One more day...

Until a Blue Moon. . .

Supposedly we're going to have one tomorrow night. How exciting...

Jake is finally on medication for his seizures. I take him back in a month for blood work, but the hope is that the phenobarbital will do the trick for him. His seizures are in the midst of changing their M.O. or evolving into another type of seizure that he has in conjunction with the Grand Mal's. Never-the-less it is time to start medicating him.

Side effects are possibly sleeping more (don't know if we'd notice that!) and eating more with a possible weight gain (that we'd notice!)

I've started on 3 new projects. All socks, for the moment. I'm very excited about these. Very complicated and intricate, I love these types of patterns! As soon as I get some of the pattern visible I'll post a couple of pic's.

Almost 2010! Black Eyed Peas, Ham, homemade Biscuits, and greens are all on the menu for New Year's Day. Yummy.

Finally finished sweaters and more....

Done. Done. Done. I can't believe it took me so long to finish Max's sweater. Couldn't wrap my head around doing another sweater so close to completing the last sweater. But now they're finished and the boys have warm sweaters to wear when the temps drop in the evenings.

Aren't they cute? Both were not happy about modeling, but waited patiently for me to get the right picture before walking away.

Now what am I going to do???

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning...



All the stockings lined up and filled....





All ready to go...

Awwwww..... Jake got what he wanted.



So did Max!




Kaitlyn seems happy...




Zoie's happy,




Izzy is too...


Don't think he remembered this blanket I had made!


Boys are getting into the holiday spirit




Girls too!



Kristina's surprised.






Hi!

Christmas Eve activities...

Getting ready for our Christmas Eve celebration. We have to flatten the couch pillows so that they sit right.

Our group for Christmas this year. Left to right:

Olivia, Zoie, Kaitlyn (back row), Jolie, Parker, Kristina, Hunter and Izzy (Elizabeth).

A little caroling in the car...

Below is a video I took of all the kids singing in front of a school and basically caroling for the neighborhood in 9* temps. They had fun... I got cold. ;-)

Here we are! All decked out in our Christmas P.J's...
Front row - Parker, Hunter, Olivia, Jolie

Back row - Izzy, Kaitlyn, Me, Kristina, Zoie

Gotta leave the reindeer food for Santa's reindeer which also shows them where to land.

Pups like Smores too!, but they're just getting marshmellow pieces...

Notice the marshmellow in Max's mouth

Jake making sure he gets it all.....

Our contribution to Santa's ability to stay warm on this cold night...... Gumbo!

Night before Christmas...

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled down for a long winter's nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snowGave the lustre of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all! "As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky, So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack. His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

Merry Christmas from All of Us!

57*, another finished and more...

57*, I can't believe it! 57*!!!! So..... we obviously went for a ride. All the kids were taken care of by big sisters. Everyone, all the kids, were asking us, "Are you going for a ride?" So off we went. Just beautiful. Not an expected temp for today, but definitely welcome. Especially in light of the snow we're forecasted to get over the next few days.
I've finished another project for under the tree. Both of the dogs are going to be very happy come Christmas morning. They are both getting sweaters from me. Custom made and custom fitted. Really warm and we don't even have to lift up their skirts when they have to go out. All of my other knitting is completed and under the tree. So everything else that I can finish is just gravy. I love this feeling.....

We've discovered that we're having a guest for Christmas this year. Zoe, a friend of Kristina's, is going to spend Christmas eve and day with us. So we're excited to be able to share our time with her. How exciting!

Pie's ..... got delivered today!

Stupid me. I totally forgot to get pictures of what the girls and I did, so I'm recreating the scenario to some extent.

To start, the girls and I baked 6 Chocolate-Bourbon Pecan pies. We were so organized and had everything in little ramekins or bowls, all lined up, ready to be mixed together to end up with this lovely looking pie. Everything went according to plan and though I ended up finishing with David's help at 10:30 last night, all the pies were ready this morning to be sliced and displayed for each recipient.
First we started cutting up the pies at 6:45 this morning and as always the first piece comes out
and disintegrates. So thankfully we had 6 pies to use to get all the beautiful pieces that we wanted to deliver to each and every special person in my children's school life's. Amazingly we only used 3 pies, so I have a pie that I can deliver to the teachers lounge on Friday before school for everyone else. That means we have 2 pies to use here at home and to deliver to neighbors.
The girls helped with the wrapping up of each precious piece of pie. Here is an example. I think they came out really cute. Tomorrow we have 3 more to deliver, as some teachers were not in school today. Each is on a plate that is wrapped in red saran wrap with a name tag that has a tie. We tied up the wrap and in the tying we added a plastic spoon. So everything was delivered in a tidy little package.

When we walked in the school with the 3 cookie sheets of pies... everyone was Oooo and Ahhhing. So, inadvertently, we may have started a new trend. All were talking about the disappointment of having to make tons of cookies and having them break in delivering. So we'll see if next year all these poor teachers are inundated with pies!

A Birthday, socks and more...

I'm off shortly for my volunteer position at the school, working in Olivia's class on Tuesday's for an hour. The kids are just great and I love being with them all. Yesterday was Hunter's class for an hour.

