Christmas Grimm and Some Eggnog Adventures

Grimm is one weird and wonderful cat. He loves to stare at me from the tub while I am in the bathroom. 

He loves to pin down the feet while I am reading in bed and then I cannot roll to my side to fall asleep.  I hate sleeping on my back.  

And apparently, sometimes it is too hard to hold up he curvey self when he is eating and must lay down to chow.  

With Christmas soon here and also the in-laws coming tomorrow, I got down to some baking.  Two loaves of bread, one for eating and one to give to the in-laws as a gift. I don't usually have bread around as it goes moldy before it gets eaten and the in-laws eat bread with every meal.  They claim they like it so I keep giving it to them.  And I made some delicious eggnog bread and rolls.  The large one I took into work and one of the small ones I took into the day care as a gift to the teachers.  The eggnog bread was sooooooooo goooooooood!  I made eggnog frosting for them which just put it over the delicious top!  

 And when I got home, I had an adult eggnog!   

Just Another Sunday

Baylor loves his snowplow with tiny white Lego button snow.  He plowed off the trunk all morning.  And I picked up snow all day long!! 

While it was chilly outside and opening the windows cooled the room, I opted to bake some beads in some foil pans I had bought to make Christmas sun catchers.  Baylor helped some but was more interested in his Legos.  He did the stars and some of the wreath but I did the trees myself.  It was quite fiddly work moving the beads around so the berries or ornaments would not be touching 

But it was worth it, they turned out great.   

We also decorated cookies.  He loved penguins and we plan on giving his teacher a few of the penguins with her coffee mug as part of her Christmas gift.  

Baylor did several on his own.  I love when he wants to help me in the kitchen.  And he did a wonderful job on his cookies. 

Christmas at the Hazel's

Heather hosted the family Christmas get together and we had a wonderful time as usual. We primarily give gifts to the kids but we do give each other small presents as well  The kids of course love getting more gifts and were pesting us all morning wondering when they could open their gifts!  I knew Baylor was going to get the 2014 Hess truck but of course I didn't know what else he was getting.  

She bought him a Lego snowplow which we put together as soon as we got home.  

Buddy was in shorts as usual.  Apparently pants irritate his knee scars so he is often found in shorts in winter.  Thankfully Baylor has not asked to wear shorts!  

I gave the kids their gifts in fleece bags I found at The Christmas Tree Shoppes.  I love that store for holiday items.  I had a bunch of stocking stuffers and sweet treats in their bags to keep them sweetened up and crafting for a long time!  And Baylor received a Lego police motorcycle with cop and villain.  Right up his Lego alley!  

He opened his Hess truck and was super excited!  

He gave the box a hug!  

Why hello Lucy!!! Puppies and kids grow so fast and she is truly a sweet girl.  And thought I was on the floor just for her.  And of course I did not feel the need to change her mind in anyway.  How can you not love that face!! 

I bought Brigid a Boxer dog purse and stuffed it full of purse items:  chapstick, gold coin candies, hair ties and bracelets.  

But before she got to the purse there was bubble wrap to pop!  Which is way fun for everyone,  

Bridgy loved her purse!!  

Gloria loves Boxers and if she has anything to do with our next dog selection, I feel we will also have a Boxer in the future.  They are sweet dogs and all the Boxers I have ever known have been big, gentle babies!  

Years ago, when Eddy and the cats were my only babies, I had time to make embroidered towels for gifts.  I love this snowman icicle towel I made Heather!  Maybe someday I will have one for myself!  

Dinner and a Selfie

We went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse after work.  I love this little man!  

And because I love him I made his teacher a coffee cup wrap with her name on it.  I love how it looks like lined paper.  It did not take too long to embroider and sew up other than my sewing machine croaked while I was making it.  I had to resew two parts too many times than I care to remember until the stitches were right.  The threads kept looping and jamming up.  It was awful.  But eventually I got a correct seam that would hold up.  UGH.  

