Happy Christmas Eve

We got a box in the mail yesterday from my sister, Stephanie. I couldn't figure out what she sent because we have all stopped giving gifts at Christmas unless we get together in Minnesota so I was surprised to find these.....you can't see the box but they are called Chippers.

What are they???? Chocolate covered potato chips. Come on, this is a North Dakota delicacy considering the number of potatoes grown in North Dakota. If you think they would not taste good, believe me they do. They are salt and sweet together!

Stephanie sent them to me because we had just been discussing Chippers last week and she had a box left over from the ones our brother, Samuel, picked up for their business gifts. Thanks Stephanie!!!

I had lunch at El Sol today with a lady who did a bird toxicology test for a client in North Carolina, where she is also located. In a twist of fate, her parents live about 3 miles from us on the other side of Chandler Airport! We have gotten together the past 3 Christmas' while she is home to visit and they gift us with an assortment of cookies they make every year! MMMM....mmmmm..good!
It is ironic that I have not baked ANYTHING the past couple of years. For many years, I made about 8-9 things and gave food gifts but it seems that the past 3-4 years, we have gotten so many food gifts that I don't need to bake anything and we still have a nice assortment of homemade food thanks to our good frinds and family.

Here is a photo of Hannah this morning!
She then took one of Simon doing his puzzles.
And finally, some knitting. I am STILL working on the border for the shawl. I am on short side #1. I figured out the directions after a couple of false starts. It should block up nicely.
Other other knitting news, I didn't win the Christmas Crap-a-long! Ah well, there is always next year!

I have a few more presents to wrap for David today and put together Simon's scooter that I almost forgot I bought because it is stashed in the laundry room instead of my closet!!! David did all of the kids wrapping for me on Thursday while that big project was still kicking my butt!

A HUGE PROJECT IS FINISHED!

So, what have I been obsessively working on this week (and a lot of the last 18 months)???? You know, getting up at 3:30-4 am and WORKING for 90% of the time until 9:30 pm AND skipping meals to finish this week? I even missed SnB this week so I could work.

It is enclosed in the boxes below. Why yes, there are 14 boxes in this shipment and 86 volumes/binders. Good Gosh am I glad it is finished....just in time for Christmas!

Thank you Pam for all of your help. I don't think I would have ever been able to finish it by myself without your help this year!

Ok...and I just saw this on the Yahoo Entertainment page. Hmmm...the title is strikingly similar to my last post "Channeling Cindy Brady". Maybe I am psychic!!! Yeah, right.

Channeling Cindy Brady!

Today is decade day to Hannah's school and so, we are going for the 1970's and trying for the Brady look! I think we got pretty close or as close as we could without buying new clothes!

Beware, you may see her wearing that for Christmas too! Ah well, if you wait long enough, every style comes back in fashion. I bought that dress brand new last spring.


And, a phsyco Ewok photo from under the tree! Ooooohhhhh....scary.

A Wee bit of Knitting.

The bucket from Dad & Linda's wedding gets a lot of use in our house. As a laundry basket, a kid basket and.....

a cat basket. This little guy has turned into such a playful little thing that it is really surprising. However, he is still healthy and for that we are really fortunate since we also lost Sophie to Parvo last week. Apparently, it is that virus which Pepper brought home from the Humane Society with him. I have been knitting just a bit.....I finished the main section of the Meadow Flower's shawl and have now started the edging. It calls for dpn but I can't really figure out why since I am knitting back and forth on the circulars and it is easier than the dpn's. Maybe they think you won't have to turn it so much but that wasn't the case either.
I'll keep you posted on the edging progress. Thankfully, when the edging is done, the shawl will only need to be blocked and two ends sewn in...now that is my kind of finishing!!!

It is pajama day at school for Hannah and she is all excited to wear her pajamas to school and only have to comb her hair and brush her teeth this morning. Crazy kid.

December 17th, Part II

See all those fancy toys in the background? See where Simon is playing??? Give the kid a box, who needs toys, except to dump them in and out of the box!

Of course, this was happening while Hannah was playing at a friends house so he amused himself very well and there was no whining or fighting!!!

We all went out to dinner at Applebee's last night. I wasn't sure it was going to happen because David has bronchitis but did get some antibiotics yesterday that are helping a lot.

Here is the opposite side of the table.

Hannah & I wearing the new sweater I got from my Mom. The slippers from Dad & Linda as my gift during their visit, were taken off as we left the house.
The family photo!
What was even nicer?????? Dinner cost us only the tip since we used a gift card we got from my Mom last year for Christmas!

P.S. Did you know they have 1/2 off drinks and appetizers between 3-7 pm EVERY DAY??