Today we celebrate another birthday. My Mom's! I wish we could all be there for this week each year to help celebrate. (Mom and Dad, stop the cringing! ;-) But Texas is just a little to far from us. So we get to make a phone call and send our best Birthday wishes, that way.

Another sock. This is the pair I mentioned in my previous post. I don't have an updated pic to show, so this one of the first sock will have to do until I complete the second one. I sincerely hope to have it done in the next couple of days. But I do have the baking to do, so it may be this weekend before I can get these off the needles and get started on another wip that I have sitting somewhere...

Completed fingerless mitts! I'm so glad to have these off the needles. Last week I met a girlfriend for coffee and a lady walked in and thought these were a lovely pair of socks! Now I hadn't thought about making a pair of socks quite like this, but why not? Could make for an interesting peek when the jeans leg is hiked up as you cross your legs. Quite colorful! haha!

Seeing Santa, finishing one pair, snow and more...

We saw Santa today. The kids were so excited. We were standing outside of the cabin doing the usual photo op's and...
















from behind me..... up walks Santa!

(I suspect he was over at Thundar and Buttons getting ready! That's where I'd have been if it were me...)

He was still in the process of getting ready to meet and greet all his adoring fans. Since we were the only people waiting at that point, he chatted with all the kiddos and gave each a hug.

He proceeded to tell Kristina that he doesn't deliver cars or Boys! Mom's reply was, "Thank Goodness!"

Almost time for the big question and answer session with Santa!

After the kiddo's told Santa how good they've been this year we headed over to the "Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory" for a special treat. From there we headed over to Monica's for some lunch and then it was time to head off to Chinese School. So they didn't get to eat their treats until....

after school.

Nothing better than chocolate snowmen!
I finally finished Jolie's mittens. Custom fit and I really like the way they turned out. I will try to make her a color matching hat for this winter. Still have lots more mittens to turn out before I can start on that though. Unfortunately in this picture you can't see that the mitten changes color half way up the mitten from orange to pink.

Still plugging along on the fingerless mitts and socks. Should have the mitts completed this week and then start working again on the last sock. I don't think I'll be doing this sock pattern again for a while at least. It is an easy pattern, and quite nice but it doesn't really hold my attention. So completing this pair of socks has been quite the chore.

In the meantime I'm going to be baking at least 3 Chocolate-Bourbon Pecan Pies to cut up and send as gifts to all the teachers/administrators that we deal with on a daily basis. I think the final total was 21 just for the elementary kiddo's. I'm anxious to get those pies baked and for the kiddo's to get all the pieces handed out. I think I'm going to have to help with the delivery of these.

It has finally reached the 40's and the roads are starting to clear off up at the house. The main roads around the city, below us, are all just perfect. The roads in our neighborhood are still packed with snow and now ice.

Necessities - the list keeps changing and growing!

Wow! Constant temps in the 0 to below 0 range have made me re-think the items I thought were enough. As an example, I now realize that the gloves, scarves, hats, etc. that we do have are not enough in these temps. The kiddos were sent to school today (2*, windy) with little beenie hats, those one size almost fit all $1.99 for 2 gloves and their heavy winter coats. I just know that those kiddo's were cold by the time they reached the school. So I'm looking around for patterns that I can knit for each one to have their own pair of heavy mittens and a especially warm hat (read back a few posts) and maybe just maybe I can sneak in a special something for the puppies. They are having a devil of a time walking on the snow with barefeet and always come back in limping or we have to go out and get them before they freeze in place. Sweaters and foot coverings are needed for these guys. I never thought I'd see the time come where I thought those were necessities for our dogs! This weather is wicked and vicious.

Jolie is home sick again today. She ran a fever on Sunday and today broke out on her hands with a blistery type rash. Can't find any other blisters anywhere on her and no fever. Very strange and definitely viral like. So we're not running to the doctor but will keep an eye on her. She's content to lay on the opposite couch from me and watch "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" movie.

Check back a bit later I may be adding to this post....

A Birthday and The Schools are closed!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is a big day for my dad. Hope you have a great birthday. Love you!

Took this picture yesterday - Monday. You can't tell from this picture that the kiddo's had shoveled the driveway on Sunday. The total depth of the snow was somewhere between 6" - 8" then. There was school with no delay. The roads were less than s0-s0. I had an a breakfast engagement that we delayed by an hour until 10:30 and the roads were still not great. Then my day got turned upside down and I spent the remainder, quite literally, out in the 4* - 6* day and evening, driving from here to there trying to get everyone home from school, to doctors appt, or something from the vet, to picking up scripts from Walgreens and finally making an impromptu stop at Walmart. I walked in the door at 8:20 p.m.

Our deck...

closer...

Today - Tuesday - they close the schools....

I guess better late than never......

:)

Birthday party...

Strange I don't remember having any babies in December!?! Yet, here I am having a birthday party for one of mine. Olivia finally got to celebrate her 10th birthday with her girlfriends. 3 months after her true date. We just never had a good time to get the party goin!, until now. Here are some pics for remembrances and fun. Jolie's next! Two weeks from now....


This was a decorating party...
First was T-Shirts....








Then it was cupcakes...



that they all ended up eating and wearing...


I think everyone had a good time.