Frosty

Tonight I was hemstitching fleece blankets for the local fabric store. My hemstitch machine resides in my unfinished basement next to the outside air vent. It's the only place in the basement with an electrical outlet and the temperature down there these days is, oh, 40 degrees, if I'm lucky. Every time I work on the hemstitch machine I emerge from the basement in a near hypothermic state. So tonight I got smart and bundled up to do my work. For the first time ever I emerged from the cold cement depths a warm gal. G captured the moment.

Yuletide Christmas Riddler

Can you name the Christmas carol based on the clues? See the answers in the Comments. How did you do?

1. Quadruped with Crimson Proboscis

2. Eight P.M. to Six A.M. without Noise

3. Minuscule Hamlet in the Near East

4. Ancient Benevolent Despot

5. Exuberance Directed to the Planet

6. Listen, Aerial Spirits Announcing

7. Trio of Monarchs

8. Yonder in the Hay Rack

9. Cherubim Audited from Aloft

10. Assemble, Everyone Who Believes

11. Hollowed Post Meridian

12. Fantasia of a Colorless December 25

13. A Dozen Twenty-Four Hour Yule Periods

14. Befell During the Transparent Bewitching Hour

15. Hypothermic Homo Sapien of Crystallized Vapor

16. Desire a Pair of Incisors on December 25

17. I Spied My Maternal Parent Osculating

18. Perambulating Through a December Solstice Fantasy

19. Adorn the Vestibules

20. Tin Tintinnabulums

Dank u Sinterklaasje

On the eve of December 5th, Sinterklaas sails by steamboat from Spain to the Netherlands with gifts for the children. The children leave their shoes by the chimney filled with carrots and straw to feed Sinterklaas' horse as he and "Zwarte Piet," or Black Pete, walk the roofs dropping gifts down the chimneys into the children's shoes. If the children have been good, they receive gifts and chocolate letters. If they are naughty, they get coal and sticks used for spanking.

I remember Sinterklaas coming to visit at my Grandparent's house. After telling Sinterklaas what we expected for Christmas, each of us would receive a chocolate letter. Then we would all sing "Sinterklaas Kapoentje."

Me (dressed as the angel that I am) and Sinterklaas

Many years later while several family members were planning a trip to Holland with my Grandparents, my Grandpa asked if any of us could speak Dutch. I broke out the only Dutch I knew - you got it - Sinterklaas Kapoentje. Everybody joined in with glee. Toni may have even harmonized. When we were finished with the song Grandpa shook his head laughing and said, "You guys don't know anything. That was terrible! Don't sing that in Holland." Apparently we completely slaughtered the words. Grandma tried to sweep up our mess by singing the song again properly, in her loudest most punctuated singing voice.

Here are the words, and how it is really sung.

Sinterklaas kapoentje
Gooi wat in mijn schoentje,
Gooi wat in mijn laarsje,
Dank u Sinterklaasje

Translation:
Saint-Nicolas Little Rascal,
Put something in my little shoe,
Put something in my little boot,
Thank you little Saint-Nicolas!

Vrolijk kerstfeest!

Spirit of Christmas

I have to give a shout out to Creche-A-Day. This is Michael's reminder of the reason for the season. I think it's quite clever.

Church Bag Sophisticate

Introducing my latest project, the Ava bag crafted by yours truly, using the finest damask fabric by Joel Dewberry and coordinating fabric on the inside. The pattern indicated "easy" and it is, in fact, reversible. I couldn't resist. Not only did I order enough fabric for one bag, I picked up some fabric for an additional two, which is really four. A girl can never have enough pretty bags. I figured I could have it made in a couple of hours. It started coming together quite nicely, and rather quickly until step # 9: "Make Curved Trim and Handle" when everything fell apart. It all started to read the same - sew right sides at trim on bottom of contrasting side to top of trim right sides together for the contrasting side of handle facing. I was confused. I had to unpick many, many times to get it right. I even ended up re-cutting a few pieces of fabric, it was that bad (or I am that much a perfectionist). Then getting the top stitching to work perfectly with both sides of the bag (remember it's reversible) was another challenge. This bag took forever to make, but isn't it lovely? It's currently my "church" bag. It's roomy enough to carry my scrips, Sunday school manual, writing utensils, Kleenex, pack o' gum, chap stick, meeting programs, announcements and a baggy of Cheerios should I get hungry in the third hour.

Thanks

It has become tradition to gather on the Sunday before Thanksgiving to feast with my Dad. Just before dinner, we all take a turn to express gratitude for something in our lives. I wanted to say “48 – 24,” {Go Utes!!} but felt it was inappropriate after hearing others give thanks for employment, food, family, and new running shoes. Since then I have been thinking a lot about what I am grateful for. Here’s my short list:

G: I love G. He is a great husband. I know he tries so hard to keep me happy, even when it must seem virtually impossible.

