Christmas to New Years

Our Christmas holidays have been harried and included putting about a thousand miles on my car.  We started with a Christmas eve at home.  My family traditionally had meat and cheese fondue for Christmas Eve, but not having a fondue pot, I decided to just do a tenderloin dinner.  The local grocery store sells 4 lb. tenderloin for about $5/lb., so I picked up one of those and cooked it up.  Awesome!!  I also made a winter salad with feta cheese and cranberries.  We finally got to use the Christmas dishes (which had to be washed first--they were really dusty).  Unfortunately, one of the salad plates got broken after dinner.  Now I have to replace the Second Day of Christmas plate.

After dinner, we opened up most of the presents--another family tradition, probably handed down from the German side.  It looks like a ton of presents, but the younger two just stacked them up to make it into "Christmas Town", and some of them were for other families.  Cammie gleefully tore open the gifts with great enthusiasm.  They all got PJs, coats, games, and will share a couple movies.  I got a pair of earrings from Mom & Dad and an IOU (home made gift certificate) for a new box loom for weaving that Kelly will make.  

Christmas dinner was also at home--we made a traditional turkey dinner with roast potatoes, peas, cranberry sauce.  I was going to make rolls, too, but I just ran out of time to do that.  The turkey was a little undercooked in the dark meat areas, so we set that aside (in the freezer) and made a casserole a couple days later.

Early in the morning of the 26th, I got a text from my sister that her best friend, Linda, had passed away.  They met in first grade and have been inseparable since--despite moving to another state.  Tara had flown out to be with her in her final weeks and although it was very sad, she was glad to have been there at the end.  She was the weirdest person I ever met, but as you know, I love weird.  We'll miss you, Linda.

On the 26th, we began our traveling, which was more extensive than usual.  We started with a day and night at Kelly's folks' place, visiting with in-laws and their kids, so the cousins got to play together a bunch.  

On the 27th, Kelly and I took the girls for a southern drive, leaving Ben with his Grandma & little cousin, Princess Aurora (named so for her love of all things Princess-y).  We arrived at Heide's for a day and night of visiting with her family.  It was a lovely visit and the girls got to play and talk anime and draw.  We enjoyed a little curry and a little drink, and a whole lotta laughs.  Thanks so much to Heide & co. for their hospitality.  

The next morning, we drove a little further south to Portland to visit with Jeff and Sharon in their newly-renovated house.  The main floor is mostly finished, and the upstairs is still under construction.  They are undertaking the monumental task of removing all the white paint that was on the woodwork throughout the house.  This includes heat guns, chemical strippers and dental tools.  We got to meet their parrot, Mia, who apparently likes cheesecake.  Sharon took me for a tour of the house, including her "work" room where all her lovely fabrics are neatly folded and on shelves.  What an inspiring sight!  

After visiting with Sharon & Jeff for a couple hours, which included a quick trip to one of the most wonderful places on earth....Fabric Depot....we headed just a bit further south to Mike & Laura's.  Mike has the most eclectic decorating taste...his house, also, is undergoing a transformation, although it's taking years to complete it.  They're doing a much more time-consuming DIY restoration.  Given the current economic climate, it's slow going.  We went out to an authentic Cantonese restaurant (which wasn't as good as the last time we went, unfortunately), although Laura opted to stay behind.  Her food sensitivities limit the things she can eat, and the holidays always make for challenging diets...after having over-indulged for several weeks, she had to get back on track.  We exchanged gifts and got to spend a few minutes together.

We were going to stay in the area for the night, but didn't have anywhere to stay, so we headed back north to the in-laws for the night.  We arrived right around midnight and curled up for the night.  In the morning, we packed up the troops and headed back home.  We were only there for one night before hitting the road again...

A quick break for art stuff...

Before I left, I finished the Birka tablet woven trim.  It came out quite nicely, although if I were to do it again, I'd get some kind of spinners to untwist the work without having to re-tie the warp three or four times during the weaving process.  What you can't really see is that the weaving is half as wide as what you'd expect with so many cards, and twice as thick as other weavings due to the way it's woven.  

While we were at the in-laws, I warped up a new piece in red, orange, black and white.  I was able to work on it a little bit while on the road, and finished it up at home over the next couple of days.

On the 30th, we had a plan for going north for a funeral and visit with folks.  I had the address for the wake and some vague directions, but forgot to check what the cross streets were, so we drove around a little aimlessly.  We finally arrived at about 1:30 for the wake for Amanda--she was cremated more than a week ago and her ashes will be scattered later this summer, so this was an Irish-style wake with stories, singing, and laughter.  We ended up leaving before the party really got underway, but we were able to speak with her daughter and extend our regrets and love, say hello to a few friends, and then head back down to Mom & Dad's.  We went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant and then spent the night.  The next morning, Mom, Cammie and I made a trip to Saree shop to look for Girl Scout gear for world thinking day.  Based on what I was looking at on the internet, the guy gave us a good deal on the sarees, and I assume that we'll sell three or four of them after the event, but Cammie wants to keep this one.

The kids and I worked together to finish this set of place mats for Mom.  Each place mat is unique, different scarves, some have buttons and some don't, and some are facing left instead of right.  It was a fun project to do and I finished it at the 11th hour (or 12th hour, really) before we headed to Mom & Dad's.  I hope that it stays together during washing...I might recommend heavy ironing first, then washing by hand.  Just sayin.

I finished up the "Hugs and Kisses" weaving after we got back, and I started warping up the loom for a piece for a friend, Molly.  She wanted something in her household colors; orange, green and purple.  I had accidentally swapped a couple of the cards on the right side, so the green and purple were swapped in a couple places, but I fixed it by turning the cards so the threads were in the right position and kept on weaving.  These weavings are getting wider and wider, though.  This one is 4 cm wide using 32 cards...I think I'm just about maxxed out on the number of cards I can effectively weave with on this loom.  The loom is really starting to show some wear, too--the new box loom is going to arrive just in time, I think.  

After arriving home and settling in for New Years, Blue died.  We discovered him late at night on the 1st laying on the bottom of the cage.  We didn't know he was sick, although he had been cuddled up to the fuzzy yellow thing a lot more lately.  I don't think we'll get a new bird for a while.  Maybe we need to read up on parakeet care a lot more and be able to recognize when there's a problem.  We are pet-free for now.

Here's to a new year!