Starting Out

 

For those of you that guessed that I have been bitten by the sourdough bug, you were right. I'm trying to up my bread game since my last few loaves were pretty meh. This is day 3 of my starter. So far, so good. It's growing as you can see and smells.....sour. I'm following along with some bread vloggers on YouTube because I have NO idea what I'm doing.

Right now it's living its life in a cooler aka my soap incubator with a hot water bottle to stay warm. We keep the thermostat at 68 which is too cold for growing yeast. I've been able to put all my soap tools in use since it seems sourdough and soap share a lot in common minus that whole scary lye thing. 

Speaking of soap, in case you were wondering what happened to all that soap I made back in October, here it is. Those are the ugly ends I keep for myself. It's all been tested and it's all wonderful. Look for giveaway details on the first. I won't be shipping until after the holiday rates change on the 18th but I can get started wrapping your "orders" in the meantime. 

If You Know, You Know...

 

As if I don't have enough going on around here. A new bug has bitten.

Rolling Along

 

It was 32 degrees when we went for a walk yesterday. There were snow flurries. Pup has decided that walking isn't her thing right now so she rolled along for most of it. Back at home it was a day of cleaning, laundry and deciding on projects for January. Since I don't have any socks on the needles, a good dig through the sock yarn stash was in order. That's always fun.

For now though, I'll just stick with the mitten. It's gone through its naughty stage and come out on the other side. Thank goodness. I would have hated to end the year with a fail.

A Christmas Cast On

 

Pup had a good Christmas morning searching for her bag of treats. Every Christmas she gets a bag of Pup-eronis. 

I usually have a piece of mincemeat pie for breakfast. This year instead of baking my own, I bought some. They weren't terrible. Just a bit sweeter than I like. I'll go back to making my own next year.

Then I made a big mistake. I got bit by the Christmas Cast On bug that all the vloggers were talking about and it didn't go well. 

I've been saying for a while now that I need a new pair of mittens. Mine have a big hole in the thumb that can't be easily repaired and besides that, I have a room full of yarn and no excuses not to make myself another pair.

I had to cast on twice then I had to rip back twice. My brain wasn't ready for setting up new colorwork so soon after the frenzy of all that stocking knitting. It left me grumpy and I still had a big dinner to make. 

Note to self: Make this the day before. The lasagnas were delicious but I was in no mood to cook a big dinner on Christmas Day. I wanted to sit on the couch and fight with my knitting while watching old Christmas movies.

I did enlist The Mister to help put the trifle together. That was a help.

I was finally able to sink down on the couch with a small piece of plum pudding as the sun went down. I didn't flame it this year since there was no one to impress but I did make brandy butter. I always forget how good this is. I always think it's just fruitcake but it's not. It's sublime. 

And to All a Good Night

 

We do our big family thing on Christmas Eve. Oldest Son and DIL, both December babies, host every year and they go all out on the festive trimmings. Before dinner we got to Face Time with middle son who lives in Michigan with his family. We got a shy performance of "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" from the youngest. So cute.

Oldest Son loves to cook. He was smoking a prime rib all day. 

Dessert was exquisite as were the chocolates from a local confectioner. 

DIL had made cookies. They are so beautiful. Each one is a work of art. 

We got to see the new puppy again. He's much bigger but just as sweet. He's so soft he doesn't even feel like a real dog. 

Tiny baby Grand had a blast with all the empty boxes and the wrapping paper. No gifts needed for that one.

Medium Grand couldn't believe his luck at all the cool toys he got. 

Here's a posed shot of the Big Grands so I can keep track of how fast they are growing up. The oldest, another December baby, just became a teen. I remember when they were the wee ones playing in empty boxes and being thrilled with balls of torn gift wrap. Where does that time go? 

Back at home, I had myself a handful of cookies, my first slice of fruit cake and a peppermint martini while I watched my favorite version of A Christmas Carol. Today I'll be making lasagna and baked ziti for dinner-all in my new Christmas PJs. Then it's mince pie and a flaming plum pudding. Even though it's just us for the day, the celebration continues. 

