Adelaide Lemonade

Date Night

A long weekend was just what I needed.  I know, Memorial Day is more than just a long weekend.  I did send some thoughts toward those I think of being memorialized, but otherwise, we'd been so busy that I was content to just keep things low-key.  Our weeks and weekends have been so jam-packed with activities that it was wonderful to have a relatively low-commitment weekend.

Baseball/softball season is killer for me.  My two boys play baseball, and my older daughter used to play softball.  I'm really not that upset that she doesn't play anymore.  One less place to have to be at the same time.  Next year, with Addie starting t-ball, will be a different story.  

Here's one of my players (complete with the post-practice Gator-Ade mustache).  Frank had a great game the other night with a single and a double and an out made as catcher.

My husband also coaches and umpires every free minute, and I actually do like to see him once in a while.

About two weeks ago, we decided we needed a date night, and this weekend provided the first free night.  We decided to go to Pier 77 in Cape Porpoise where we'd been several times years (like maybe 7?) ago and loved.  I'm glad I made a reservation because it was packed when we arrived.  It's such a gorgeous location that even if the restaurant was terrible, the drive would be worth it.

But the restaurant certainly wasn't terrible.  It was really just as good as we'd remembered it.  We started off with some bread and Prosecco.

The prosecco was yummy.  Not too dry and just a tiny bit sweet.  I wish I could remember the name.  Something like Casteglieri.

I had a spinach salad with warm goat cheese.  Mmm.  Mike had the soup which he said was delicious.

(Isn't he cute?)

Then Mike had the ribs, and I had the salmon.  Both were great, but I think the ribs were better.  We took a peek at the dessert menu but opted to seek out another place for dessert.  Unimpressively, we ended up at Friendly's.  Anyone have any recommendations for a good place to go just for dessert in the Portland (Maine) area?  As teenager's we used to go to Peter Ott's in Camden for Eleanor Klivans' amazing desserts.  I wonder if you can still do that.

We had a nice little walk around after dinner.  The lobstering harbor reminded us so much more of where we grew up than Portland does.  Maine seems to have so many different worlds.

Hope you all had a great weekend as well.  Best of luck getting back into the swing of things tomorrow.

End of an Era

We went sailing last weekend with my Dad and my brother who was visiting from Minnesota.  In spite of a little extra adventure, we had an excellent time.  Maggie had a birthday party to go to and my husband, Mike had lots of umpiring to do, so the boys, Addie, and I went.

My dad has a beautiful sailboat with plenty of room for everyone.  I always end up in the front cabin.  Frank slept in the "living room".

Even though the cockpit isn't really meant for sleeping, Joe and Addie slept there.

I love taking pictures of the kids as they wake up in the morning.  I can't believe they slept as long as they did with the sun streaming in.

My dad is an interesting guy with lots of different hobbies.  Sailing is something that he's always wanted to do, and he really took it to the extreme.  Some people might take a lesson or two or even buy a boat for weekends, but no, my dad has been living on his boat for the last 8 or so years.  We've taken full advantage of it by making at least one memorable trip almost every year.

There are a few hearty sailors (my Dad, me, my brother) who make it almost every year.  Here's my brother Simon on board.

My husband and my oldest son, Joe are pretty much fixtures on the annual cruise as well.  

I wasn't as good at taking pictures when we first started, but check out Joe on one of our first sails (doing something important - lowering the dinghy, I think.)

compared to him now

(That's him standing on the right.  My younger son Frank is sitting on the left.)

And here he is - still doing something important - tightening the jib line while tacking.

Joe also has the honor of being the ship's bartender.  He's not that helpful at home, but with Joe on board, you have a gin and tonic in your hand before you even know you want one.  It's pretty good service.

But Joe is more than just a bartender and deck hand, he can steer the boat as well.  On our trip to Provincetown, he drove pretty much the whole way there and back.

I love this photo.  You can tell from both Joe and my dad's looks of concern that they're in a sticky situation.  My dad is very good about giving people responsibility.  I'm sure he was probably itchy to take over the wheel, but he let Joe stick it out, and he managed.