Hippo Birdie, Two Ewe (ok, me)

Today is my 37th birthday. How did that happen??

Anyway, we got the stinky cat groomed on Thursday and he is literally, half the size he was before because they took off so much fur!! He smells a lot better and has a very mellow personality.

The Birthday gifts..........the kids helped me open my gifts at about 7 am this morning. A sweater and bracelet from my Mom, itunes gift card from Hannah & Simon, 4 balls of Lion Brand Boucle from my brother Matthew & his family, Last Minute Knitted Gifts from David. He said it was their last copy over at Border's near the house! He was also amazed at the size of the Knitting book section at the bookstore. Frankly, I am often surprised at house cool knitting has become...since it never was for most of the time I have been knitting.
I also got rechargable batteries for the new & old digital cameras and a Dirt Devil. I know, seems like a strange gift but I really have been wanting one for a couple of years to clean out all the crumbs in my van. I am waiting for the thing to charge so I can give it a try!

TGIF

Like I said yesterday, it is like Christmas all year (or at least all month)!

Yesterday I got this gift from one of my clients. Last year they sent a gift that included chocolate covered peanut brittle! Ok, not this year but still a bunch of yummy food including sparkling cider, a lot of different chocolate and two cookie filled Santa's so the kids don't have to fight over just one. Bill, who ordered the gift, has grandchildren. You wouldn't have guessed, would you???

Yes, I am knitting but not a lot. I have been so tired and sick this week that knitting the lace shawl was too much like work so I made this scarf using the pattern from Straw.com. I used the ribbon yarn I bought at Tuesday Morning a couple weeks ago. I have another one, longer one, almost finished except I need about 2 more yards to bind off and all three colors are GONE! I might have to take off the final row of knitting soI can bind off fully. This will be a gift for Hannah's teacher.

It's like Christmas all year!

I am part of an online cooking group that does an annual gift exchange. I got my gift package today from Hawaii. Isn't it pretty?

This is what it looked like when I took the lid off.
And the gifts.........silicone spoon rest, scented candle, flip flop key ring, organic mango tea, tropical drink "cookbook", shell coin purse and flip flop ornament.

Weekend in Review

We had a good weekend at Chez HB. For those of you wondering about the football pool, we are all tied today!

Saturday night David & I headed out to the west side of town for a Christmas party. Since Iain & Donna also live out that way, we decided to drop in for a glass of wine and see their new Ragdoll baby, Jazz. He is a crazy teenage cat! You can see him below chewing on my bag.

This was shortly before he jumped up to start heckling Tatum!
Thsi is Iain & I as we were getting ready to head to the next "party". David & I then headed over to Mayor Ron Drake's house in Avondale. We met interesting people and saw a couple of people we already knew, which I did not expect. We had a nice time there too.
Sunday afternoon David & Iain went to the Arizona Cardinal's game for the Quarterback Charity Awards. Here is David with #10, Scott Player. They had a nice time in one of the suites after being down on the field before the game.

The City of Chandler has a program they call "Santa Calling" in which you can request that Santa calls your children between the ages of 3 & 6. You fill out a form with the stuff they might get and some info about your family so Santa is in the know about your little ones.

Santa called last night. You should have seen the look on both of their faces when I said hello to Santa. Simon was trying to pry the phone away from Hannah in this photo.
He could hardly contain his excitement in this photo when it was his turn!
Hope everyone had a great weekend.

A McDonald's Birthday Party

Hannah & Simon went to their friends birthday party at McDonalds.

They had a great time so there are just lots of kid photos on this post.

The birthday girl's little sister, Elizabeth, who looks just like her Dad!
Simon, obsessed with the stickers in his goody bag.


The birthday girl in the middle.
And now, everyone is napping, except me............

TGIF

We have had an interesting week at Chez HB.

The worst, our new baby kitty, Pepper, died suddenly on Wednesday night. He had not been feeling too great for about 3-4 days but the vet thought he just had a cold or something since he did not have a temperature and wasn't worried. Thankfully, I found him before the kids did!

David took him back to the Humane Society as they requested when we spoke with them after Pepper's death. While he was at the Humane Society, he saw the kitty that had been on ABC 15 yesterday morning. They were having a lottery at the Humane Society at noon for the people that came down to see the kitty named Obie.

David has been trying to get in to speak with the Station Manager over at Channel 15 AND our son, Simon, is currently obsessed with Star Wars, Obie Wan, Light Sabers and Darth Vader. Many, many signs to think about this new kitty. Plus, David always wanted a Himalayan/Persian cat but since they are quite expensive cats, so it really was not an option.

