The Four S's

Stan, Steve, Syd and Sam went fishing today.  Our four S guys!  They had a great day!

Excited about the day!

Best buds-they are going to be inseparable growing up.

The catch-they each reeled one in.

I'm glad they had the chance to do a last fishing trip before school starts-a week from Wednesday already!

Little Drummer Boy

Syd got to shine yesterday at the Sunday School Christmas program.  Not only did he have a whole 2 lines as the "Third Carpenter," he got to play the bongos for Little Drummer Boy.

 Gotta love the mix of old and new in the carpenter costume!  By the way, the boy on the far left is one day younger than Syd.  Syd is small for his age, and Johnny is big for his-makes quite a contrast!

 Saying his lines-had them down pat.  He and his dad worked hard on them.

 The keyboard player noticed how Sydney hovered over the boy playing his drum, so she set him up with the bongos.  He did really well!

Nothing cuter than little kids at a Christmas program.  I heard someone say they were glad their kids were grown and they didn't have to go to any programs.  I would miss them, even if I didn't have anybody specific to watch.

Oh, and I almost have the pajamas cut out.  Years ago, I bought some of those things you put on the bed legs to make it higher and put them on my cutting table.  Sure helped today with my touchy back.  Sometimes I wonder how long my back has been like this-I have been babying it for a long time!  Just have to cut out the bottoms for Syd and Sam's PJ's but my back yelled at me so I'm taking a break.  I really need to go back to town to buy the rest of the Christmas gifts, but I looked through the ads and wrote a battle plan so I won't have to wander and come home sore and exhausted.

Something Else I Hope to Do

As we play, sun and recreate in the beautiful place called Mazatlan, there is always something tugging at my heart.  The poorest of the poor.  Mazatlan has the poor just like any other place, and I have been researching the ministries of the area to see where we could possible give back to this wonderful city.  I found the Vinyard Ministries that operates in the Golden Zone-the tourist area.  Here is a video of some of what they do, and a small taste of the extreme poverty of these people.

Three times a week, the group travels out to the dump to bring food and water to the people digging through the garbage in hopes of finding something worth selling.  They also have several ministries for the children.  I am always finding bargains, and last fall I picked up a couple of bags of school supplies that I thought I would see if they need.  I just e-mailed the church and we will see where that goes.  If you are interested in finding out more about this ministry their website is here. I hope there is more I can do when I get there-a money donation for sure, but more than that, hopefully.

I wish that I could snap my fingers and everybody in the world would be happy, fed, healthy and have a chance to know Jesus, but I think He wants us to be the workers that make that dream come true!

Now I Can Show You

Okay, now that Christmas has come and passed, I can show you the knitting that has been taking my time.  First, I decided to make wool socks for all my immediate family:

Center:  Gracie; starting at far left and going clockwise:  Sam, Laura, my sis Judy, Sydney, Millie, Isaac, Steve, Christopher, and Jim.  A good year's work.  Stan's?  Still on the needles-I am working furiously and have just turned the heel on the last sock.  They're blue and gray like Jim's.  Both Jim and Dad are conservative dressers.  I plan on tying a ribbon around Stan's and leaving them on his pillow.  Should put a note, "Last but not least!"

Then I got a bee in my bonnet to make hats for all the kids, including the great nieces and nephews.  What I made for the boys:

I made a pattern that used a double strand of yarn for warmth.  The three littlest boys got the camo; Ethan, 7, got the blue and gray; Chris got the red and black Atlanta Falcons color; and Isaac got the blue and orange Denver Broncos color.

For the girls:

Inspired by the movie, Golden Compass, I knitted these hats with a triple strand of yarn.  They should be super warm and look really cute!

The kids were on a dead run, so this was the best I could do to get them to hold still for a picture.

And for Gracie's doll, the one I made clothes for?  She loved it.

And I did finish all the pajamas, a week late, which was OK because the flu delayed our celebration.  The three young ones spent the night on New Year's Eve and HAD to wear their PJs.

The big boys wouldn't model, darn it!

A good Christmas, but I'm glad to move on to other things, like filling out my Etsy shop.  I put one of the hats in the shop, we'll see if someone else thinks it's as good an idea as I do!

Tree!