Beyond the five of us regulars, there's a varied crew each year that just adds to the fun.  My brother has lots of interesting friends who sometimes join with interesting stories to tell and lively music to play.

That's Jeremy on the harmonica.  He's been on at least two cruises that I've been on.  Some of the photos in this post - the better ones - are courtesy of him.

That's my brother on the guitar.

One of my favorite memories is staying up late (2 am, maybe?) listening to my brother and friends playing, lending my singing whenever I knew the words,  (Man, I wish I could sing.  Even Addie says I'm bad) and getting yelled at by the occupants of the boat moored next door.

My dad keeps his boat in the Boston area, so we've always sailed from there.  We've sailed to Provincetown, Edgartown, Marble Head, Rockport, Gloucester.  We didn't get very far on our sail last weekend, but last year, we sailed to Edgartown.  We spent a day traveling all over Martha's Vineyard.

For all of us, I think our favorite part was "The Bite" in Menemsha.  Mike read "Jaws" on the way there and back just to feel the full flavor of the Cape.

When my dad bought his boat, it was called the "Sea Biscuit".

There were many passionate conversations around the dinner table about what the boat should really be called.

Last year, my dad finally changed the name to "Perseverance".  

Just to keep this post a little bit crafty, here are some pillows I made for my dad before the name change.  My first foray into applique.

Not only are we well provided with drinks and entertainment, but we eat like kings as well.  One year, my husband's one condition to come with us was that he be able to do all the cooking and have no one help him.  Umm.  What's the catch there?  No one argued with that.

These were a different kind of "Sea Biscuit".  I never did much more than pull cold cuts out of the fridge to make sandwiches, but between Mike's cooking and everyone else who also volunteered to cook on different cruises - I've never eaten better.

Last year, I had arugula on my pizza for the first time.  I haven't been able to get it out of my head since.  Here it is pre-arugula.

It was getting late, so they had to cook by flashlight, but being on the boat isn't exactly roughing it.  On one visit to the boat, my dad rented "Bolt" for the kids.  Here's my dad watching with Frank.

I don't remember this, but I love how the pictures show that my dad was first a little bit interested then finally had to sit down with Frank and really watch.

My daughter Maggie hasn't made as many trips, but we've slept on the boat several times the night before a feis.  What other Irish dancer can say that?!

And lest you think it's all cooking and bartending and sailing, there's plenty of time for relaxing too.

 

We tried fishing on one trip.

But didn't catch anything - whales, sharks, or otherwise.

And fed the ducks on another trip.

 My brother introduced the idea of a morning constitutional.  I'm still not sure what that really means, but to us it meant a morning dip in the ocean.  I'll spare you a photo of all of us in our bathing suits, but here's a photo of Joe - just out of the shower - wisely just watching us crazy adults.

(This photo is one that's courtesy of Jeremy.  He actually jumped in then had someone hand him his camera - while he was swimming - so he could take photos of the boat.  Nuts.)

One time, we thought it would be a good idea to try to clean the sides of the boat while we were swimming.  I ended up with little tiny sea creatures crawling all over me.  Thank God there's a shower on the boat.

Even though steering can require a lot of focused attention - especially in a busy harbor - it can also be pretty relaxing.  Here's my brother in his over-the-glasses Grandma sunglasses looking pretty relaxed and probably steering with his feet.

There was always lots of good conversation to be had on the boat.

In fact, there are special chairs reserved for just that purpose.

Young and old alike are required to pay a visit to the conversation chairs.

The conversation chairs may change location, but even the very youngest can't escape.

Like I said, my dad is a man of many hobbies, and he's about to move on to the next one, so Perseverance will be taking a break for now.  I'm so excited about the new things to come and the new fun times that we will create, but I can't help feeling a bit sentimental about moving on.

Sea Biscuit/Perseverance and all the good times - oh how you will be missed!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a nice morning at the parade.

It was a gorgeous day, so there was a good crowd.  Everyone was in good spirits for St. Patrick's Day of course, but you could sense an even bigger shift in mood with the promising signs of spring.

