Pixie Dust...Family Gathering and A Week Off...

Okay...the Ugly Christmas Sweater was a hit, and my home looks like "Tink" was chased around with a fly swatter!  I left a trail of glitter like Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs from here to Plainfield and back! And don't even ask about the back of Tina's car!

Loved seeing everybody again...and after the holidays you'll all have to come out here (in small bunches).  Get to know each other better individually. Faith, I love love love the purple hair!

Loved Chris' hat which simply read

"Your Sweater is UGLY"

My sister, Tina's, sweater which had a Cat theme...and her husband, Chad, who embraced the current trend with a Star-wars Theme.

Excited for Chris and Gang who are going to view the new one after it opens at the IMAX.  That should be something!

 My Brother, David, and wife, Charlene, also made it with Shelby And Faith. Although they missed the memo about the sweaters.

All in all we spanned two long tables and numbered 16.  And half the family didn't even make it!  James and Nicole and the kids (all the kids together in one bunch) were home. Toesha and family were at the cheer-leading contest (Alexis and Tessa were just too cute). Neil and Family couldn't make it...Mikey and Jody and Lisa were missing as well.  We will all catch up in 2016, though.

Nicole did a wonderful thing and finally got a photo of all my grands together in a pile...maybe for the first time EVER. 

So thrilled!!!!

                           Kaylee, Preston, Hannah, Brenden, Aiden and Emma.
 
And the weekend for them was Happy Chaos!

So...ready to take the entire week before Christmas Off. No social obligations scheduled. Nothing planned but complete relaxation, gift wrapping, and fudge/cookie making and baking. Sip hot cocoa...hope it snows before next week...enjoy candle lit bubble baths and read.

Yeah..Social was all last week...and will continue next week, and the week after Christmas. When Judy, Sharon, Loretta and I,are planning our Post-Chistmas Pizza Brunch.

This is MY Week.

If it actually works, I may schedule the week before Christmas off every year!

Today has been very relaxing...and needed!

More anon...

The Ugly Sweater (which has been immediately wrapped in a plastic bag to prevent further star glitter-bomb.) It is going to be added to yearly, now. And probably used as a wall hanging during Christmas!

Another item off the Bucket List.

                         Now off to clean up more damned glitter!

7 Day Dash...Bodhi...Scheduling a Week off...and about Ugly Christmas Sweaters

For a week that started with Bodhi...this has been hands down the most hectic (but wonderful) week of my year, so far.

Chris and Tina (and the boys...my grandpuppies: Bennie and Neville) over on the weekend.

Neville (in Tina's lap) in hyper-alert mode. Which is pretty much his MO.

"Really...there is a cricket chirping in Times Square...can't you hear that infernal racket??"

As well as a quick stop by James, Nicole and Aiden...who was absolutely enthralled by the tree.

Cleaning and shopping and baking on Monday for our Secret Santa Sister Exchange on Tuesday.

I got my friend/former co-worker, Tina, in the exchange. We were nurses together back-in-the-day. Spent the afternoon exchanging "war stories" and "do-you-remember whens..."  She enjoyed my banana mini muffins with cream cheese icing and I loved trying her Mom's Slovakian Recipe for Walnut Raisin Bread and she is coming over after the holidays to teach me how to make it "Old Country Style"

Wednesday came bright and early and Audrey, Loretta, Sharon, Tim, Eric, John and I were off with the Transit to Bloomington and the College Mall.  Brunch at Applebee's!  
That's what I'M talking about!

Bourbon Steak...Mall-Ratting...Yankee Candle with the new Seasonal Scents (Berry Trifle, Winter's Glow, and Angel Wings...my favorite) and Bath and Body who provided Loretta and I with our annual Vanilla Bean Noel fix. We found it last year, and are both absolutely hooked. The Mall was decked for Christmas and a Winter Wonderland even though the temperatures were so unseasonably high none of us had to wear more than a sweater. Wonderful day out with friends.

By Thursday I had pretty much collapsed for the day.

But Friday, I was invited to Brunch, Shopping and The Children's Section of the Library with Nicole and Aiden.

Just can't get over how he is a exact-copy of James at this age.

Later I brought down the boys "lovey" box...and he got to meet Hobbes. 
Hobbes was his dad's stuffed toy.

Still around after nearly 29 years!







Later, when James came by he re-connected with his old toy wildcat as well.

By today...I have been clearing my schedule completely next week...and I have the Hurst-Mason-Turpin-Thacker Family Christmas Dinner tomorrow, which I am looking forward to...then a week's down time before Christmas proper.
Well, except for the Christmas Fudge Making, of course. And wrapping the presents.

I am going to need it!

Exhausted.

About the Ugly Christmas Sweater.

Still a work in progress...and a lot of fun. I had never made (or worn) one of these before. Now I know why.  But it made the Bucket List, this year. And the rest of the family is wearing theirs to our Family Gathering, too. So I am stitching the wired tinsel and ornaments to an old red sweater...and may just add more tacky crap yearly! And the glitter-bomb from the cheap Dollar Tree star will remain embedded in the carpet, oak table, et al...long after Christmas, the sweater and I, are long gone.

Truly the "herpes" of the Craft World.

(...for everything else there is duct tape)

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

San Benardino...Beginning to look a lot Like Christmas...Idgy's 40th Birthday...Mini Muffins and Decorating

Another mass shooting. This time in San Bernardino.

