Christmas photo dump

Day One:
~ Fancy dinner with grandparents and mi padre y madrastra.



Day Two:
~ Grandma made slippers & cake; the Aunts made tamales. Life was good.





Day Three:
~ Beth made the hubs the coolest sweatshirt EVER; G made all the sisters stuffed animals.
~ Step-dad got BIL Airsoft guns, which he and the hubs promptly took outside to shoot at each other.
~ Beth used Step-Dad's stocking jump rope to demonstrate her mad criss-cross skillz.






Later on Day Three:
~ I lost interest in taking pictures as I grew too worn out and full to move around much, but we had another lovely celebration at the in-laws.
~ Hubs made a personalized coloring book for baby niece which turned out to be a big hit, and was nicely accompanied by some nubby crayons G and I melted for fun a few weeks ago.




Love, J

Baby goats

I have some Christmas wrap-up photos, but this is better, so those can wait.

I all-of-a-sudden got a job this week, which it turns out is full-time, though seasonal, work. On my first day of this job, I woke up with a terrible head cold and then had to bluster my lightheaded way through meeting a bunch of new people and doing semi-heavy manual labor all day.

It was not a good day.

I got home and just as I was about to change into my jammies and totally crash, Kit from River's Wish called.

She and Pete (Mr. River's Wish) were driving by our house on their way home from rescuing a mom and her day-old baby goats, and would we like it if they stopped by so we could cuddle them a little bit?

And just like that, my day got So. Much. Better.

(Sorry for the poor quality of these pictures, it was dark and I hate using the flash.)







I totally know this visit was a plot at getting us to adopt the sweet little pair (Kit's not very sneaky about stuff like that), and I don't even care. Sometimes you just need to snuggle a goat.

Love, J

Extreme hunting tee

I so totally stole this idea from Pinterest:

Love, J

Wood burned frame

I forgot about the hubs' long-lost skill of wood burning until he found this frame at Value Village and turned it into a sweet gift for his mom.


Love, J

Black Friday Shopping Prank

Love, J

Another starry tee

This one's for my Dad. It's the same as the one I made for the hubs, just different colors.

And here's a picture of one of the myriad ways the hubs likes to torment poor Bread.


Poor baby. Between Lily and the mean man, he can't get a moment's peace.

Love, J

bluebell tee scarf

Not super-warm, but SO soft:


I must confess that I really wanted to keep this one for myself rather than send it off as a Christmas gift.


But there's never a shortage of t-shirt scraps, so I can always make another!

Love, J

Line a day journal

I kind of love this journal idea, and it's great as a gift:

date stamp 365 note card halves (Jan. 1, Jan. 2, etc.) and then each day, write the year and about 5 words about your day

the tutorial above says to use vintage postcards, but I used pieces of old greeting cards instead


and it only took about 30 seconds to find half a dozen date stampers at Value Village

warning: it takes one million years to individually stamp the date on 365 cards

love, J

New Grandpas

This made me cry, it's so sweet:



Love, J

Bad presents on Jimmy Kimmel

(Warning to Grandma - the boy at the very end has a terrible potty mouth, I'm sorry! But the rest of it is pretty funny!)



The boy who freaks out over the Hello Kitty shirt was kind of a butt on the Halloween video too, if I remember right. He's like the villain on a ton of different kids' movies - Dudley from Harry Potter leaps to mind first.

I like the idea of people messing with their children, but it would be super-hard for me to give the kid a good, real gift on Christmas if they had a giant, ugly meltdown over the joke present.

The ones who are just puzzled or dismayed are the best. An old banana... ?

Love, J

Craft ideas

Pinterest is totally capturing my imagination this season. So many ideas, so little time!

Here's my board for misc. craft projects to try, and here's the one for crochet, sewing, knitting.

My favorites this second are:

Source: simplysavannahevents.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Salt dough tags

Source: kirstenerickson.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Spoon rings (springs? ; )

Source: wanelo.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Jewelry board

Source: blog.craftzine.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Spraypaint ALL THE THINGS

Source: 2littlehooligans.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Casserole carrier - this is actually on my "make for myself after Christmas" list

Bach, who am I kidding. They're all my favorite, and I could keep re-posting stuff here all day. Like I said, SO many ideas!

Love, J

Broomstick lace cuff

For sweet Alex on our first Christmas as real, live sisters-in-law.

Tutorial here.

Love, J

Santa Paws

The hubs, G and I had a blast helping out at the winter fundraiser for River's Wish. We made vegan treats for the bake sale, snapped pictures of people and their pets with Santa, and enjoyed the general, Christmas-ee merriment.

We kind of had the best Santa ever. He told me that when he was a teenager, his mom got him his first Santa suit and he put an ad in the Nickel Nick that he'd visit kids and parties and stuff for $15. His dad had to drive him around town then, he didn't even have his license yet.

I always want to send out holiday cards, but the tree-hugger in me can't abide the paper waste.
So consider this photo the Hubs' and my festive, green greeting!


How much does this cutie look EXACTLY like Cindi Lou Who?!?

G and I had great success with our vegan snickerdoodles (from an old magazine I had lying around) and one for homemade, vegan peanut butter cups

5 straight hours of jolliness takes its toll

Love, J

a month in pics

Hola,

I've been a neglectful blogger. Here's a brief Nov. recap in photos, and maybe I'll start keeping up after this!




Love, J