Olaf

Awhile back I offered to make an Olaf tooth fairy pillow for a friend in NY.  It is two weeks before Christmas and I had not even started it so I made sure I made it tonight.  It is fleece and felt and I tried to glue down the parts but I had to hand sew them in the end.  The glue was not holding and was making it too stiff.  The pillow pocket is in the back and the hanger allows it to hang from the doorknob.  Frankly he turned out so much better in the end than when he started out.  For a bit I thought he would end up on a Pinstrosity site as he was looking a bit off.  That is putting it mildly.  But with a few small shifts in the pieces the real Olaf came though.  He went in the mail the next day and arrived in time to make it into the stocking.  

The Yard is Now Done

I was off today to use up my last vacation day and go to an appointment in the middle of the day.  After the appointment I worked for two and a half hours putting up Christmas lights and decorations outside. When Baylor got home he ran around hugging everyone.  He loves yard decorations and I was glad I was able to get them up for Christmas.  When we get home after work it is too dark to work outside and the weekends have been so busy.  

I also worked on six more gingerbread houses to take into Baylor's day care for the boys to do as a craft.  I used a paper template rather than the cookie cutters I use for the house parties.  The house has taller sides but is about the same size as the other houses.  I thought the more wall space and less roof would be better for the boys.  

We had to check out the friends in the dark as well.   

I wrapped a new set of lights, fresh out of the box, on my new bottle tree and once they went on I saw that it was half burnt out already.  O well, it still looked nice lit up.  

Weekend at Grandma and Buddy's Part II

Sunday we woke up and got ready to make Christmas cookies. Mom and I love to make a huge pile of cookies and then give them away.  This year we invited Stacey, Marshall and Ian to join us.  They came early after early church and had to leave in the afternoon to go to a work holiday party.  Mom and I had a few cookies already made when they arrived.  Mom took this photo while saying it was good to see the two of us together in the kitchen again.  Back in the day we spent a lot of time together especially in the kitchen.   

We posed for her with silly faces like we did all those years ago. We were really close all through college and for many years afterward.  We went on so many adventures and have many great memories together.  

 The boys were in and out but when we brought out the sprinkles they were on the job..  Who does not love a spreader full of frosting and a jar full of colored sugary bits?  I know my boy does!  First one must prepare the cookie surface with a generous smear of frosting.  

Next one must select the proper sprinkle for the job.  

Finally sprinkles must be applied correctly.  

And when your three and your technique has not been honed for the last several years, you end up with a large pile concentrated on one special cookie.

And in true Baylor form, he ate as many as he put on the cookies.  

It's all good.  It is just sprinkles and makes for a good memory. 

Ian had fun with the Santa dress up bin and the Santa dress as we call it is always a big hit with the little ones.  

We did exchange gifts between the boys.  Baylor ended up a bit upset at his gift (a Spiderman puzzle) as it was not as much fun as the items he saw Ian opening.  Upset to the point he cried about it.  So we had to have a little talk about gifts, trying to understand that all gifts may not be what he was into at that time but he needs to try to be grateful, and other stuff trying to help him learn the gift receiving ropes.   

The table loaded down with tons of delicious cookies!  That we promptly divided up between the three of us.  Mom made several cookie trays for gifts for friends and neighbors which used up a lot of the cookies.  While I love making cookies, I don't love the temptation of having them around the house.  

We worked really hard on the cookie candy canes and Stacey was excited to sample one. 

Baylor was still pouting about his puzzle and would not smile for me.  But I love the picture anyway.  

I love seeing the kids play with the hats.

We even got the dog dressed up but it was secretly to get a photo of Chief for part of Dad's Christmas gift,  Mom had bought a dog frame ornament for him and we needed a photo for it.  Chief was not a fan of the hat with the beard but he put up with it long enough to get a few photos.  Dad thought it was hilarious.  

I made two houses Saturday after everyone left.  I love how they both turned out and Baylor's gingerbread man was rocking the marshmallows and candy stars.