I don't know which is worse. The fact that it happens at all...or that it has happens so frequently now we preface "mass shooting" with the word Today's or Another.

Face it America.  We have a problem. 

And it is much larger and more complex than the factions we try to blame...guns, religion, refugees, skin color, education and literacy, geographical location, or party lines.

No. We have met the enemy...and to quote Pogo  "He is US"

As horrific as the San Bernardino shootings were...I have a strong feeling that a moment's rage at a Christmas Party probably averted a much larger act of terrorism elsewhere. I think the intended target was something much larger given the details coming in after the fact. Hard drives missing and cell phones destroyed. Pipe-bombs and full Kevlar gear. Massive weapons build-up. It is hard for me to believe that this was all to attack an Adult Developmental Disability Center. It is only an hour to Los Angeles. Only 6 hours up the coastline to San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge. The Bay Bridge. Only an hour and a half to San Diego and the Home-Port of the Pacific Fleet and Naval Base.

What I do know, is that the build-up of hate-filled rhetoric (globally) and ignorance, paranoia and intolerance combine to build up a powder-keg situation. Easy to set off with the slightest spark. Add to that ISIS, the wide-spread availability of weapons, and Fundamentalism...and it is all a disaster waiting to happen.

No easy answers, this. But one thing I am sure of...we have to do more than platitudes.  "I'll PRAY for you, them..." may give everyone a warm fuzzy feeling but it doesn't seem to be accomplishing an awful lot.

I know to start changing this, we all all going to have to take a step backwards and breath. Replace our daily hate and anger with love and kindness and caring. Everyone. Not walk around looking for things to be angry or offended by. And not walking around spewing hatred and inciting violence either. Stop believing that this way is the only way. That one religion is the only religion. Know that although we can't change the world personally...we can change ourselves and our perceptions. It sounds impossible...and maybe globally is is.

But it is the way I am choosing to live my life.

Anyway...

Found some very realistic fir candles and home is smelling a lot like a Christmas tree lot, now.  And added a touch of deep Burgundy to the decorating, finishing the tree.

Wrapping a bit today and finishing the Cards to post on Monday. And the Christmas List. Forget Naughty and Nice...I'm just trying to juggle all these grandkids!

And saw some amazing Ugly Christmas Sweater Ideas...

Still working on it!


So, Idgy turned 40 proper on the 2nd...and although we had already celebrated in Summer with our Combined Cake

We celebrated quietly over muffins and coffee in cyber-space.

And it was a very nice morning!

Plotting and planning next year's combined birthdays which we will celebrate together in the Fall.

Our "Liquor and Fire Celebration"

How could THAT possibly go wrong?

 ~laughing~

Already planning to "play with the pastry bag" a bit and make Red Velvet Mini Muffins with Cream Cheese Icing together!

The pastry bag...

I'm LOVING it.

I want to make devilled eggs just so I can pipe the filling in!  I seriously don't know how I have missed out on one of these for over 50 years!

My latest endeavor. 

I love the large star tip that when used sideways creates a cats-paw shell look! Even found a tutorial from Martha Stewart that is really really helpful on what can be achieved from the various tips. I currently have 6 tips. I am practicing on wax paper a lot to reduce waste (reuse the frosting to practice) and to keep from gaining, like, 300 pounds from all the treats I would, otherwise, be baking to try this.

I am having a coffee brunch with a former co-worker/nurse friend Tina later in the week and am going to decorate muffins to accompany it.

Have a Wonderful and Relaxing Weekend.

December...50 Shades of Turkey...Decking The Halls...and a New Skill to Learn

And though-out the house the prevailing celebration seems to focus on

"Ding Dong The TURKEY's Gone. 
That (insert expletive here) Turkey's Gone!"

As the final Turkey Sandwich was eaten and Thanksgiving was OFFICIALLY 
over at last!

So...it has been like this

Until even the Tucker-Cat was eye-balling his turkey filled bowl (again) and looking up at me like:

"Seriously???"

And I was feeling a lot like Bubba in Forrest Gump:

  "And that's about all you kin fix wiff leftover turkey."

Started Decking The Halls today.

 And had a Martha Stewart Moment with the rustic French Egg Basket that Deanna and Paula brought me from New Orleans. It was a uniform rust brown. Add white paint (shabby chic) 

And fill with greenery, pinecones also touched with white acrylic, and a grapevine wreath and voila!

Even my little bonsai did not escape decoration.

 

And Tucker has taken up residence under the tree until January.

Look for the white striped nose and the sound of snoring.

By the end of the evening, when Chris stopped in, I was musing

"That Stewart Woman is SUCH a Slacker!"

And November is OVER and his fluffy beard is gone!  I guess no holiday "glitter beard" this year, after all...lol!

Beginning to learn a new skill I have wanted to try for a while. Finally took the plunge and bought a good pastry bag and tips.

Along with a Recipe for Decorative Icing.

Forcing me to fix a batch of Triple Berry Mini Muffins this evening to try it out!

I am soooooooooooo going to enjoy learning how to decorate!

Like Warhol said,  "Try Everything!"

Saw both Spectre and Mockingjay Part II over the Holiday Weekend! Both Exceptional. And you'll LOVE the perfect "Hollywood Endings".


More anon...