Well, everyone except Frank.  He was hungry.  Addie was mad, too.  She wanted a balloon.

Maggie has done the parade almost as long as I can remember now.  It's becoming a family tradition.

That's the wave of a teenager who's slightly embarrassed of her family.

My favorite part is the dancing, of course, but there were lots of other sights to see.

The bagpipe music is pretty cool, too.  I was trying to talk Frank into playing the drum.  He wasn't too into that idea.  Maybe it was the kilts.

We got our fill of celebrating today, so we're foregoing the corned beef and cabbage.  Whew.

Hope you're celebrating, too.

Ode to the Jeep

Okay maybe not an ode, but just some memories.  We sold our jeep today.  We'd had it for over 13 years.  We bought it when we lived in Myrtle Beach and were about to have our second child.  Having two 2-door cars just didn't seem tolerable anymore with two kids.

It was technically our jeep, but I can hardly remember ever driving it.  It's definitely something I always associated with my husband.  When you sat in the driver seat, you could immediately picture the way my husband sits when he drives.  You were stuck in that exact same position since the seat had become molded that way (and eventually had to be welded into place after the seat became detached).  It had a unique sound, made louder by 160,000 miles of hard work.  I always knew when he was arriving home without looking out the window.  It was full of paraphenalia representing my husband's many hobbies and fatherly duties; baseball bats, more baseballs and whiffleballs that most normal people will own in their lifetimes, sleds, hats, mittens, math text books, umpire gear, buckets of sand for an icy driveway, and who knows what else.

When we worked for my father at his cheese company, there was a set of lockers for hanging up aprons, lab coats, and storing boots.  It must have come from a school or something, but there was some grafitti that we both remember that said, "Chevy Rules, Mopar's for Fools".  True or not, we often joke about that line.  The Mopar seemed to work out okay for us.

About a year ago we deemed it not fit to leave town.  It was reasonably dependable in getting my husband to work and dropping kids off where they needed to go, but it made things complicated when one of us needed to leave town.  I just got a new car, and we just got a hand-me-down station wagon, so it was time.  My husband put an ad on Craig's list this morning around 8, and by 5 it was being driven away by it's new owner.  Wow.

It's just a car, but I can't help feeling sentimental.  After all these years, the jeep seemed like part of my husband's personality and part of the family.

Just for kicks, here's a shot of another jeep that was part of my family (1979, maybe?).  My dad had the great idea to have my sister and me stand on the roof to pick pears from the pear tree in our back yard.

Mopar Rules, Chevy's for Fools.

Feeling a Bit Spoiled

In the spoiled brat kind of way, that is.  It's a three day weekend, and I haven't had as much dedicated sewing time as I would like.  I'm determined to make up for it tomorrow, but I've already heard that one kid might go skiing (2 hours of driving for me), another one wants to go to the mall (20 minutes driving for me), and another is going to hang out with a friend (hopefully no driving for me).  I'm even torn between sewing all day or making the hour drive to my favorite fabric store.  I don't really need any fabric, but a fix would be nice.

I'm feeling pretty baby-ish about it because it has been a nice weekend.  My husband and I have spent a lot of time together.  I spent a few hours shopping with my older daughter yesterday and had a nice visit with my dad in the evening.  We've had great, spring-like weather lately, so the whole family went for a nice walk in the woods.  I really should appreciate all that, but I get really antsy if I feel like I have a shortage of finished projects.

I did finish a knit dress I was making.  Thank goodness.  I really want to like sewing with knits, but it drives me crazy not to have the nice, crisp seams and folds you can get with woven fabrics.  Most of the time, I can't wait to wake up or come home and continue working on projects I've started, but this dress wasn't too inspiring.  I actually love how it came out, so I'm glad I pressed on.  Addie wore it all day yesterday and most of the day before.  It's in the wash now, but I'll share some photos soon.

In the meantime, here are some shots from our walk.  Myrtle, the dog, got to come.  Here she is in our new car (which I love!) photographed by Frank, the photog.  Much safer, since I was driving.