Family: I have a big family. I have four parents*, in-laws and a zillion siblings. Sometimes it is overwhelming, especially during the holidays, to have so many families to choose from and no way of being with them all at the same time. I was complaining about this fact once to a friend who reminded me that there are many people who are alone during the holidays and I am lucky to have so many options. She is so right. I am lucky.
*We are not polygamist.

Home: We may not have the biggest house or the nicest yard on the street, but to me my house is a mansion. Dorothy was on to something – there is no place like home.

Food: This year is a rough year for many families who are doing their best to get buy. I have heard of more food drives than ever for people who can barely afford to eat. It really makes me think twice before I open my pantry chuck-full of canned goods and groan about having nothing to eat.

10 Fingers: I have played the piano basically my entire life. I actually wanted to take piano lessons. It is something I’ve always enjoyed and have found pleasure in doing. My Mother told me once that God gave me a special gift. While I've always thought I was an ok pianist, her comment gave me a greater appreciation for my talent and willingness to share it with others.

There are so many little things too. For example, you have no idea how happy I am that the city added an extra lane on Beck Street to relieve the rush-hour traffic, or that Brooks Fabrics finally hired me as one of their hemstitchers.

May we all take an inventory of the blessings in our life and say a prayer of gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving.

Pandora

My new favorite love of all time is Pandora. Music of your choice whenever you'd like. My current "station"...Chicago. I get songs from Chicago, Boston, Journey, Elton John, Phil Collins, Toto, REO Speedwagon - REO SPEEDWAGON! It doesn't get much more mullet than that! I love it!

You can plug in any song, artist or key word and it will pull up any mix of similar songs and play on and on at no cost, totally commerical free! Try it!

Please Sun, Just Set

WARNING: if you are a die-hard Twilight fan I suggest you stop reading now. I’m about to exercise free speech and you might not appreciate what I have to say. Read at your own risk of being offended.

Last year my Mom and I made trip to Boston to visit my sister. While we were there my Mom started reading a book from my sister’s bookshelf called Twilight. Up until that point I had only heard of the book. My sister had given me her review. I wasn’t terribly intrigued by the subject matter so I never read it. My Mom finished the book before our four-day trip was over. Every spare second she was reading, reading, reading. I asked her what seemed like a question with an obvious answer, “Are you enjoying that book?” Her response was shocking. “No, not really,” she said. “The writing is terrible and the author goes on and on for pages describing what could be said in a paragraph…but I can’t put it down!” I’ve heard the same complaint from many, but they continue to remain faithful readers of the series. I wonder how books so poorly written can be so captivating?

Then came the movie announcement. Twilight frenzy and mayhem ensued. Every family blog in the country had a “Days until Twilight the Movie” counter on the side bar. This movie was to be the greatest hit since Harry Potter (another frenzy I could never understand. To this day I have not read more than the first 40 pages of book one. I did see one of the Harry Potter movies though. I slept through most of it). Then tickets went on sale. The faithful were scrambling to get in opening night. Ooh, the midnight showing – I’m there! Everyone wear your prom gowns!

STOP!!!!!!! This is out of hand.

Today while at lunch I sat with several Twilight lovers who were very disappointed in the movie. The bottom line: the book was better than the movie. Wow, if the book is as poorly written as everyone says how did the expectations for the movie get so high?

I just simply can not/will not get on this bandwagon. I don’t want to hear about the books or low-budget movie anymore. The word twilight has become as obnoxious as Sarah Palin. In fact, both of you can disappear together. The election is over. Go away!

You Look Tired

I swear at least once a day for the last few weeks somebody (each day is a different somebody) has told me I look tired. I look tired? Hmm. That's nice. What else is on your mind? Does this dress make me look fat? How about my hair - is it kind of flat, wet bird-ish? I've been a little slacker on my workouts. Tell me about my cankles, please.

Memory Lane

I recently invited myself over to my brother's house so he could burn some pictures he had taken recently to a disc for me. While he was in his picture files, I noticed he had pictures from many, many years ago, like pre-digital age. I want to post all 500 of them here because they're that much fun, but instead I'll just show a few random favorites:This is one of my all-time favs. This is G and I while we were dating. We took a trip to Mexico with my family and this picture was taken in the airport. Poor guy caught a Mexican bug and came home really sick. I'm surprised he married me after this trip. This is from that same Mexico trip as mentioned above. Here's my mom, sissy and me. My sissy reserved the Yacht Sylvester, with Captain Richard and his crew Jose. We went snorkeling, where most of the family was stung by millions of baby jellyfish, and fishing, where the only fish caught was a giant garbage fish. Everyone was pretty sea sick too. It was fun.
Here's John and Josh at my wedding. Yes, John is wearing my garter and Josh is embarrassed for him.This is about as a good a family picture as we can muster. I think this was taken when we were having a farewell party for my bro who thought he wanted to move to Florida. He drove there, decided he didn't like it and turned around and came home. Or wait, was this our farewell party for someone else?
Here's G and I again many years later. Isn't he so cute? He's funny too.