Under Construction

In the meantime

I'll be back later with some sort of interesting Year in Review/I love sergers/Christmas present recap post.

But in the meantime, any suggestions as to how to approach this? I don't think it's brushable. Do I just put a hat on her?:

And also, Jill has my gratitude and I'm very impressed she was familiar with the Urial (which is actually spelled Uriel). Also, Far From CA wins the niceness award by gently suggesting the answers are on the box. Indeed, we did still have the box floating around:

Name that animal!

I could go on an on about the illness swirling around me and how I am staying well despite untold snot dousings (mostly from Biscuit but Mr. H may have provided a few in his sleep). The chorus of coughs makes me wonder if I'm not living in some sort of tuberculosis quarantine (they just have colds but nasty coughs). But I won't go on and on and will instead focus on a very confusing Christmas gift.

Biscuit got this little people animal alphabet toy from her Aunt. Mercifully it came broken and only the A, B and C sing their tune about the animal. Mr. H wanted to return it but I overruled and reminded him of how much we already hate the song for the fridge alphabet toy. "Every letter makes a sound, T says 'tuh', T says 'tuh'" You got that one?

Anyway, I digress again.

This animal toy is an excellent fit for Biscuit's OCD tendencies (must line things up!) and her current obsession with letters. She is also quite fond of animals and slept with the X-ray Fish last night.

So, a clear fish with just a skeleton and a letter "X" emblazoned on his (her?) chest. An X-ray Fish. I got that one. The tall, yellow, spotted animal with the long neck and the "G"? Gotta be a giraffe.

But the small brown bird with wings open wide and an "N"? What is that? A Nuthatch? You can see it in the back of the top photo.

And what about the apparent Bighorn Sheep with a "U" on it? I thought I knew my animals but the "U" has me stumped. The vulture also appears confused. Shouldn't he (she?) be sitting by a Umbrella Bird? That's the U animal in our animal alphabet book.

I'm also wondering what that tiger has in mind for the seal. He is posed in a menacing pouncing posture.

So, if you can definitively tell me what the N and U are supposed to be, I will give you....gratitude. And perhaps another photo of the carefully aligned zoo.

I'm off to spend some time with a glass of wine and a serger I have on loan. This is unlikely to be a good combination!

Lazy

Since Christmas I have done exactly....nothing. Well, unless you count sleeping in, then napping during Biscuit's nap, then going to the drive in for a double feature. I don't think that counts.

This afternoon Mr. H was starting to feel sick so I tucked him in with Biscuit for a nap in "Daddy's Bed" and now I'm trying to finish a few last Christmas gifts. What's that you say? Christmas was several days ago? Pshaw! I have a very understanding family and several gifts yet to make. Here's one thing I'm working on.

Antique bottles with images/words using water slide decals. Got this idea straight from Martha herself.

I've found the pictures of people don't work too well so I'm trying some more with my dad's flower photography.

I'm glad to see the internets are coming back from vacation. I've missed everyone's posting but couldn't give up on the internet so I read, beginning to current entry, Ree's Black Heels to Tractor Wheels love story. Then I went back to bed.

Hope you are relaxing this holiday season!

PS Anyone else having issues with Typepad lately? When I'm typing a post I can only see the html version, not the version with the photos and links looking like they will online. Is this a Mac thing? Did I mention I got a Mac for Christmas?!!! I'm still getting used to it but so far so good--I love the giant screen!

In the nick of time

Both of us were so excited about our respective projects we sort of failed to notice that oh my gosh this kid is getting waaaay too much for Christmas. It's never gonna be this good again, Biscuit.

From Santa Claus

From Mrs. Claus:

Um, ya, she's spoiled. And if she doesn't like either gift at least we had fun making them!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!   

The elves are getting frantic

This morning (Dec 23) Mr. H and I started our "big" gifts for Biscuit. We've been in the shop nearly all day--it's now 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve and we might just make it.

Merry Christmas to all the procrastinators out there!

Letting go

I had a little panic attack when I realized today that it was one week to Christmas and nothing is done.  Then a few unpleasant surprises cropped up and by evening I was in a generally scroogy mood.

So at 11 pm I decided to focus on getting one thing done rather than 5 things partly done. I'm pleased to report that the package for my best friend's family is wrapped, packed and ready to go to the post office tomorrow (see you there, it's going to be a zoo!). I didn't find the perfect gifts for her or her kids. One present I ordered didn't arrive in time to be included but there are a few little treats and if I'm lucky the boys will have them by Christmas.

I'm also letting go of party favors for the annual holiday party and I think at least one handmade gift will be presented to the recipient in January.

My family and friends are understanding, I just need to go easy on myself and let go a little. Easier said than done.  Hope you are staying relaxed this holiday!

Ginger houses

I have several lists going right now. The "it must be done, shipped, ordered immediately list." The "it must be done by Christmas but not a minute before" list. And the "it really doesn't need to be done at all but it sure would be fun" list.

In the spirit of the third list Biscuit and I decorated these gingerbread houses. Dough recipe was a bit of a dud (from Martha) but the houses came together well.

Biscuit was a decorating champ and even used the piping bag. Mr. H got in on the action with the graham cracker cottage and did a spectacular job right down the Rudolph the Red Nosed Hippo. What, you didn't know Rudolph was a hippo?

I think this'll have to be a tradition.

Luxurious

I'm on vacation today.  Mr. H is at work, Biscuit is at daycare and I'm at home. I do have some guilt about taking Biscuit to daycare when I could be with her but I'm rationalizing that she'll need to be practicing for her school holiday performance on Wednesday.  And I'll make it up to her this afternoon when I pick her up early to decorate "ginger houses" as she calls them.

Until then I'll have a bit of me time to finish up some gifts that need to be shipped, to stuff and mail the holiday cards and to get organized for the party we're hosting next weekend.

Maybe I should also do some dishes.

And finish up this mess that is homemade marshmallows.

If you're a work outside the home mom, please tell me I'm not the only one to abandon my kid at daycare so I can watch tv work on on creating a very special Christmas.

On second thought, don't tell me. I'm going to assume all moms who can do this, do and all moms who don't have any daycare are really jealous right now.

I'm going back to my second cup of coffee.

This is why she's so popular

I'm sure you all read Angry Chicken already. If not, why?  You should. As evidenced by these fantastic gift tags. And go ahead and read through the December posts for a TON of inspiration. This lady is amazing and totally giving me a creativity complex (in a good way).

You can thank me later for the link.

The big girl and her new god

                                        after the first day (she picked the outfit)

For some reason, when Biscuit says,"school" it sounds an awful lot like, "god." So for two weeks now we've been hearing all about her new god.

From a frantic, screaming, "NO NEW GOD, NO NEW GOD!" last Monday.

To a more whiny, "No like new god, my mommy, no new god." followed by tears the whole rest of the week.

Then this Tuesday we had a breakthrough. On the way to school she announced, "My brave. My big girl. My blow kisses mommy."  And indeed my big girl was very brave and after a quavery moment went right to her new teacher and right to the window to wave and blow kisses as I walked away.

This morning, once she got over the fact she couldn't wear her cow shirt again, I think she was actually looking forward to school and doing art projects and eating pencils (pretzels).

Daycare transitions officially suck but I think this is going to work out after all.

Mommy is also busy with "art" projects. Blogging is going to be sparse.

I hope your holiday plans are coming together better than mine.