Merry Christmas!

By the Chimney With Care

 

All month long I've been waiting for the Scrooge in me to show his face but he never did. When I saw this, I was actually sad. By now I'm usually itching to pack it all in but it's been a very good December. 

Yesterday morning I got up early, lit a Christmas scented candle and gave the house a good "blessing". We don't entertain during the holidays anymore but I used to and keeping clean at Christmas is a tradition. The rest of the rainy afternoon was spent finishing up the Advent projects. The 2026 stocking is done. It needs a good blocking but truth be told, I have not woven in all the ends yet. It will take a movie night to get that accomplished. 

 I finished up my Cozy Knitters Advent Stripes while finishing up my audio book. I listen to Winter Solstice every year. It's the coziest of cozy listens and all 17 plus hours fly by. As for the socks, they're pretty wild. It was fun to watch all the Vlogmas knitters working with the same yarn. I'll definitely do this again next year-if I remember to pre-order on time. I barely made it this year.

One of the vloggers I watched daily was reading this book. I had to order a used library copy from the UK and it showed up just as I was running out of my Christmas listen. Next week, now that all my holiday projects are finished, I'm planning on spending a lot of down time curled up with a good book. I hope this is it. 

Down in the soap room/craft room I had a few loose ends to tie up later that day. My gingerbread soaps were hit and miss this year but I had enough good ones for the Grands from my many attempts. We're going to the Big Grands for dinner tonight so I had to wrap a few of them up for them. 

I also had to decorate some envelopes for their gifts which is just money and gift certificates for their favorite gaming sites. The older they get, the easier they are to buy for. I like everything about the holidays but the gifting part. I'm terrible at it.

After dinner we took a freshly washed Pup out to look at Christmas lights.

We toured the town and ended our night at the crab pot tree at City Hall. So much to do and it starts all over again today. Happy Christmas Eve.

TNT: Did She or Didn't She?

 

Before I answer that question let me show you how the Christmas Quaker is looking right now. I've only been working on that honeycomb section and it will be finished before I pack it away again. I'm getting close.

The Santa ornament finally has a Santa or at least part of him. You can see where his deer is now too. I hated working on the first Santa in this series but I got into this little guy for some reason. 

All three of my holiday stitching projects have been a pleasure to pick up this year. I'm going to look back at this Christmas as the one where I got to sit and stitch while listening to my audio book almost every afternoon. Sometimes there was even snow involved. I've got a few rows finished and a bit of holly started on the pudding. It's going to be hard to pack this away but I do have a camel waiting. 

So did I toss the sprinkles or did I retrieve them for the second time? I went and got them, gave them a good cleaning since they had been in the trash all afternoon and sealed them up in a bag with a tag that says "replace me". Sentimental fool that I am, I wasn't ready to let go of Christmas Past. 

Ghosts of Christmas Past

 

I needed a Forensic cleanup crew to tackle my kitchen when I was done with the cookies. What a mess I made. 

I only make small batches but it doesn't matter. The clean up is always epic. We've got sugar cookies, jam thumbprints, magic cookie bars and a new one for me-Hermits. Whoever suggested them, thank you. They are my new favorite. They were quick to go together and used up all of my leftover fruitcake/plum pudding odds and ends. 

Confession: I've been using the same sprinkles for almost 30 years. The kids all lived at home back then. Google says they can last forever as long as they aren't visibly degrading. This was the first year I think I saw some odd clumping so out they went. I felt so sad. It was ridiculous but it felt like throwing all my Christmas pasts away. I actually dug them out of the trash once, thought better of it and let them go. Now I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt to keep them until next year when I can replace them. I might feel better about it then. I better go get them out again. Trash day is tomorrow.

Happy Solstice!

 

I hope to be marking the darkest day of the year with a cookie making extravaganza. After I pulled everything out, I quickly realized my mistake at letting The Mister set up two puzzles on the dining room table. It's going to be a tight squeeze.

