Pheew!

Why ,if this is the 'most wonderful time of the year', is it so hectic? We try to cram so much into so little time... and resources. I'm frantically trying to get some work done around the ranch before the kids come home. As a 'mixed' family, we celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas, just not in the way that you might expect. Being more 'spiritual' than 'religious', we use this time as an excuse to give gifts to show our love (well, we do this all year 'round actually...), we celebrate our ever-growing collection of family and friends and to take time to cook a couple of really special meals. On Friday night, I made a (truly blended) meal of onion & apple latkes and shublek, with kraut and pickled beets! The first batch of latkes were too big and a little mushy inside. The smaller ones were filled with crunchy potato goodness. A little apple sauce and sour cream and we were all good. I'm sure that the shublek had some non-kosher content but what the hell, it was good. We'll repeat the latkes tonight, I think and maybe some cooked-until-it-falls-apart sauerbraten, too... YUM!

There's a heck of a lot of knitting in front of me right now but I think that I can get through it - 4 pairs of mitts, 3 hats, 3 pairs of socks, and numerous pet toys... as well as anything else that catches my fancy. Yeah, in my knitting dreams!

I bought my last three skeins of yarn last Thursday. No more 'purchased yarn' for me. Now, that doesn't mean that I can't receive gifts of yarn. It just means that I will not be buying any more yarn until June, 2007. Do you think that I can hold out for this long? I'm not sure, myself... If I try to shove some money into your hands to "buy" me a gift, smack some sense into me, please!

I was going through my digital photos and found something very personal that I wanted to share.


My two white-bearded guys, Jack & Kevin, in all their TV-viewing splendor

and I also found something not-so-personal to share

My son, Pat's band (which shall remain unnamed to protect our older, more conservative relatives who would definitely disapprove of its name)
and

My other son, KC's creation - Strongbad the Pumpkin. He made this a couple of Halloweens ago and it's still one of my favorites. He's such a creative kid.