I guess I'm just not meant to blog all that frequently. I'd like to get back into it, but I seem to lack topics to blog about. And this post is all over the place as I play catch-up with everything.
I took some vacation days and was off of work from Christmas Eve until yesterday. It's a bit of a shock to the system to get back into things. While I was off I did a whole lot of nothing. And I loved it!
I watched a lot of movies and some TV shows.
Serenity,
A Knight's Tale, (yes, we started with an Alan Tudyk theme)
Troy,
There Will be Blood,
Four Christmases,
Nobel Son,
Surviving Christmas,
Lost in Austen,
Dangerous Beauty,
Picture Perfect,
Confessions of a Shopaholic,
Harry Potter 1-6, the final episode from season one and the pilot of
Dollhouse, and
Buffy, season one and 15 episodes of season two. Plus we went out and saw
Sherlock Holmes. Our Netflix account definitely got a workout!!!
I knit. And I knit some more. (Basically I spent my time knitting and watching movies.) This included 2 chocolate chip cookies, an oreo, a sugar cookie, and a peanut blossom, all on a plate and with a matching mug of milk. To combat that sugar, I made 2 sugar snap peas- one with a closed pod and the other pod open with 3 peas in it. (Not sure why the pattern for the open pod is about half the size of the closed pod.) Then for clothes I made a quick black and white hat and then have started a couple of other projects.
I bought new ice skates and Chris even humored me and went to the rink with me one day. Although he won't readily admit it, I think he had fun. He didn't fall and was actually skating away from the wall for a while. If only they actually sharpened rental skates, he might have done even better.
Had a scrap night with Kelly. I had grand ambitions of working on my Acadia album from when we were there in 2008. Instead I spent the night helping Kelly with her album. And we got 12 pages done, finishing up DJ's first year of life!
In other Christmas relatedness....
I was a little late getting the decorations up, but about halfway through the month things finally got spruced up. Due to various other scheduling I imagine decorations will be up through the end of January.
We had survived Cookie Baking. We cut back the number of recipes and stretched it over the weekend. We also did gifts over the weekend, thus eliminating the need to schedule another event. I still need to finish making the cookbook.
On Christmas Day, Mom came over and we had a nice meal, gifts, etc. Then that evening we went and saw Sherlock Holmes.
Coming up... on Saturday we're having friends over to make gingerbread houses and do a re-gift Yankee Swap.
Coming up.... Jan 30th getting together with my mom's extended family for our "Christmas" gathering. A turducken is in my future...
Other December activities included a Lost and Found concert. Hard to believe that I've been following them around for 16 years now! Michael (frizzy hair on my right) and his wife had a baby recently so I gave him a little sweater that I had knit. When George had his girls they got dresses, so it was only fair. Plus it was a sweater I had originally planned for a baby boy I know, but it ended up looking too girly.
We shoveled snow a couple of times. And then when we came back from Cookie Baking to 8 inches of snow in the driveway, our next door neighbor asked us if we wanted the number of his plow guy. Um, yes, please. He's now saved in my phone as "plow guy". :) While waiting for the plow guy I looked out the window and saw this fabulous sunset. (The snow picture is from our commute in to work earlier in December.)
In other news, I got new glasses. Not very exciting, but in mid-December I realized I had about $400 left in my FSA. Since it's a use it or loose it kind of thing, I figured since I hated my old glasses, this would be a good way to use up the money. Hopefully these will stay on my head better than my old glasses.
What was weird though, is when I went in to pick out my frames, the saleswoman remembered my name. I hadn't been there since the summer! She said she remembered the fun colors of my hair.
And at the beginning of December Chris once again had a table at Good Shepherd's Craft Faire. Pictured here is only about half of his inventory. He's done really well this year, especially with his
Etsy store.
We also looked around the rest of the museum. Well, not all of the museum, because it's huge. And I saw this sign. Obviously it humored me, since I pulled out my camera in the ladies room.
I knit. And I knit some more. (Basically I spent my time knitting and watching movies.) This included 2 chocolate chip cookies, an oreo, a sugar cookie, and a peanut blossom, all on a plate and with a matching mug of milk. To combat that sugar, I made 2 sugar snap peas- one with a closed pod and the other pod open with 3 peas in it. (Not sure why the pattern for the open pod is about half the size of the closed pod.) Then for clothes I made a quick black and white hat and then have started a couple of other projects.
I bought new ice skates and Chris even humored me and went to the rink with me one day. Although he won't readily admit it, I think he had fun. He didn't fall and was actually skating away from the wall for a while. If only they actually sharpened rental skates, he might have done even better.
I was a little late getting the decorations up, but about halfway through the month things finally got spruced up. Due to various other scheduling I imagine decorations will be up through the end of January.
On Christmas Day, Mom came over and we had a nice meal, gifts, etc. Then that evening we went and saw Sherlock Holmes.
Other December activities included a Lost and Found concert. Hard to believe that I've been following them around for 16 years now! Michael (frizzy hair on my right) and his wife had a baby recently so I gave him a little sweater that I had knit. When George had his girls they got dresses, so it was only fair. Plus it was a sweater I had originally planned for a baby boy I know, but it ended up looking too girly.
We shoveled snow a couple of times. And then when we came back from Cookie Baking to 8 inches of snow in the driveway, our next door neighbor asked us if we wanted the number of his plow guy. Um, yes, please. He's now saved in my phone as "plow guy". :) While waiting for the plow guy I looked out the window and saw this fabulous sunset. (The snow picture is from our commute in to work earlier in December.)
In other news, I got new glasses. Not very exciting, but in mid-December I realized I had about $400 left in my FSA. Since it's a use it or loose it kind of thing, I figured since I hated my old glasses, this would be a good way to use up the money. Hopefully these will stay on my head better than my old glasses.
And at the beginning of December Chris once again had a table at Good Shepherd's Craft Faire. Pictured here is only about half of his inventory. He's done really well this year, especially with his Etsy store.
So on Friday night Chris and I went to Harvard Square which had been renamed "Hogwarts Square". There were a number of places that would be selling the book at midnight, contests, etc.
There also was a concert with the band Harry and the Potters. On the left is a picture of the concert crows during one of the opening acts (The Hungarian Horntails and Draco and the Malfoys both performed.)
I also present to you a number of my favorite costumes while we were there.
(The quidditch team seems to be short a keeper.)
I had thought about going in costume, but until about an hour before I wasn't sure that we would be going. However, I think that if I had dressed up I would have been Tonks. What was interesting, is that since this was Harvard Square it was a little difficult to tell who was dressed as Tonks and who just had colored hair. If I had gone in costume I probably would have put on a pink wig since my color is pretty subtle.
I also liked that people chose to dress as some of the less popular characters or as villains. (There actually were large numbers of Slytherins, but I don't think I saw any Hufflepuff.) We also saw people dressed as Umbridge, Luna, Padma and Parvati Patil, as well as other lesser known characters.
Other businesses in the area also got in on the fun. Harvard's Natural History Museum had a scavenger hunt for owls, sorcerers stones, etc and a number of the eateries had butterbeer and other "wizard" themed food. Here are some of the flavors offered by a local icecream shop. I love the name of the last one!
