finally.

Best Christmas Present

Remember way back when, when I said I wanted a piano? Well, guess what my Christmas present is? Yep. A piano. We started shopping around (we’re looking at used ones), looking for one that will fit nicely in our living room. I’m pretty excited. I think Lexi will enjoy playing piano – or at least enjoy trying – and I’m planning on taking lessons as well.

Anyway, pretty excited about my present.

I think Kevin likes his present as well. This summer I’ll be painting his office.

St. Nicholas

Stockings are hung.

Small gifts purchased and wrapped.

Fun treats ready to go.

Kids sleeping, excited for St. Nick’s Day tomorrow.

My family grew up celebrating this holiday. When we lived in Milwaukee not many people had heard of it…in fact kids at school didn’t believe me when on December 6 I would tell them that St. Nick came to my house the night before. My mom had quite a few phone calls from parents asking what this crazy holiday was. When we moved to Green Bay (a very Catholic city), everyone knew about St. Nick’s Day.

For me, it was always sort of the kick-off to Christmas.

NaBloPoMo Post #8: Handmade for the Holidays

When you are doing all your gift buying this year, consider buying handmade.

Here are some of my favorite shops (most are etsy shops):

CopperBoom
Future Leaders of Ghana
Gub Factory
Junk Posse
Water4Christmas
LadyBird
Bean Forest

But don’t forget, the first gift you buy this year, buy it November 13.
$10 for water.

The holidays are coming.

It just dawned on me that the holidays are quickly approaching. I sort of put it out of my mind that the holidays means about 3 months of presents. And now with Milo here we are stretching that out to four months.

October is Milo’s birthday. It’s the kick off to present mania.
November is Thanksgiving but we celebrate Christmas with one side of the family on Thanksgiving weekend. Present exchange #2.
December is Christmas at our house and then Christmas with the other side of the family.
January is Lexi’s birthday.

It takes us until about April to convince Lexi that there is an end to the present opening.

I also just realized that with the holidays approaching I need to get started on Christmas gifts. Not sure what people are getting this year. Might be buying more handmade than making it myself. We’ll see.

Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody.

We are hanging out in Kansas with Kevin’s family for Christmas. (For those of you keeping track, yes, that’s a 12 hour drive from our house – with a 3 year-old.)

We brought the dogs who are loving the fact that they can be outside and run and bark and nobody cares.

We opened presents this morning, we’re so proud, Lexi got her first Red Wings Jersey. There was also a jersey for her baby brother as well. And yes, there will be a photo shoot with all four of us in our matching jerseys. (Well, five if Lexi is allowed to bring Pinky who also got a Red Wings jersey.)

Tonight is Christmas with the extended family and tomorrow and Saturday involve much sitting.

Gotta love Christmas break.

The Finished Kilts

To recap: Libby and I made 6 kilts for Pat and Angela’s wedding. What we thought was going to be a simple project of pleating and stitching turned into a huge adventure and undertaking of math, hand-sewing, tailoring, lining, buckles and lots of firsts for us (and we really aren’t beginners in sewing).

Here’s the basics of what we did.

Start with 5 yards of fabric (8 yards for the Groom). Do a lot of math and pleat the middle section. But here’s the catch, the pleated part needs to end up with the pattern of the tartan still visible. Notice how the you can see the pattern in the pleats? Unless you are really close, it’s actually hard to see that it’s pleated.

Pin all the pleats in place. Iron all the pleats to help them set. Now hand sew them from the hipline to the waist. Make sure the pattern of the tartan lines up – no squiggly lines. Sew across all the pleats inside the kilt to anchor them in place. Unpin it and pile a bunch of heavy books on top for a night to set the pleats.

Oh, but before you pleat everything you need to sew darts into the aprons and a fringed edge on the over-apron to give it shape and style.

Okay, so now that the pleats are done, you need to add lining, interfacing and a waist-band. All hand-sewn (except the top of the waist band). You also need to sew belt loops, a button hole, and buckles.

And insist on taking a picture of the finished product. From the front and the back.

And we’re back.

We’ve been in Green Bay for a week. We left Friday right after work and we got back tonight around dinner time. Originally we were only going to be there from Wednesday evening until Saturday morning but my grandpa passed away and the funeral was last Saturday so we left early.

Our schedule went in waves of being crazy and then nothing to do.
Friday we arrived. The house was packed with my dad’s relatives who were in town for the funeral. (The one good thing about funerals is that you get to see relatives that you never see but wish you could see all the time.)
Saturday was the visitation and the funeral.
Sunday was brunch at my grandparents house (on my mom’s side) with about 20 people.
Monday we drove to Appleton to meet up with friends I haven’t seen since college.
Tuesday I was sick. I slept all day and read Twilight. .
Wednesday we drove to West Bend (about 2 hours away) to have lunch and watch Lexi and Charlotte exchange Christmas gifts.
Thursday was Thanksgiving madness.
Friday morning was Brunch: The Sequel and exchanging Christmas gifts with my family since we will be in Kansas for Christmas.
Then we loaded up the car and headed home.

Now, a few fun side notes from the trip. First off, my Grandma gave me all of my Grandpa’s ties. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on some old ties for a while to make a skirt for Lexi and a couple other projects I have mulling around in the back of my mind.
Next, my sister got me a Beco Butterfly II. Which is the most awesome baby carrier around. And Lexi made out like a bandit on the handmade gifts from Aunt Limor (check out her etsy shop) and my mom.

Oh and our smartest purchase? A DVD player for the car. Lexi ate crackers and watched movies. That’s it. No complaining (unless the sun was in her eyes), no temper tantrums, just hanging out watching movies. This is going to be very helpful on a 12 hour drive next month.

It was a long trip and it’s good to be home. Now we have a month to recover before we leave for Christmas in Kansas.

Eid Mubarak

Tomorrow is Eid ul-Fitr. It’s the celebration that breaks the fast which took place during Ramadaan, which when you are a teacher at a school that is 100% Muslim you get two days off of school.

This year it fell on Tuesday and Wednesday which means that we had school today, we’re off Tuesday and Wednesday and we go back Thursday. It’s a little odd having a weekend, then one day of work, then a weekend, then two days of work, then a weekend.

Today was really not worth having. Most families celebrate the holiday by getting together and going some place fun (a popular place around here is Camp Snoopy or Chuck E. Cheese), eating a huge pile of good food and presents. Lots of presents. So today was like trying to teach on Christmas Eve. Not the most productive of days.

So, I’m 30.

Today’s my birthday. But if you ask Lexi it’s her birthday. About a week ago I got an early birthday present. Kevin bought and installed one of those under the counter radio/cd players. It also has an input jack for my iPod (which is why I really wanted it). We have 3 levels in our house and the main floor has no music. Now, problem solved.

I also got a cool bracelet and necklace from Ten Thousand Villages, the first two seasons of How I Met Your Mother and the third season of The Cosby Show.

Apparently since I’m 30 I’m supposed to be slightly traumatized by this. Turning 30 just feels like another day of 29, with the bonus of presents.

I’ve started my Christmas “shopping”.

I’m really excited about Christmas this year. Since I’ve decided to go handmade with most of my gifts, I’ve had to really think about what I can make (or who I can hire to make it) and what people would appreciate. I’m not going to go through the effort to make someone something just to have them say “thanks” and stash it in a drawer. I’m trying to come up with stuff that people will actually use or wear or play with. I started working on a couple of things this weekend – trying out a few ideas to see how they would turn out and sketching out patterns for other things.

Sorry I can’t go into details. Pictures will go up on my flickr site after the gifts have been opened.