Like Father, Like Son

3 1/2 months

That's how long it took for me to need to buy Moses his first pack of diapers!

(Thanks to the kind generosity of people who wanted to welcome baby Moses to the world but didn't know what a 6th baby could possibly need.)

Christmas Handmades

We hosted our last Christmas gathering on Saturday and I took a measley four pictures the entire party.  

Aunt Mary finally gets to meet Moses.  And vice versa!

An antlered deer shines bright.  (An after Christmas clearance sale splurge so that I could delight Andrew, my deer fanatic.)

Snowflake bread that floats down from heaven.  And a caramelized onion and brie tart.  Because it is fancy.  And Christmas deserves a bit of fancy.

  
And Ineke.   Always the first to the cookie trays.

And now that all the gifts are with their rightful owners, I can post the handmade gift photos here without spoiling anything.  Not that there were many of them this year.

~ A little care package for my Texas Twinnies.  Two dresses, two books, two headbands and two dollies that needed a couple cute crochet outfits instead of ugly ones.  A teeny tiny box of happiness, I hope.

~ A little purse to hold magnetic wooden dolls.  The zippered portion held all the little clothing and accessories pieces.  

~ A fancy flannel nightgown

(with Siamese cats!)

~ And a Knight helmet with a working face shield (I used this free pattern)

It paired nicely with a wooden sword and T.H.White's The Sword in the Stone

(model not included)

~ and another hat for Moses.   

What can I say?  Boys are much harder than girls to dress cute- hats are my feeble attempt to compensate.

It isn't the hat that is worthy of four photos~ after all, it's just a simple double crocheted rectangle, folded over.

The boy inside the hat made me do it.

~~~~~~~~~~

My current project:  

Fittingly finished God Rest Ye Merry on the 10th Day of Christmas and am happily back to The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon.  *Almost* done all the pieces to Moses' penguin lovey and then assembly time!  I will finish it by the weekend for sure.

Here's an excerpt from The Supper of the Lamb (pg.85) that I read this morning:

In a general way we concede that God made the world out of joy: He didn't need it; He just thought it was a good thing.  But if you confine His activity in creation the the beginning only, you lose most of the joy in the subsequent shuggle of history.  Sure, it was good back then, you say, but since then, we;ve been eating leftovers.  How much better a world it becomes when you see Him in creating at all times and at every time: when you see that the preserving of the old in being is just as much creation as the bringing of the new out of nothing.  Each thing, at every moment, becomes the delight of His hand, the apple of His eye.  Let us pause and drink to that.

To a radically, perpetually unnecessary world; to the restoration of astonishment to the heart and mystery to the mind; to wine, because it is a gift we never expected; to mushroom and artichoke, for they are incredible legacies; to improbable acids and high alcohols, since we would hardly have thought of them ourselves; and to all being, because it is superfluous.  Cheers, men and brethren.  We are free: nothing is needful, everything is for joy.  Let the bookkeepers struggle with their balance sheets; it is the tippler who sees the untipped Hand.  God is eccentric; He has loves, not reasons.  Salute!

Happy New Year!

Christmas

It's New Years Eve and frankly, I haven't even wrapped my mind around Christmas, let alone the packing away of an old year and the bringing on of the new.  We are hosting one more Christmas bash this Saturday (and the tree is a sad and sorry sight- yellow, droopy and crispy.  HANG ON TREE!) before I can really move past Christmas and face the fact that a new year is happening.

While everyone else is looking back on the year or looking ahead with resolutions and goals and words... I'll be making Christmas meringue cookies and writing lists for this weekend and wrapping presents for a few more days.   And blogging Christmas pictures.  Here they are:

These blankets were a wonderful surprise we found in the mail!  Look!  They have magic sleeping powers over Moses!

Moses gets a handknit hat from Mama, in the nick of time for Christmas photos.  It was made using this pattern.

 

This year is the year for meringue cookies.  I made about 8 batches of them this year.  I might have eaten a batch myself though.

I used upturned bread pans to make more oven space.  Oh, the cleverness of me!

But they are very pretty.

Note to self: NEVER, ever, EVER put presents under the tree before Christmas morning.  Every child complained that it almost ruined Christmas.

Why?

"Because you've NEVER done that before!"

Traditions, smaditions.

Children nestled, and all that.

All is calm, all is bright.

He's only as big as a stocking!

This blurry one is for the thighs alone.  You're welcome.

In which children try to listen to the Bible before opening the stockings that are calling their names from the couch.

Adele' got the cheerful job of opening up EXTRA presents for Moses. 

Which would have been a WAY more cheerful chore if he had more than two stocking stuffers. ha!

I think Corynn's present to Papa was his all time favorite.  He dreams of home additions with snooker tables.

I try and rein him in and what does she go and do? 

She feeds his dream.

Ineke had a gift too- a kitten ornament that said "Meowy Christmas" . 

She cracked herself up every time she said it.

Corynn is a good gift-giver because the gift she gave me this year was my most favorite gift of all too!  A basket that she MADE herself which is beautiful!  But inside the basket was a rubber stamp that she created using a drawing she had sketched this summer.  At the time, I mentioned that it would be an awesome rubber stamp and she somehow found a place to actually make it one.  Isn't it amazing?

Christmas carnage

I was very clever this year and made all the food on Christmas Eve so I wouldn't have to cook a thing on Christmas Day.  Sausage for breakfast.  Lasagna and roasted brussel sprouts for supper.  And I got the bright idea to fashion a big tray of  nibblers for children to munch on throughout the day so I wouldn't have to feed them.  Children did the slicing and dicing.

That idea will be revisited from henceforward.

We invited anyone older who we knew would have a quiet, boring and nothing-special Christmas to dine with us and allow us to add some boisterous spirit into their Christmas Day.  We only had two takers though.  I wonder why?!

The look of wonder you give your Mama when you are gifted a very special hunting knife.

  A camera stealer AND a baby stealer!  What a thief!

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Lookie here! A sled for everyone!  Who says you can't buy happiness?

 And that was Christmas, in a nutshell.   

And now- just to finish up the last minute handmade Christmas presents and finish up my current read, the book God Rest Ye Merry by D. Wilson.  

Current Project:  A little Penguin Lovey.  For my little Moses Lovey.

Thanks for hanging with me this past year!  It means a lot that you take the time to visit me here...I am especially thankful for those of you who share your time and encouragement in the comments section.  Thank you for that!  

Here's to 2020 and all that it will bring with it.... ready or not....

Happy New Year!