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My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Exalted Highness Duchess Witchypoo the Overdecorated of New Porton Wells Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Winter Solstice

How appropriate that my Darling Daughter be born the day before the Winter Solstice.  The darkest and longest night, and that it was.

I was huge, really huge.  It was the first year I started Christmas shopping on-line because I couldn’t walk for more than a 1/2 hour at the mall before my ankles turned into elephant feet with the swelling.  I had gone to the OBs that Monday and was told that she was breech and ready to come out at anytime.  I could schedule the C-section for that Friday or wait until after the first of the year when he go back from vacation.  I chose Friday of course, I too was done with being pregnant and I wanted my body back.  Not to mention that having her before the new year would be a big tax break too. LOL!

So it was the night before I was to show up at the crack of dawn for the C-section.  I tossed and turned all night.  It felt as if she was doing laps inside me.

My mom was taking me to the hospital, she was going to be my coach.  I thought this was a great opportunity for her, since she had been comatose aka twilight sleep when she had all of us.  It didn’t occur to me until much later and many years later after becoming a mom myself how hard it was for her to be present when her eldest child was going through child birth.

It’s a cold crisp snowy day, so cold the snow crunches and squeaks when you walk on it.  We arrive on time (7AM as I recall).   We get checked in and wheeled up to the Maternity Ward.  I get into my hospital gown and they put the fetal monitors on.  Grace is still doing laps, but they are having a hard time holding on the heartbeat.  So being the good nurse that they are they call the doctor, who admonishes them for waking him up and he says he will be there at 8:00 to start the c-section.  The nurses are now keeping a close watch on me, and decide to have me prepped and ready to go once the Dr. shows up.

I’m in the delivery room, and ready to go when the doctor finally arrives.  Well wouldn’t you know it… she had managed to turn during the night so instead of the bum he expected he got a head.  The doctor was NOT happy.  I was just glad to have my healthy baby (with a small lump on her head) and to have my body back!

After she was delivered off she went with new Grandma in tow to make sure she had all her fingers and toes.  She had a full head of jet black hair and the longest dark eyelashes I had ever seen.  Each finger looked as if it were perfectly manicured.  And there she was… all NINE POUNDS and 1/2 ounce of her.

That was FIFTEEN years ago!  Yikes!  Where had the time flown, and what happened to that sweet beautiful girl?

Happy Birthday!

Down to the wire…

Seven days and counting…

Saturday we celebrated DD upcoming birthday (Actual date December 20th) by going into the Boston Museum of Science to see Body Worlds. I found it a bit macabre, seeing body parts slayed and flayed. I totally skipped the maternity/children section. Stuff like that always bothers me. I also managed to find some totally cool stocking stuffers in the Museum Store which should be fun. Afterwards we took DD to Fanueil Hall to eat and do some shopping. It was a beautifully warm night for walking around the area. I got some North End Bakery Canolli to bring home. Yummo!

Sunday morning I was up early to finish cleaning and mopping for the cookie swap guests. It was too much fun with lots of yummy cookies. Abby (blogless) from the Sunday Borders Knitting group, brought delicious Amaretto Chocolate Chip cookies, The Crazed Weasel brought still warm and really yummy Orange Pistachio Biscotti. My sister brought Russian Tea Cakes (my second favorite cookie in the world). Yarn Harpy brought Chocolate Chip Biscotti, GeekPixie brought totally vegan ginger snaps, that were really yummy. Oh and I made Rosettes… they were just ok, nothing special - next year I’m going to have to bite the bullet and con ask Mom into helping me make Kolachis. Of course Bad Blogger I took no photos.

But we all sat around knitting, drinking wine, and eating. It was lots of fun and thank you everyone for coming and sharing your cookies!

I did actually manage to finish my nephews socks last night after everyone left. I also finished the hat from my hand spun - very nice! I just have one more hat to finish by Friday and I will be done, done, done.

I’ve almost finished plying the finn that I dyed the other day. It’s really beautiful. I cannot wait to knit it up probably into another hat.

I promise tomorrow I will take some pictures, I have a dentist appointment in the morning and so I decided to take the entire day off. I also have to get my brother’s, nephew’s, and cousin’s presents, wrapped, boxed and into the mail.

Oh and my mom called last night after everyone had left the party, to let me know that she doesn’t think my sister (see above) should do Christmas Dinner this year!!??? WTF!?? I really look forward to that 5lb. Beef Tenderloin with Madeira and Mushroom sauce every year. And Mom just wants to have MUNCHIES!!! I DON’T THINK SO!!!. I was planning on making creamed spinach casserole to go with the beef, and a ricotta pie for dessert. Don’t worried I called my sister to overt disaster and if Mom and Dad don’t want dinner, they can leave before we sit down to eat. Whew!

UPDATE:

Check out this sheepy screensaver from here 

It’s too cute.

Christmas Meme

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?  Which ever one has the alcohol in it.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?  Everything gets wrapped unless it is too gigundous to wrap.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?  - Multicolored – white is just too… well too.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, afraid the cats will eat it.