Addie deemed herself in charge of the map.

Which was kind of funny, since it was actually a brochure with no map at all.  That and she doesn't know how to read yet.

Not everyone was excited about going.

But they all ended up being good sports.

Addie talked the ENTIRE time.  My husband thought we should start calling her C.C. for "Constant Conversationalist".

She promised Joe and Frank not one sticker, but an entire page from her sticker book, since they'd been so helpful to her on the slippery ice and snow.  Then Joe, who had been walking behind us during this exchange, decided to move up ahead.  Addie was not pleased and decided to retract her sticker offer.  I asked if she couldn't just give him one sticker, since he really had helped.  She quickly replied in the negative, "My rules are my rules."

Worth missing a few hours of sewing?  I suppose so.

Happy Valentine's Day

Belated Valentine's Day, that is.  I started this post yesterday but couldn't manage to find the time to finish it.  It's review time at work, and at home we're playing the all-consuming, time-sucking, silly, manipulative car buying game.

We're not doing much in the way of Valentine's Celebrations, but we did have a lovely family weekend in Boston this past weekend.  We found a cheap hotel in South Boston near UMass, so after crashing for the night, we started out our Saturday in a local establishment.

It was called the Galley Diner which I had found via Yelp.  You couldn't beat the local atmosphere, and the staff was very welcoming.  The food was just okay.

Check out these two neighborhood thugs.

After that, the girls and boys parted ways.  The boys went to the JFK museum and library while we girls hopped on the T to do some shopping.

Doesn't she look like a pro?

We got off at Park street and headed straight to Windsor Button where I got 10 bucks worth of bulk buttons and some pretty Malabrigo lace weight yarn.  I asked there if there were any fabric stores nearby (which I had totally researched before hand - I wasn't about to leave that to chance!).  The super-friendly guy behind the counter gave me excellent directions to WinMil fabrics which was just a five minute walk away.

As much as I LOVE quilt shops, it was nice to visit a store that seems to specialize more in garment fabrics.  Addie was being a bit wild, so it was hard for me to concentrate on picking the right things, but I found some hot pink, nice heavy wool for a jacket for her and a couple of selections to try to make something for her older sister.  After that, it was all about shopping for the girls.

After being dragged around for a while, I needed a break, so we stopped at a cute little cupcake shop called "Sweet".  The decor was really cute, and it was very quiet in there.

Yes, those are Addie's socks on the table.  Maggie was helping her change into her new socks and shoes.

It was very pleasant and relaxing to sit in there for awhile and look at the pretty view out the window.  You can't tell from the photo, but there was just a bit of snow falling lightly.

We continued to shop and ended up at Quincy Market.  I think we hit just about every shop there including Baby Gap where Addie modeled this hat.

Right in front of the boys underwear.  Cute.

We finally headed to Chinatown where we were due to meet.  The boys had moved on to the science museum and were still there when we arrived, so we hung out with some shady looking characters at MacDonald's while we waited for them to catch up.

Once we met up, we walked a few blocks to get Dim Sum.  I had it once in Hong Kong over 10 years ago then one other time in Boston and have been wanting to get my family to try it ever since.

The boys were really good sports about trying it.  They (including my husband) liked the pan-fried pork dumplings the best.  My favorite, hands down, are the sweet sesame balls.  

My oldest was a pro with the chopsticks.  My younger son, not so much.

But I guess if you can't bring the food to you, bringing yourself to the food works.

My oldest, Joe, spent almost the entire meal trying to get Addie just to try a bit of the dough around the pork buns.  No luck, but it was fun anyway to get the family to experience a bit of food culture.  I'm sure there are several good places for Dim Sum in the area.  We ended up at a place called Winsor Dim Sum Cafe which again, I had found via Yelp.  We were quite happy with it.  We had a nice big table.  The service, food, and atmostphere were all great.  What more could you want?

Once we got back to the hotel, the girls chilled out in front of the TV while the boys conquered the world with a game of Risk.