I was in rest and recovery mode yesterday so not much got accomplished but I did get the toe finished on the stocking. That green line under the candles is part of the waste yarn I have to pick out to put the heel. I need a clear head to be doing that and it might not be today. I'm always shocked at how much it takes out of me to wrangle a couple of Grands for a few days. 

And...Miss 1995 Holiday Barbie has been freed from her box. She spent 30 years imprisoned in plastic, poor old thing. She looks awfully happy among her new friends. I'm glad I could help. 

Home Again

 

My Advent socks were on the go for the past few days. There's no chance at all they are going to be done by the 24th but they might be done by the end of the month. 

I got the bug to make myself another bulky weight hat so I took that along for the ride too. Look what I found. A knot. Knit Picks again. Is it just me? 

Before I left I had ordered even more Brava in different colors for even more hats and it was waiting for me on the doorstep. Unlike another package I had received it had been put in a place that hadn't gotten rained on. 

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It's been raining non stop here and while we were gone I got the notification that this had arrived and been left out front. It was out in the open on a table. The box was soaked to the point of coming apart. My heart sank when I saw it but happily, my newest Barbie was dry inside. I know I said I wasn't going to buy anymore holiday Barbies but I also told myself that if I found a vintage one that was under $20 with free shipping I just might consider it. Well, here she is. She is a Hallmark edition from 1995 representing holiday traditions from 1910. Whew, that's a mouthful and she really is pretty in person. Photos don't do her justice.

Unexpected Journey

 

Daughter's MIL who is their usual babysitter had an event come up that she wanted to attend for the next two days so we got called on once again to fill in. We got to put together Grinch puzzles and...

...read lots of books when we weren't chasing the little one around. He's fast. 

I did get a belated birthday party out of it all. Pizza and bundt cake for a hard two days work. We'll be home tonight and I'll most likely be on the couch for the weekend-hopefully with enough strength left to finish my Advent stocking. 

'Tis the Season...

 

....for gifts. Yesterday The Mister and I resurrected an old holiday tradition dating way back before the pandemic made shopping no fun. We pick a store and we take turns going in for 30 minutes to buy each other gifts with a dollar limit of around $50. Back in the day it used to be Target but this year we went to our tiny new Marshall's. I came out with this bag of goodies for him. He came out with a similar one for me. For the past few years neither of us had anything to unwrap Christmas morning and I didn't want to do that again.

Those aren't the only gifts in the house. It seems that we've been keeping the mailman very busy. My sister sent me this. It's diamond art that she spent the summer working on. Isn't that the cutest snowman? The best thing is that I can keep it out all winter because I'm pretty sure it's celebrating Valentine's Day as well. I love it. 

Sandflies very generously sent me a package of holiday coffee. The bags are so pretty you almost hate to use them up. There's nothing better to wake up to on Christmas morning than the smell of this spiced coffee. 

We got a giant box yesterday from our son's in-laws. It's a tower of chocolate. Is there a better kind of tower?

I also got this lovely card from Karen in Wisconsin who included a recipe and a note explaining this was a family favorite from 1985. It's a recipe for a pecan cake and weirdly enough, The Mister has been talking about wanting something made with pecans for a few days now. I'll have to give this a try. 

Karen, I have a recipe just like that one. It's my family favorite and I've been making it since 1984 which is documented by the newspaper's date. I kept the whole section so I wouldn't lose it. There's a lot of recipes out there for banana bread but I love the story that went along with it. It's about how her mom left out the vanilla when she handed down the recipe causing the daughter to question her own baking skills for years. I love a good story with a recipe and I can tell you this is some good banana bread. I just made three loaves of it and one is already gone. 

And...a big thank you for all the birthday and well wishes. My cold didn't appear after all but a migraine did probably from the cold night air while I was out horse watching. It was short lived, thank goodness and I am right as rain right now. I also want to thank everyone who sent me book titles about pandas and turtles. This is the first one to show up and it's a lovely little book with the most amazing illustrations. I know the Grand is going to love it.