5. When do you put your decorations up?  Usually the outdoor stuff goes up Thanksgiving weekend and the tree goes up a couple of weekends before Christmas.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?  Homemade Cinnamon Buns

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?  There are just so many.  But I guess my favorite was when two Santa’s came to the house one year.   

8 . When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?   When I was about 5 my Dad dressed up as Santa (as usual) but he forgot to take his ring (a carved tiger eye) and I realized it was Dad and not Santa – I didn’t tell my little sister though because I was so devastated.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?  Yes, whoever finds the pickle ornament hidden in the tree gets to open the present – a jigsaw puzzle that we all work on.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?  First the lights (multi-colored), then the silver garland,  then plain glass colored ornaments tucked in towards the lights, then the fancy handmade, or glass blown ornaments.  Since we cannot have tinsel due to the cats, I found some neat Victorian Tin-sel or Icicles that are just strips of twisted tin  that give that tinsel feeling and they are reusable.  Then the candy canes, and if we are so inclined we also string popcorn and cranberries.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it.

12. Can you ice skate? Not any more.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My Thumbelina Baby Doll – you would crank the handle on her back and her head would move to make her look like a live moving baby.

14. What’s your favorite thing about the holidays?  Enjoying time with family and friends.  Eating lots of good food and just relaxing.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Kolachis – I just cannot stop eating them.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?  Hanging out on Christmas Eve drinking and eating.

17. What tops your tree? A star

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?  I love picking out the perfect surprise gift for each person.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?  Have yourself a merry little Christmas – Judy Garland.

20. Candy canes yuck or yum?  Yum – especially in the hot chocolate laced with peppermint schnapps.

21. What’s number one on your Christmas list this year?  Peace on Earth

 I finished one sock - so one to go,  both hats are done.  I’ve even done some spinning and I even found time to try my hand at dyeing some Finn roving that I had.  Royal Blue, Chartreuse and Chestnut - I love it!  I think I’m going to do some serious dying after the first of the year.  It was so easy.

 I have also made 3 of the 7 dozen Rosette cookies for this weekend.

DD’s birthday is also coming quickly (December 20th) and she wants to go into the Boston Museum of Science to see the Gunther von Hagen’s Body Worlds Exhibit.  Ewww.   So Auntie, cousins and a couple for girlfriends and of course myself, are taking her in on Saturday to see it.  Then we plan on walking over to the North End for dinner.  This is all pending her rapid recovery.  Right now she’s home sick, fever, headache, congestion, sinus pain.    With my luck she’ll be fine and I’ll be sick on Saturday.

 

 

What me panic?

Twenty days left…

The shopping part is mostly done. Just a few odds and ends, stocking stuffers to pick up.

I have lots of finished objects, but no time to take photos and stick them up. 6 pairs of socks, one shawl, but I only have 1/2 sock completed for my nephew, 1/3 of a hat for a friend. The yarn for my brother’s hat.

I also have a cookie swap planned at my house on the 16th. I still have to finish cleaning the back room, get the tree up, shampoo the living room carpets, oh ya and make 8 dozen cookies all before then. I think I’m going to make Rosettes, the deep fried Norwegian cookies.

Can I finish the knitting, ship it all off, and do the cookies in time? Maybe if I grow some more arms and hands.

Oh and forgot to mention that I got volunteered to organize my departments Holiday lunch. Usually we do a potluck, but I couldn’t deal so I’m collecting money and having it catered.

Here is the tentative menu:

Baked Ziti
Chicken, Broccoli Penne Alfredo
Meatballs and Sauce
Salad
Bread
Dessert

Then we will do a Yankee Swap after lunch.

Other things that have been hanging over my head have been resolved:

The bathroom - re-grouted, but as usual it did not go as planned. They could not put the normal, regular grout over the Stain Master grout, nor could they pick out all the grout from between the tiles (Mosaic) so I had to make a choice, use the Stain Master again with the new grey color OR have them totally rip out the floor and redo from scratch. Since I don’t have the time to have my bathroom in continual upheaval during the holidays, I opted for the quick resolution. Pray that the Stain Master grout doesn’t collapse, crack or bubble this time. I think I would cry. At least the floor is guaranteed for a year so if anything at all goes wrong they will come and replace the entire floor this time. The bathroom looks awesome.

The laptop - HP finally coughed up a new laptop and I picked it up on Friday. The geeks at the store were all drooling over it. One of them called it a “monster”. I had no idea until I got it home. Now remember I had purchase a DV6000 model. They replaced it with a HP DV-9060

17″ Screen, 2 GB RAM, HD-DVD burner/player, 4 USB ports, 1 Firewire, Infrared, Express Card, S-Video Out, Media Card slot, TV tuner with remote, built in webcam, Wireless and Ethernet cards. It screams!

So at least I have those two issues no longer hanging over my head. Whew.

I usually work well under stress, and I do love the holidays, but for some reason it seems to come faster each year. Maybe we need to move Thanksgiving ahead a week or two?