I'm not sure whether or not the Ukraine was weak in this game, but 10-year-old, Frank was quite pleased with his first ever success in world domination.

Weekend Away

We're going out of town this weekend for a mini family getaway.  Even though I travelled by myself a lot last year, looking back, we figured out that we didn't spend a single weekend away the entire year last year.  One of the six of us always seemed to have some kind of commitment.  One of our, up-until-now-unwritten New Year's resolutions is to try to do some fun weekend activities - commitments be damned.  We're not going far, but everyone is excited.  The kids are excited to stay in a hotel - with a pool.  My husband and I are excited to get away from home and all of its demands.  If we're here, there's always some task to be done.  Whether we do it or not is a different story, but the feeling like you should be doing it is still there.  If you're out of town, you don't have to see it or think about it.  A few hours of work/school and we're on our way!

I have to admit that I will miss my sewing machine just a bit, but I plan to visit a fabric store and bring some knitting.

I finished this outfit last night.

It's another one from this Japanese book.

(ISBN:  978-4-529-04767-8)

I used a pretty heavy white linen for the shirt.  It really hangs nicely and seems like it will hold up pretty well.  The sleeves each have 3 little pintucks that don't really show in the photo.  Addie's still asleep, and it's still dark out, but I hope to get some photos of her wearing it this weekend.  

The shorts are just some fabric from JoAnn Fabrics marked as bottom weights.  They're mostly cotton with a bit of Lycra.  I think Addie will like the bit of stretch.  It's not exactly shorts weather here right now (we got what seems like a foot of snow yesterday), but I was thinking she might be able to wear them with tights if it's not too cold.

The purse was really fun to make - also from the book.  It's a surprise for Addie, so she can use it if we do any shopping this weekend.

It was the last one I had planned and precut last weekend, so now I have a clean slate to decide what to work on next.  Well, not really.  I should work on my dozens of unfinished projects.  Maybe I will.  And my craft room could use a straightening.  Then I'll have clean slate.  I never used to be a neat freak, but I'm starting to get quite obsessive about having my craft room clean.

Have a great weekend!

Happy 2012!

Many of the blogs I follow have a year-end post with a mosiac of all their creations throughout the year or reflections on 2011 (like these) or resolutions for 2012.  I like (or would like) doing all of those things except that it's been such a wonderful low-key weekend that I haven't even spent any energy on reflecting or planning.

All of us except my oldest went to a nice New Year's Eve party last night.  It was in the neighborhood - sort of - so we walked there and back which was nice, since we didn't have to worry about who was going to drive or about the slippery roads.

This morning, I stayed in bed later than I ever do.  It's torture for me to not get up before everyone else and get some quiet crafting time in, but I thought it would be nice to lollygag around a bit on this committment-free day.  I made popovers and fresh-squeezed o.j. for breakfast (I swear those oranges are reproducing in my kitchen) while my husband sat at our kitchen island and planned out a few mini family trips for the first three months of the year.  By the time we were done with that, it was 11:00 a.m. which I couldn't believe.

After we finally got going on the day, we went to pick up a 2012 date book.  We've tried palm pilots and Google Calendar but decided that what works best for our busy family is simple old pen and paper.  En route to buy the date book, we got a bit distracted at the movie theater.  We saw "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" which I'd been dying to see.  I loved the book, and I like Daniel Craig.  The movie was really good and true to the book for the most part, but I'm not sure I would have understood it if I hadn't read the book.

Needless to say, we got back much later than intended.  My husband turned on the game while I dragged my sewing sidekick to the fabric store.  I wandered around aimlessly for some time then finally settled on four different garmet fabrics that I've already prewashed and hope to cut into tomorrow.

When we got back with some New Year's Day munchies, the kerosene heater was going in the living room and the wine was flowing.  I decided to NOT hideaway in my craft room for a change and dug through my yarn, knitting needles, and Ravelry to relax in the living room with a project.  I haven't had much luck finishing knitting projects since I started sewing, so I won't go into any details yet.