Anyway, David was the winner of the lottery and came home yesterday with Obie. I can tell you the previous owners did not take care of his coat because he is in serious need of a bath!!!!

I did forget to post about the nice birthday gift I got from Kelli. It is a needle roll she made herself!
Did you note the K on it?
Apparently I have too many needles in my possession....or NOT!

Monday in Review

Here is the winner of the Christmas Crap-a-long! Just kidding. I finished the stocking for the lady at Simon's preschool and then submitted this photo to the Knitting Curmudgeon's contest.
The Meadow Flower's Shawl is coming along well. See how small that ball of lace weight is getting??? I was knitting on it last night and David commented that I had been working on that thing for a long time. Yes, 6 days honey. Isn't that a long time for you to spend knitting something?

Yes, if you compare it to the fact that I can knit a small felted bag in a evening but when you use lace weight yarn, it takes a bit longer to make it.

I guess he does notice my knitting after all! ;)

And......Hannah was the winner of the football pool. We had to go down to points on the game last night. She originally said 60 and we talked her out of it because it seemed like such a high score. Um, it finished 42-0! It was about 5 minutes after she got up that she was asking what the score was so she could see who won the pool. Where does she get this competitive edge??
In other Hannah news, she wouldn't wear her new jacket to school today. Why? I have NO IDEA. So she had a sweat shirt over the sweater above but, when we got to school, I mentioned another kid had the same jacket on and she says, "oh, I should have worn my jacket." What?!?!?!

Monday

Does this look like Christmas to you?

For my blog readers that sew, I made a bunch of these aprons a few years ago. Easy.....just buy the fabric with everything already printed on it, cut it out and sew all the pieces together. I had one left and sent it to a cooking friend whose name I have for the gift exchange. I might have to check out Joann's to see if I can find some more for the future!

We had a quiet Sunday at Chez HB. I took Hannah to Target to get some charity gifts and a birthday gift fora birthday party on Saturday.

David & Hannah are tied in the HB football pool this week. I did horribly, as usual!

Our new baby cat, Pepper, spent most of the night on the bed with David & I. I was surprised he could get on the bed but cats are amazing jumpers.

Knitty's Winter Issue: What a great issue. There are many really cool patterns in this issue. Way too many for me to list!

Have a great Monday.

Friday in Review

It was a busy day yesterday at Chez HB. I went to Hannah's school to help the 1st graders make Snowman shirts for the Winter Festival concert next week. Wow, the kids just kept coming and coming and coming from those classrooms. Thankfully there were a lot of Mom's to help out.

Here is a photo of the handy work after they were finished! There was equally as many shirts of you looked the other way too!
Last night David & went to the Sky Harbor Invitational at the JW Marriott resort. It is an event that benefits the Phoenix Children's Hospital. Here is a lady, Lisa Campbell, that we have known for over 8 years.
We also ended up sitting next to the guy that sold me my minivan over the Memorial Day weekend. His wife used to work with a friend of ours at Fry's Foods Corporate offices. What are the odds of such a small world????

David & I in front of one of the Christmas trees! It is a great event with way too much food and interesting beverages! Thank goodness I thought to drink some water and take aspirin at 2 am!

One additional notes:

Grandpa & Grandma Linda: We are taking you up on your offer to babysit next year for at least 4-5 days because we bought a trip to the Caribbean. Ah, a second honeymoon somewhere warm is in our future!!!!!

TGIF

Can someone please tell me WHY I have to fight with this child EVERY MORNING about putting pants on instead of shorts? I love him but boy, this one does not want to wear pants...only shorts. I have hidden all of his shorts and he still finds a swimming suit or something to put on when he gets home in the afternoon.

Man, he is lucky is a cute and cuddly child!

It has been one of those weeks. On Wednesday afternoon I tried to boot up my computer and you know what happened???? NOTHING, absolutely nothing! My first thought is, great I have an external hard drive for back up but, have a backed anything up since September besides my accounting stuff? Um, no.

I did finally get it up and backed up my documents but the mouse is not plugged in the back of the darned thing....so we will see if I continue to have issues. I really don't want to buy a new computer before Christmas.

Well, what else have we been up to? Since David has a bit more time on his hands at the moment, he thought Sophie needed a friend so.........................he took Hannah to the Humane Society yesterday after her early release from school to pick out this little guy. We named him Pepper and he is less than 2 months old. Right now he is hiding under a large piece of furniture but is very sweet.
Doesn't he look really happy????
I have been knitting more than bags although the bags have been the primary knitting as of late but....her is the shawl I have been working on with the lace weight from Heather. It is going really well. I might even make this pattern again. Just a little bit of lace that goes a long way to keeping me from getting bored with stockinette.
A close up for all of you knitters out there!