Post-Christmas Post

I thought I'd share some photos from around the holiday.

 Ice cream.  This was ('was' because it is now eaten) Blue Bunny peppermint ice cream.  It is seasonal and may or may not be available still.  It was pretty good.  My favorite is still their cherry chocolate that reminds me of my most favorite ice-cream, Cherry Garcia.

If you can, enlarge this pic and take a look at how Nick tied that red tie.  It may have loosened up some, but was really interesting.  I forget what he called the 'knot' but he'd found it on the internet back in May/June when he graduated 8th grade, and he spent the time learning how to tie it from the internet.  This was at his first-ever recital.  He performed God Bless the Outcasts from Disney's Hunchback animation movie.  The young man on his right is his instructor.  He and his wife were there with their toddler daughter and one day old son. 

Our little 4' artificial, pre-lit tree.  I had to use a pipe-cleaner to hold the lighted star on as using the base that came with it, designed to sit on the top of the tree, and the star, it was too heavy and the top would flop over like a bunny's ears.

 How do you sneak gifts into the house when the recipients are present?  Bless the paper bag inventor :)  The items are in one bag, you take the second bag and place over the first, then invert and carry in by the handles.

These would be Christmas cards.  These would be late Christmas cards.  These would be very late Christmas cards.  These would be so very late Christmas cards that they got dropped into the blue collection box in front of the already closed post office mid-afternoon of Christmas Eve.  And to think I actually pulled out the materials, and started updating my address lists the day after Thanksgiving.  There's always next year to be timely, right? Sure.

Klepto-Kat aka Flame, is Klepto-ing the water for the little iron.  Now I know which one gets the water all over the cutting table top that goes under the cutting mat!  Lick, lick, dip, lick, lick, dip, dip, lick.

A local television station, as well as ATT U-verse Showcase channel presented a Yule log for our Christmas gift opening experience.  The local station included music, that we did not care for at all so we muted the TV and turned on the CD changer with Christmas music of our preference.  When the local station ended, was when I discovered our provider's station and it went on pretty much the entire day and had nicer, instrumental Christmas music playing, so I had that on in the dining room while I was busy in the kitchen.  

We have a fireplace, but I've been neglectful and there's still a long table sitting in front of it with who-knows-what on it and I wasn't about to take care of that too while my two guys sat on their duffs awaiting their Christmas dinner!  On the bright side, I won't have to clean up and remove ashes.  On the downside, we missed the fragrant aroma of burning wood, and the crackling and hissing of that wood as well as the warmth that a real fireplace provides.  Always next year, right?  Hmm, where have I heard that before?  Somehow, when it's 70+ degrees outside, lighting a fire just doesn't quite fit.

I'd better go finish those final seams, which I didn't get to as planned, on Celtic Solstice (see Webs of Threads) before Bonnie releases the next step bright and early tomorrow morning. 

After the sleeplessness of several nights over sending Nick off to D.C. I've been a bit off-kilter the last day or two.  Yesterday was the worst to the point of wondering if I had a slight bug as my tummy was a bit icky and when it came to chores for the day, I did nothing except fix dinner.  I did however work on sewing together some crumbs and short strings.  This is a pile of them turned into all manner of misshapen partial blocks.  I haven't thought through what I'm constructing, only that I'm sewing those bits and pieces together into something bigger than they were. 

On Monday, I sorted the entire bin into color-related piles and whatever didn't fit neatly into one color grouping or another, I tossed back into a large pan, and that's what makes up this pile.  I'll probably square them up when I can get a good 6" or so square out of them.  And what will it be when it's done?  Who knows.  Maybe a placemat or two or three, or table topper, or a cat bed maybe.  It will become something and not be in the landfill or the compost bin.  Yep, I put those way-too-small-to-do-anything-with bits and thread out in my compost bin - 100% cotton breaks down well.  I just don't know if I should be concerned with the dyes though.  I'm sure if we were to locate some rat's nest, we'd probably find it quite cozy, don't you?

Crumbs becoming "something".

And then there's this, well, actually, this is almost gone, as is the mint chip, and the cookie dough which is definitely gone :(  Back just after Easter I had found this flavor at the local Super Walmart and thought I'd give it a try.  This is the second container, or maybe third.  It's quite yummy and has bits of carrot cake in it.  To me the nutmeg is a bit strong, but nutmeg always stands out for me more than the average person.  It's a good thing I like nutmeg, for the most part.

Blue Bunny 24 Karat Carrot Cake Ice Cream!

I'm thinking I need to get to the store tomorrow so that Nick will have his mint and/or cookie dough ice cream available when he returns.  Do you have a favorite ice cream?  The ones I've mentioned are all top of my list these days, but sometimes I just want plain old vanilla and top it with some homemade strawberry freezer jam, or blueberry pie filling.  But maybe my most favorite ice cream is Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia - that's a treat!  This Blue Bunny brand had a Burgundy Cherry with chocolate in amaretto vanilla, or something like that, and I have to say, I went through it pretty quickly and it just might beat out Cherry Garcia, especially when combined with a little bit of Cookie Dough ;p   

Tomorrow and Friday will be some grocery shopping days.  Walmart or local grocer for the ice cream, and bread.  Costco for some other needed items.