It would have been nice to spend December finishing some of my 2011 starts (I have at least 5 quilt tops), but with the busy-ness of Christmas that didn't really occur to me until about the 30th.  I decided to spend the 31st doing something that's been hanging over my head for over a year.

I finished the last four quilt blocks for the virtual bees that I joined/started at the beginning of 2009.  Yeah, I don't really expect many kudos for that, since I'm so ridiculously late.  Who knows if the recipients even live at the same address, are still working on the same quilt, even like quilting anymore, but it feels great to have those blocks done.  I'm sure they'll be shocked to receive them in the mail.  It occurred to me that they may not even open them if they don't recognize the return address.  I can't believe these lovely ladies have been so patient with me!

Here are the blocks.

Log cabins for Heather.

I love the colors she picked out.

And I spy blocks for Balinda.

I loved the dark pink solid and getting to work with a little scrap of Heather Ross goldfish which came and went before I got addicted to fabric.

Hope you have a wonderful start to the new year.  Thanks for reading my blog!

The Day After

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  The wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling mess in my house is a sure sign that we had a great day.  One of my friends posted a photo on Facebook entitled, "Aftermath".  I was so glad to see that ours wasn't the only house where you couldn't even see the floor of the living room.

I apologize in advance for the super-long post.  It's as much for me to remember what we did for Christmas as anything else.  I won't be hurt if you skim.  :)

We're always striving to make the day - or two days, since I consider Christmas Eve just as much a holiday - less stressful for the grown-ups, and I think we did an excellent job with that this year.  There was still a ton of work to get ready, but we simplified as much as we could and actually had most of the shopping done early in December.  I decided not to promise myself I would finish any sewing projects which is always a big stressor for me.  The rest just kind of fell into place.

My two youngest kids had concerts on Thursday which really kicked things off.  In between concerts, Addie I made alfajores.

Then when the rest of the kids got home from school, we made sugar cookies.  We continued the cookie baking on Friday by actually frosting the sugar cookies.

(Yes, I know Addie is wearing the same clothes as the day before.  I have no control.)  Joe opted out of the cookie-decorating claiming that he has an aversion to frosting.  I also made macarons from this recipe and filling from this recipe.  (After having one for breakfast just now, I decided that the filling is just too rich.)  The whole thing ended up taking way longer than I hoped, but I didn't let it get to me, since I had no pressing other project waiting in the wings.  My husband and I finished up the shopping after that.

Then we decided that cleaning the upstairs of the house was a lot less important than being together as a family and celebrating the fact that the kids were on vacation and decided to go bowling.  We have a great candlepin bowling alley near us.  It's almost always empty and the ladies who run it are just so nice.  It's low-tech and the decor reminds me of an episode of Mad Men.  We're all actually terrible at bowling - me especially, but we always have so much fun.

The next day, I got up early to make bagels for the kids and fresh squeezed o.j. from the bazillion oranges we got as a Christmas gift.  The kids must have been excited about it being Christmas Eve, since they woke up earlier than usual.  My husband and I sat by the tree for a few minutes eating bagels and making the grocery shopping list.  To simplify, we decided to have day-long appetizers (what my mom calls, "progressive finger foods") instead of a big sit-down Christmas Dinner.  My husband went off with the grocery list and some of the kids, so they could do their Christmas shopping while I made my final batches of cookies.  I would have been happy to be done, but we still didn't have what the kids said were their very favorites - peanut butter balls (which we had already made and devoured a week or so earlier) and wreaths (like Rice Krispie treats but with cornflakes and green food coloring - pain in the butt to make).

The shopping turned into pretty much an all-day affair with my husband taking the kids out in shifts.  The kids enjoyed it.  When they came back, Addie said she was more excited to give her gifts than to get her gifts.  How great is that?!   Everyone made it home just in time to get ready for Mass.  I even had time to snap a few photos before we headed to church.  My husband was trying to direct the kids, and he told Addie to stand in front of Frank.  This is what she did.  Arghh.