I asked Sydney when we should put up the Christmas tree and the answer was "now!"  So that's what we did today.  I also put up my Santa wall hanging, but I'll wait a day or so to put up the rest.  Still getting over my 10 hour shift on Black Friday.  The tree does look really nice since my redecoration opened up the front window space.

Flip Flops

Of course all the youngsters and a few oldsters wear flip flops. And the trend now is to decorate them, which up to now I've resisted. I hate wearing them myself, but I decided that the granddaughter might like a pair. So today, after I picked her up for an overnight stay, we headed to Michael's. They had their flip flops for half price, and I got to thinking that, since I had a whole skein of that eyelash yarn (bought at some clearance sale somewhere), maybe I should make a pair for Gracie's best friend Sierra too.
I've seen these everywhere-every craft show has at least one vendor that sells a ton of them-but I wasn't too terribly sure how they went together. So, I just made a slip knot, joined it to the strap and started single crocheting from one side of the strap to the other, pushing the stitches back to make as tight a coverage as I could. I then cut the yarn and tied about a zillion knots so it wouldn't come apart with a five and a six year old's wear and tear.


Cute, huh? No, you won't find a rack of these in my craft show booth, that would probably be overkill, but it's nice to know just how easy they are.

Update: Granddaughter showed her treasures off to her neighborhood girlfriends and now they all want a pair. My DIL says I should go into the flip flop business after all! (Still don't think so)

Pajamas

Okay, now the packages have been opened and I can reveal the pajamas I was working on.

From left to right-bottoms for Isaac and Chris, a Barbie print for Gracie, "88" Dale Earnhart Jr. for Sydney, and a car print to match Sam's hair color.

I had these cute car buttons in my stash and they worked nicely for Sam's pajamas.

"Mommy, this is just what I was wanting!"

Sam's mom said he had remarked this morning that he hoped Gramma had made him a new set of pajamas, so he was out of his mind when he opened them.

We had our gift exchange with our kids today, complete with pizza and beer for lunch. It was a fun way to do it. Jim and Millie wanted to try staying home for Christmas day, so we did the gift thing a day later. They loved being home, so I think this will be a permanent arrangement. We had one son and his family for dinner yesterday, plus my brother and his two daughters. We still had a lot of fun, even though it was a bit quieter and everybody had gone home by 6:00. It was OK, I don't know if I would have been able to stay coherent much after that.

Tomorrow we'll do the get-together with Stan's family. There will be about 30 people-a lot but not all of them-and we'll eat, play games, and open a few presents. Most of the presents will be homemade-I crocheted Swiffer covers for each couple and Stan made applesauce and crabapple jelly to go with it.

I told our kids today that we should revamp how we do gifts. My suggestion was something homemade, a voucher for chores, or food gifts. We're all pretty much set for "stuff" and making gifts seems more loving and sacrificial to me. So far my favorite gift is one Millie made-a calendar with pictures of all their kids. It looks like those slick calendars you see in the mall kiosks, but much more personal and something that won't ever get tossed.

Hubs gave me the Rosetta Stone, Spanish edition. Now maybe when I go to Mexico I won't look like an idiot.

Christmas Dress

Finished Gracie's Christmas dress today. Her program is Wednesday, so I needed to have it done by tomorrow. This should finish my Christmas sewing.

Gracie picked out the fabrics herself-I think she did a great job.

The top is red crushed panne' velour, the skirt is plaid taffeta. It kind of came out pinkish, but it's really Christmas red.

The pattern didn't call for the ties or the band around the bodice, but I thought they added a nice finish to the dress. The picture kind of looks more adult sized but believe me it's only a 5. I did add a little length to the skirt, Gracie is growing like a bad weed and it would be nice if she could wear it more than a couple of times. The skirt is also a lot fuller than it looks in the picture. I had to gather a bunch of that ravelly taffeta! Because it was velour, I didn't want to put a zipper or keyhole in the neck, so I made the neck a bit lower and bound it. I also made the waist larger and zigzagged a bit of elastic, just in the back waist seam. I might get a picture of the dress with the girl in it-if I do I'll post it.

She has pretty fine hair, so last year I covered a plastic headband and hot glued a flower on it. That way Mommy wouldn't have to fuss with the hair too much. We decided this year could be the same, so this is what I came up with:

I found an already-covered headband in just the right color at Kmart. All I had to do was hot glue the fabric flower on.

