My Fave

This is my favorite thing that I made for Christmas. 

It went to my sister Sarah, to match her pot holders and the other random kitchen stuff I sent her.

The table runner is made from a Bonnie and Camille charm pack that I had stashed away and was sort of patterned after this one. (Thank you Pinterest!)

The whole thing:

(And sadly, my table was too cluttered for me to photograph it where it belonged! 

It's either sew or clean, right?)

Crowns for Clowns

Annika was awesome about Christmas presents this year. Not only did she buy enough chocolate to fatten the entire family, but she went the extra mile and made a ton of presents herself.

Here she is: modeling the crown she made Cozette.

We see Coze wear a lot of crazy, self-designed hats around here.

Case in point - hat made from a fabric scrap and a doily.

Annika's crown was right up her alley!

So much Christmas joy!

Pillowcases

For one of our sewing classes, we helped the kids make pillowcases.

(I have enough flannel to provide a small army with pillowcases, so it seemed like a good idea.)

Didn't they do a great job?

I had them do french seams...cause I'm mean...and hate fraying. :)

Then the pillowcases are nice and sturdy too, as the obviously need to be if we plan to hand them over to children...who want to have potatoe sack races with them.

I was a little slower on my Christmas pillowcases.

I gave them to the kids on Christmas Eve, right before we went to freeze our rears off looking at Christmas lights.

Like Cozy's monster pose?

Awww...look at my little darling snoozing on his new pillowcase!

What an angel! ;)

Christmas Morning

Yay! Christmas morning! 

Even with my lazy, not-wanting-to-get-out-of-bed, I still beat two teenagers to the presents.

Anthony brought his blanket and pillow down, so that he could rest between presents. :)

Cozy, being happy about one of her million toys.

It's so easy and fun to shop for little kids. Ah...those were the days.

(So glad we still have a few little kids left!)

Sofia, looking jaded, but she is actually ecstatic to finally have a replacement chikorita. (She lost one EIGHT YEARS AGO...and has been moaning about it ever since.)

Annika, thrilled to have lots and lots of musicals to watch. She and Jon have won the coveted "most excited about Christmas" award this year.

(Don't tell Annika this, but I actually bought this dvd set for Anthony. We had just had a giant fight about whether or not he had to watch The Sound of Music with his family. 

Yes, sometimes my shopping is a bit sarcastic. )

The boys, playing with their "Heliquad". (James had seen a "Quadcopter" on tv....so I guess we bought the off-brand?)

All of the boys got nerf swords this year....so watch out.

This year Anthony was supremely unhelpful when it came to gift ideas.

Either he didn't know what he wanted or only wanted things he knew I was unwilling to buy. 

(I hope he liked some of the things Tony and I thought up instead of weapons and video games.)

One of the things he asked for was a tophat. Yes. Silly. I bought him a tiny one.

...but it does look adorable on Matt.

"Merry Christmas, gents!"

Why I haven't finished my Christmas Sewing...

I'm not sure why I ever expect to finish any of my Christmas projects by Christmas.

I should just write and wrap IOUs at the beginning of December. :)

...but I have been doing massive amounts of sewing....

Annika was invited to a  Medieval Murder Mystery birthday party. Her character was a bride, so, of course, we had to make a medieval wedding dress. (Which she is now morally obligated to wear for Halloween next year.) Lots of brocade. Ugh.

Tony was a peach and helped Annika put in all of the grommets while I was putting in sleeves.

The lacing actually looks really lovely, but what a pain in the rear to get on and off! Thank you, whoever invented zippers! (...and one more good reason not to become a professional dominatrix....of course, maybe then you just snap your whip and someone gets to lacing?)

The veil we made was super cheater-y easy.

I sewed some gathered-up tulle to a headband. 

Annika glued on some flowers.

While we were sewing this, Annika kept starting phrases with "When you're sewing my wedding dress someday..." Um....yea....I'm not sure that is ever going to happen. Maybe, if I sew enough costumes and prom dresses between now and then, my skill set might be up to that craziness? Still, not my first choice. I want other people to sew, decorate, and cater, while I hang out with family.

The finished product....

Voila!

 ...and guess who was the murderer? My dear sweet daughter, of course.

(But the victim's character sounded like a real jerk!)

Snow and Sew

I've been doing a little Christmas sewing...while avoiding other Christmas sewing.

(Self-inflicted craft ADD, I know.)

...and, dang it, one of my potholders is not like the others.

It's very tempting to keep these guys, since they match my

 new(ish...stolen from my sister this summer) recipe box.

What's more, they even match my house.

(And now that I look at this picture, I must say that our frequent fireplace use is beginning to show on the chimney. One more thing to do this Spring.)

...and a little more sewing.

You may have noticed the white stuff on my house.

Yes, we got a whopping couple of inches of snow - just enough to close the schools and cause a 4-day weekend. Lovely. :)

The kids were thrilled.

Cozy finally got to try out her new snowboots (which she now insists on wearing to preschool, even though the snow is long gone.

...but then she noticed it was "sticky" and made her hands cold.

Other, crazier children didn't mind...or feel that they needed gloves...or jackets.

As I said...crazy.

Now I'd best go finish a thing or two...before I start something else.

...and the tree is up!

We finally got our tree up on Saturday.

I'm not sure why it took quite so long to get around to putting it up...

...since it's fake...and pre-lit.

Still, that fake tree adds a lovely ambience to our living room, and all of the kids 

were eager to help decorate it.

Cozette found a convenient (if somewhat frightening...for me) perch for reaching those higher branches.

Sof.

The gingers...

...one of whom was determined to make an idiotic face for every picture I took of him. Nerd.

Jon.

James was not super helpful with the decorating. He was sidetracked by our jumping-jack ornaments...

...and was not to be distracted from exercising it vigorously!

Time to oooo and aaaah. :)

I love this "happy Cozy face", because that's how I feel about all of the Christmas loveliness as well.

And Matt doesn't quite understand why we put up a tree covered with cat toys, but

he's definitely not complaining.