12.29.07
On the Fourth Day of Christmas. . .
Ah! I’ve found a moment to blog. So I uploaded my pictures like crazy. Too many to share, but picked out a few from Christmas eve (eh, more than a few, ha!) Basically, it has become a tradition for our family to celebrate Christmas eve at my parents’ house. We all go over to my parents for a large dinner, and then hang out until midnight when we open our Christmas gifts. Then we all sleep over and continuing eating on Christmas, ha ha! I didn’t realize it until just this Christmas that that is a Catholic tradition, yikes! Anyway, the dinner was all organic again, heheh. Brian and I are usually in charge of that because my family knows that we are picky that way. Good of them to oblige us! This year’s dinner consisted of tea smoked duck, steeped chicken, paella, baked root veggies, mashed potatoes, bread and cheese. This year, after stuffing myself silly with Brian’s pumpkin pies(he’s honestly the better cook between the two of us. He cooks “specialty” stuff, while I cook every day meals), I decided to buy some ready made desserts from Real Food Daily, my local organic restaurant. Wow, and am I glad I did! It dawned on me that I had not had “cake” since 1999! My kids have, but not often, so this was going to be a treat for them. As it was for me because it was heavenly! Ha! Here’s a shot of our dessert table with homemade oatmeal cookies topped with pecans, chocolate swirl cake and ginger cupcakes from Real Foods (yum!), and another chocolate cake my sister picked up from a Japanese bakery in downtown. It was so cute with lots of animated toppings.
And here’s what the first slices looked like before we demolished the desserts. . .
Oye, it was weird eating cake again after 8 years! New Years is coming up, and we’re to cook again, so I just might pick up another cake, heheheh. . . As you might expect, there’s no more left, and even this poor deer tried to plead with us not to be eaten.
Ah, but his pleas were not heeded, and he’s history, ha!
After dinner we hung out and socialized for a while. It’s always a good time! We got to watch some movies on my parents’ new HDTV, which my oldest sister bought for them this year. My dad is so funny. He loves war movies, I think because of his experience during WWII. So when we set up the TV we teased how soon we might see him sneaking around in army fatigues, peeking around corners, etc. ha! Now he can watch his movies and you’ll even hear the shells falling to the ground in stereo, ha ha ha! My dad. . .
The kids amused themselves with various things. Lately they’ve gotten into drawing, and Matthew drew up a bunch of face “parts” that could be re-arranged. Here they are with them.
And here’s some of the combinations that we came up with.
And here:
And here:
Ha! Well there were quite a bit more combinations, but I think you get the drift.
Midnight approached in no time. Since we all stay up until midnight, Christmas eve at our place is usually casual. This year I knit up presents for everyone, so I manned the camera. But I misjudged my knitting abilities and was not able to finish all the projects I wanted to even when I only made ankle socks for my sisters, ha! I only got to finish “one” side of my brother-in-law’s socks, and the reaction was so funny that I have to share the pictures. . .
Okay, so what was so funny? Well, my sister and her hubby were planning a trip to Machu Picchu. They were leaving on the 26th of December for a week. When my brother-in-law saw only “one” side of a sock, he yelled out, “Is this supposed to be a harbinger of the future? I’m going on a plane ride for goodness sakes! Am I only gonna need a sock for “one” foot soon?” LOLOLOL I tried to explain to him that I was knitting as fast as I could, but couldn’t finish it, ha! But I’m finishing the other side, so don’t worry, “He’ll get “two” socks, ha!” But, as you can see from the picture, he didn’t want to hear it, ha ha ha!
My sister convinced him that I was going to finish his other sock, so he could rest assured that his “feet” (plural) would be safe on their trip. Here they are modeling their sock/s.
Here’s my other sister when she unwrapped her socks. Her feet are so tiny that when I showed my boys the completed socks they exclaimed, “Wow, auntie has small feet!”
And here are my two sisters modeling their new handmade socks. By the way, they were both knit using hand-dyed wool from Hissy Knits.
I also knitted up two pairs of socks for my dad and a felted purse for my mom. After all, what do you give people who don’t really need anything? We bought stuff for the kids, so I didn’t have to knit up anything for them, ha! But it’s okay because I’ve been knitting stuff up for them before Christmas.
I got an email from my sister the other day from Urubamba, Peru. They’re having a great time, and guess who still has two feet? Ha ha ha! I’ll let them know it’s because I’m pretty much finished with his second sock. Here it is, and just needs to come off of the needles. Hopefully, I’ll finished them off today. He’ll have them when they return.
And finally before I end this. . . the little bears I’ve been crocheting up have unexpectedly been a hit! Ha! I’m almost embarrassed to say how many I’ve made! Yikes! But I’ll say one thing, no two are exactly alike, and I’ve been getting more ideas along the way. After I finished these bears, I tied on pens to each one. They were received pretty well that way. Here’s a shot of a few of them before going off to their new homes.
Whew, is anyone still with me this far? Ha! Blogging is fun, but it’s hard to keep up with all else going on. I’ll try to be better this year, but my new year’s resolution list looks like it’s gonna keep me pretty busy! So in case I don’t get back on until the New Years, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!
Toodles!
Marlakins 
Below is another shot of some of the decorations. The gingerbread house had a long line most of the day of parents with little kids trying to get in to see Santa. My son jokingly told me, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Santa were there telling the little kids on his lap their fortune?” Ha ha! What a thought, especially around here where there are quite a few Palm and Psychic Readers! Yikes! Yep, another strange thing in the big city. . . The topic came up because of a discussion we had about how mixed up the meaning of Christmas has become. One of my friends had gone to Japan and mentioned how during Christmas they had some trinkets or Christmas decorations for sale with “Santa on a cross!” Ack! I can see how they’d be confused!
After we finished dinner, we took a short drive out to Beverly Hills. When my sisters and I were kids living at home with my parents, my father used to love to take us to Beverly Hills to look at their Christmas lights display. We used to do that every year. Each year the decorations were different. Well, years have gone by since we did that, so while we weren’t too far, we decided to check out Beverly Hills along Wilshire. We were a bit disappointed to see that there were hardly any Christmas lights displayed as they had in times past. (Maybe the person who used to be in charge is retired, ha!) However, we did turn down Rodeo Drive, and look what we saw!
Those square glass boxes suspended in the middle of the road are housing Baccarat chandeliers. It’s been a while since I’d been down there during Christmastime! I found an article dated 2004, which explained that Baccarat decorated this street with 20 of their crystal chandeliers each worth close to $50,000, yikes! That’s a about $1 million just along this street. Kinda makes me stop in my tracks in confusion, ha! One side of me loves art and beauty(so that I “oh and ah”), yet the other side of me hates the gaudiness. Oh well, such is life.