Sydney's Kindergarten program was this morning. Oh how cute those little tykes are! I don't think it's Christmas without a kids' program. When our three youngest outgrow the program age, I don't know what I'll do!

Strolling

Last night was Manhattan's Christmas stroll. There were vendors, open houses at the businesses, a Christmas market, warming fires, and very important, Santa.

He started at the local school library right after school let out, and at 5:00 he was escorted downtown to the local bank by the fire department. There the kids lined up for pictures with the big guy and to give him their requests. Every year the bank takes the pictures, prints them right there, puts them in a nice framed card, and gives them to the families free. What a nice service to the community!

Waiting in the 4 degree cold for Santa to show up.

The firemen delivering their precious cargo.

Out of his mind with excitement that "Poppa" Santa rode the fire truck-his favorite vehicle.

Gingerbread contest-also sponsored by the bank.

The evening ended with fireworks.

The planners were happy with the turnout since the daily lows were -25 F up until last night when it warmed up to +4. I figure people were tired of being cooped up so they bundled up and came out. This is always a nice way to start the Christmas countdown.

Any guesses on who Santa was?

Early Sleighride

My hubby the Real Santa Claus, has started his yearly visits. From now until Christmas Eve, he will make numerous visits, some to day cares and schools, some to church groups, some just to individual houses. His favorite is the house visits. Nothing compares to walking into a house and seeing the astonished faces and hearing the cries of glee that, "Santa thinks I'm special enough to get an early visit!" He takes every child on his lap, listens to their list, and gives them a bag of candy, then disappears into the night.

Some of his visits are heart-breaking. He's visited child cancer victims, victims of house fires, children with nothing. Usually, if he comes across a needy family, he connects them with a group that can give them a leg up. We've been known to dig in our own pockets sometimes, just so some kids can have Christmas. A quick trip to the discount store can turn into happiness for a child that might not have a Christmas. It doesn't take much.

He doesn't discriminate-some families are poor, some are wealthy. Santa loves them all (just like Jesus). I'll never forget the year we got an anonymous $100 gift certificate to a swanky restaurant. We never did find out for sure who did that, but that was the year he went to the home of a couple who were both physicians, so we kind of think that's where it came from. The Manhattan Fire Department always gives us a check to help cover expenses, but most of it comes out of our own pockets. Usually, the people who can afford it give Santa a bit of money and the businesses pay him, of course, so we always come out even if not a bit ahead. He never asks for payment, but says that whatever they want to give to cover expenses is just fine, if they can afford it. Usually we reap the benefits of his visits in the form of a steakhouse gift certificate or two and that's enough-it adds just the right amount of specialness to an already special time.

His treat bag consists of peanuts, gummy bears, M & M's, a candy cane and an apple. The first thing the kids usually eat is the apple, believe it or not!

He's been asked several times to be a Santa at the local mall, but turns that down. He wants his visits to be special and tries to limit the number of "commercial" visits he does. He is such a perfect Santa that people urge him to go to New York to be a Santa at someplace like Macy's, but he just says, "No, I'd miss my 'kids' too much."

He's on his second suit-I've made both of them. I made the last one last year-what a messy job with all that fur!

He's been doing this since about 1986, when someone asked him to be Santa for the Belgrade Christmas stroll, since he had "the look." Back then he had to spray white coloring on his beard, but age took care of that, and he is totally natural now.

I'm so proud of what he does-isn't this what Christmas is really all about?

Julie's Dress

Three days before my grand niece Julie's first birthday party, it dawned on me that I hadn't made her a dress yet. Knowing she is a "chubby" I made her a size 2.


I had the fabric and pattern. I had done some sewing for a co-worker and she gave me the choice of money or a pretty large stack of nice fabric and a couple of little-girl patterns. I chose the stash, of course. I had the bit of lace and found ribbon in my massive collection that matches perfectly. The yoke was constructed a bit differently that most I've done and I'm not sure I'll do it this way again. It called for a double fabric on the yoke, but to bind the neck. I think it would look better if the seam was at the neck and the hand stitching was around the inside bottom of the yoke. I could have gotten a much cleaner look in the zipper and neckline areas.


The pattern is Simplicity 7189. It fits her perfectly-I hope that she can wear it for a while.

Here she is with her daddy. Her mommy said she looks like "Anne of Green Gables" in the dress. I think she's just a darn cute baby.