the day after

Christmas was really fun this year. It was all about owen and his trains. We went & saw Santa at the mall, who offered the O-man some good advice about being nice vs. naughty. Owen was pretty good when my parents had people over both Christmas eve and Christmas night, except that the noise from the grown-ups talking got to him after awhile. My cousin's daughter Zoe pushed him around and grabbed his trains, but he took that pretty well. The hightlight for him was a shiny electric train that went in circles and sputtered real smoke. It was hard to tear him away from that for long, and he's spent the last two days mostly in his jammies. Pretty mellow.

My Christmas was spent mostly knitting, which was just what I wanted to do. I finished a "capped" mitten (a fingerless glove with a hat for your fingers=mittten), and am almost done with Owen's other mitten. I hardly "got" anything from anyone, which for once I'm OK with. It seems like so many people had a hard time figuring out gifts. I did get the dustbuster I asked for, and K & J got me an iTrip for our "new" car. That's right: I am almost in possession of a vehicle, a 1994 Dodge Caravan. The funny thing is that my dad has been having fun driving it in the last few days that I'm not sure I'll get it. ^_^

Wiley's pretty happy to see us after the last few days, although we're going to NYC this weekend and he'll be PO'd all over again. He did break a Mexican tablet that my mother-in-law got us that gashed our floor, but at least he didn't throw up. Tomorrow is back to work for all of 2 days. Have myself a nice little work week...

Merry Merry!

I think we may be almost ready for Santa. Tomorrow we head to my parents' house, and the O-man will get a haircut, write his letter in time to get to the North Pole, and go to the local mall to see Santa. Should be fun.

Here's what the cat thinks. Enjoy the holiday!

getting in the spirit

Finally! The craft fair is done, I sold a few wine charms and reinvested the cash into my co-workers pockets I got a cute pair of citrine earrings and a sachet that the cat decided to take over.

Last night I worked super-late to get stuff done, and then I crashed out. I absolutely refused to start the various Christmas gifts I have on my plate. The other night I joked to my girlfriend that people would be getting swatches wrapped up! I've also decided to knit sweaters, one for the boy and one for me, after the holidays. I had a coupon from the Knit Out for free shipping at Webs that had to get used. And because I live in Massachusetts, it arrived within a week. More yarn! Yay!

I still need to do the bulk of Christmas shopping, and find the hanger for the wreath on the front door. We're still torn whether to get a real tree, or if the fiber-optic disco tree will come home from the Dig office. At least we have the Christmas cards, and those will go out over the weekend.

Tonight was the Dig party/benefit at the Cyclorama/BCA. Fun to see people & meet new ones. Weird to say that I used to work at the Dig, weirder to define myself as so-and-so's wife. Oh well. We missed ice cream from JP Licks, but the open bar was good, and the music was manageable. At least you could have a conversation without shouting for very long.

One of my new favorite things are the CVS knockoffs of the Ponds' Cucumber exfoliating facial cleaning wipes. One side is bumpy for exfoliating, the other is smooth to take off all traces of caked on glitter eyeliner and mascara. They smell nice, don't leave a greasy residue, and are $4.99 for a pack of 30. They are probably packed with unpronoucable chemicals, but the tiny Trader Joe's I go to hasn't been carrying the Comodynes Oatmeal ones. I think they're $2.99 for 20, but I don't like the oily feel on my face & hands, although they're the right price and I don't go to bed wearing my makeup. Now if I just had a box of the On-the-Go disposable toothbrush finger condoms, I'd be all set.

domestic goddess

Last weekend I had a bit of a yarn attack at Michael's craft store, and managed to gobble up a bunch of $2 novelty yarns. All for a good cause though, because they're going towards stuff for the craft fair. We'll see if I can get enough knit in time! I'm starting to freak out about it. Hence, no blogging lately.

Let the bake sales begin! I baked 3 bowlfuls (several oven batches) of strawberry or lemon cookies. The recipe came out of my company's Employee Cookbook, so I can't take credit.
Lemon Cookies by Adele Carew
1 box lemon cake mix (or strawberry cake mix)
1 8oz tub of Cool Whip
1 egg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until they make a big sticky ball. Use a tablespoon (or small melon-ball/ice cream scoop) to drop doughballs onto a greased cookie sheet (or parchment paper). Bake 10-12 minutes, or until golden. Dust with confectioner's sugar.

Now, you can use Fat Free Cool Whip, and the cookies come out fluffier and the batter was more liquidy. Disgusting fake nasty stuff, yes, but the cookies taste yummy. But Extra Creamy Cool Whip mixed very quickly. It took several trips in the oven for a bowl to be emptied because I wanted the cookies to be nice and round, spaced far apart on the cookie sheet, and not bake into one big cookie. I also have a new appreciation for parchment paper!

I'm off to bed to knit & watch something other than guys beat the stuffing out of each other on UFC.