Christmas Time

Instead of starting this entry with a picture of grouchy old Ginger, I will start with a picture of my Mom's cat, Scout. Don't be deceived by this cute face! She looks all sweet and cuddly, but do not be fooled! Their is a Ginger lurking in there somewhere!
I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas. We had a quiet day - which was just what we wanted. Of course we were a little apprehensive about the whole day since it would be the first Christmas without Daddy, but it went well in spite of that. There were a few tears, but mainly stories about him that made us smile. L and I are in the picture above. He got a Beatles Rock Band for the Wii. I've never been a big fan of the Beatles. Now I know I will never be a big fan of the Beatles! ARGH! Beatlemania has hit our house! L has become a master on the guitar and R has mastered the drums. I was making a feeble attempt at drumming. If you look closely, you can see what R and L will do with a ream of paper, a stapler, a paper cutter and a few hours. They made paper chains for almost every square inch of the ceiling! Origami 'things' are hanging where the chains intersect. It got to the point where I was afraid to go to sleep for fear of what I would find decorating the living room in the morning!

Okay, you knew it was coming! Here's Miss Ginger showing her 'friendly' side! The other day she climbed in my lap while I was in the recliner and stayed there for two hours! I was scared to death to move! Would she go for my jugular? Was she just cold? Why was she letting me pet her? The world may never know.

R got these adorable earrings from Santa (who shops at the Woolery for those of you who are curious).

This is my gift from R. She and L have been stealthily knitting to make beautiful Christmas gifts for me. I will make sure we get a big picture of this so you can see just how gorgeous it truly is. She snapped these pictures before she wrapped it and the snow was still on the ground.

Here it is all folded up. It is just beautiful....in case I hadn't made that point before! L also made me a beautiful scarf, but I am waiting for some pictures of that before I share. When your kids spend every evening up in their rooms knitting their fingers to the bones for you, you know they are special!

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year and that God will bless you in 2010!

A Day in the Snow

Snow is everywhere! We are not used to it here in NC, so it has just about stopped life as we know it. The secondary roads are just about empty. The newspaper wasn't delivered in some areas. And we are not going anywhere! When I opened the back door, the above picture shows what greeted me. I put the camera on the floor so you could see how deep it was. Here's a very misleading measurement. The snow blew off the roof and piled close to the house. It was this deep on the back deck, but we actually had about six inches of snow in the yard. What do you do with that much snow? Well, you play in it. You throw it at each other. You fall into it. You don't leave RL alone or else you end up with a snowball almost as tall as the children!
Here they are showing how proud they are of their accomplishment. It took all four of us to roll it into the front yard - along with a boogie board and a long board for leverage. Man, are we sore! Why yes, the children do look snooty. They are proud and feel they have accomplished something no one else on our street has!

Here's our snowman with all his parts in place. Don't ask how we did it! But, if one of the neighbors had a video camera running, I think they will win America's Funniest Home Video!

And this was where we left the snowman this evening. R had started carving a face by standing on a ladder and using her gardening tools! Tomorrow we finish this monstrosity! Wish us luck!

SNOW! GLORIOUS SNOW!

I just took this picture from the front door. This picture is without a flash.

And with a flash it looks so cool - you can see the flakes as they fall! Our Moravian star is going to be round soon! All the points are filling in with snow!

What a great early Christmas present!

Christmas Knitting

Finally! Something finished and something I can show you! I finished these two days ago - you can get a lot of knitting done in a dentist's office waiting room. I wanted to make something special for our grief counselor and thought fingerless mitts would be nice. R found this free pattern on Ravelry. They are called "Baby Fan Mitts." I used two skeins of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino. I probably could have done it with one, but I like to knit two at a time and I had two skeins, so that's what I did! R has already dropped some hints that she would like a pair and I wouldn't mind a pair myself, so I guess I better get busy.

The color is actually a solid navy blue. It's just not coming across that way in the pictures.
Another bonus - I found this yarn in my stash just waiting to be knit into something special for someone special!

As for L, he is doing great! We are finally feeding the boy solids and he is happy, happy, happy! However, the soft foods around here didn't go to waste. RL ended up in the dentist's chair yesterday and now he is on soft foods! It happens.

Still Here - Still Busy

Since I can't show any knitting projects - completed or in the works because some recipients might be lurking about - you'll just have to settle for Ginger in front of the Christmas tree. R was playing around with the camera the other day and managed to get Ginger to sit still - on a stool - for this picture. That is quite the amazing feat! As for other things going on around here, well, there are plenty of other things going on around here! We just got home from Ls wisdom tooth extraction. Apparently the procedure was a little more detailed than they had originally thought. I get the willies just thinking about it! The tooth was impacted and sideways, pressing against his back molar. They had to go through bone to get it out. I know, I know, makes you kind of cringe, doesn't it? We are loaded with pain medication, ibuprofen, soup, ice cream, pudding and yogurt. I think we're good to go! We'll only have to go through with this one more time as the dentist told us next time to get the rest done at once. I dread that day, but probably not as much as L does!

As you can see in the above picture, the tree is decorated thanks to my two elves, Mom and R. I need to take some pictures of the ceiling. You'll never believe it! The kids went a little wild with paper chains. They are everywhere and a few other places I didn't think they could reach. Never underestimate the power of creative children!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today Daddy would have been 77. I sure do miss him. He was a good buddy!

Happy Birthday Daddy, I love you.

Where Have I Been????

Good question! What a busy month November turned out to be. I don't know if 'busy' is the right word. Chaos is closer to it. This was our first Thanksgiving without Daddy, so we were kind of dreading it. It went better than I thought it would. A few days before Thanksgiving we had a little excitement. RL was taking the whole week off, so we were looking forward to an easy week. L had other plans. Monday evening he had extreme pain in his right jaw. I knew what it was. I didn't want to say it out loud, but I just knew those wicked wisdom teeth were finally showing up. After begging a dentist Tuesday morning to see him, it was indeed his wisdom tooth. The right bottom tooth is impacted and infected. A week of penicillin later, we are looking at next week for surgery. This one absolutely, positively needs to come out, so it will be the first. Do you know how expensive this surgery is - with dental insurance?????? Too unbelievable much! Merry Christmas to us! Add to that some other surprises and stressful situations and you have our November! There are some exciting things to report, but pictures need to be taken first. I'll give you a hint - somehow our living room has turned into the paper chain extravaganza from 'Elf'. Every morning there are new additions. But, you have to see it to believe it! I'll post pictures very soon! Hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving.