The most meaningful gift(s) I received were 2 items from my Mom…she handwrote a Grandmother Remembers book for my kids, which included photos and stories of her growing up years. An absolute treasure. The other is a binder she is working on that is the history of her side of the family, which I don’t think has ever been recorded: her mother came over to the US at age 14, alone, speaking no English, to meet up with her own parents who had emigrated earlier. There are stories and photos I’ve not heard or seen before. Thankfully she is planning to continue to gather information and photos as the years progress. Again, a treasure.

Speaking of icing, my sister and I went shopping once school let out (she’s a teacher), and at Bed, Bath and Beyond we found a cookie cutter kit that was in a metal lunchbox…it made cookies shaped like Rudolph, the Bumble, Sam the Snowman and Hermie the Elf! And even better, the cookies were 2-3 parts and were assembled to make 3D standup cookies! I used the leftover royal icing from when my parents were over doing Gingerbread Houses with the kids and Grace’s friend. It was part of my Christmas gift from her and I love them! Oh, and they were tasty, too!

On the health front, I realize I forgot to let you all (both of you?) that the biopsy on the lump by my nose was normal tissue! That’s good for me…we have to keep an eye on my face, as the basal cell carcinoma I made before wasn’t typical in appearance. Why do I always want to say “bobopsy” like Aunt Voula in My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Love that movie. Bundt cake.


We’ll continue another tradition for New Year’s Eve: we are on about year 8 for hosting a New Year’s Eve party for friends from church…nearly the same group as from Christmas Eve! We started doing this when the kiddos were little, and none of us could afford either dinner out or a sitter, much less both. So these kids have grown up with this party, and move from watching movies in one room, to video games in another, to playing Trivial Pursuit with the ‘grown ups.’ Another fun tradition I’d miss terribly if it ever ended!

So, here’s to wishing you a Happy, Happy New Year, that is full of health, happiness, fun, family and faith!

Knitting content, especially regarding yarn and pattern (socks – what else?) opinions to come in a future entry.

1 comment:

Jennifer Stewart said...

Happy new year, Kris! That book and binder from your mother sound SO wonderful. What precious gifts. :) Glad you had a good Christmas!

Jennifer