My parents and brother weren't due to arrive for a few hours after we got home from Mass, so we had a nice fondue dinner while we played Christmas trivia and Christmas Charades.  When they arrived, they helped us finish up our games then we moved on to eating Christmas cookies.  Those of us who were old enough did a whisky tasting.  We had two scotches, one Irish whisky, and one bourbon.  One of the scotches, Balvenie 21, ended up coming out on top.  At the same time, we sang some carols, listened to a reading of "The Night before Christmas", and were entertained by some of Frank's saxophone-playing.

After a while, my parents and brother went off to their hotel, and my husband and I took care of the normal Christmas Eve stuff and then crashed.  The kids were instructed not to get up before 7:00 and actually slept a little past that.  Luckily, Santa did come, so we spent a few hours opening presents.  

I made some more O.J. for mimosas (seriously, we are swimming in oranges), and the rest of my family came back over to help us make and eat breakfast.  We have a tradition of having my dad make popovers.  My mom also brought her yummy chocolate chip coffee cake.  

After we ate breakfast, we pretty much lost the two younger kids to their new toys, but the rest of us relaxed, read the paper, and hung out while my husband started to prepare all the yummy appetizers we were going to eat throughout the day.  We took a break from relaxing to finish opening presents then we got right back to it.

We started eating around 2:00 with vegies, pita chips, and hummus that my mom brought.  Then we had some cheese and sausage that my dad brought with my homemade bread followed by Hungarian Bean Soup from this cookbook.  My husband also made scallops - his own made up recipe, I think - and Olivada Crostini and Beef Skewers from this favorite cookbook.  And luckily we remembered to drink the Prosecco that my brother brought.  It was chilling quite well out on the porch.  Mmmm.  It was buttery and crisp and just the right amount of bubbly.  I'm sorry now that I made him take the other bottle back.

It's funny that I almost forgot to mention the gifts.  I'm sure that when I was a kid, I never would have thought that the visiting and eating and atmosphere would overtake presents in my mind as the main part of Christmas.  BUT, I'm so excited to say that my dad, who had me in the gift exchange, bought me the Far Far Away Quilt Kit I'd been coveting from Alewive's.  I have all 10 Fat Quarters spread out on my ironing board just so I can admire them.

Thanks, Mom, Dad, and Simon for being such an integral part of our celebration!

I always have mixed feelings about Christmas being over.  I will miss the anticipation for the day and the kids' excitement, but I'm also so relieved that I can focus my time and crafting elsewhere, and I love the fresh start of the new year.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all have at least one more day of vacation.

Weekend

Are any of you guys participating in Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day?  I was a little on the fence about whether or not to participate this year, but it sounds like they've made some great improvements.  I found a little stack of things to give away, so check back here tomorrow for my Giveaway Day post.

We managed to accomplish quite a lot over the weekend even though it was too short as usual.  Most importantly for the Christmas season - at least in our house - is that we got our tree.

It didn't seem to want to be cut down, so thank goodness we had Addie to help.

With two teenagers, and a total of four busy kids, it seems to be getting harder and harder to get everyone together at the same time.

But we managed even amidst some protests.

Addie and Joe determined that our tree was about 7 years old.

Which was probably not old enough, since once we got it home and trimmed for the Christmas tree stand, it ended up being quite short.  We've nicknamed it Stubby (which I'm thinking would be a good name for another much-maligned reindeer who maybe hung out with Rudolph before he came to fame).

It took two days, but we just finally got it decorated.

I did find a bit of time to sew this weekend and made Addie a completely impractical shirt.  I'll save that for another post.

On Friday, I finally finished a bunch of zipper pouches that I cut out ages ago then lost motivation to finish.

I might put them on Etsy or just save them for Christmas gifts (depending on how much time I feel like spending on the computer).

I don't really need one myself, but I kind of want to keep one. 

I think this one might be my favorite.  I love the (expensive!) Australian green elephant fabric (from Umbrella Prints via Alewive's.  I'm still mad at myself for not making more of an effort to visit their Nest Studio when I was in Adelaide.)

I also really like this patchwork one.

But who can resist a Heather Ross print?

Hope you had a great weekend.  Hope to "see" you tomorrow on Giveaway Day.