Happy Holidaze!!!! Part 1

Whew! It's over and we survived! I really love the holidays, but it can be exhausting. Of course, I work in a building that is only accessible via a mall, so that made it super-extra frenetic feeling. I can't believe how crazy busy that mall was (is -- it's school vacation week!).

Here is our tree, complete with pressies!

See that big red box behind Solvie? Do you know what was in that? A wheel!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yup, my best-husband-in-the-whole-wide-world got me a Lendrum for Christmas! So cool.

By the way, we don't have severed limbs lying around the house; at least not real ones. So that hand you see near the lower right corner is fake. It's a souvenier from the horror/comedy/musical play that we did the special effects for and it's made out of latex. So, we're weird, but we're not psychotic.

And those pothos plants? ZMrK's friend gave me those before she moved to San Jose in summer '05, and they are still alive! Yay me! The plants lasted longer than her time in San Jose (she came back this summer).

Here's some of our Christmas baking!

Swedish cream cookies:



I have a recipe for these to share, but I'll have to add it later. They're really simple; the cookie is just flour, butter, and heavy cream, and the frosting is butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, egg yolk, and food coloring. They are really yummy -- they melt in your mouth!

Maple star cookies:



They're baked on parchment paper, which is looking quite greasy at this point (I think that was the batch we baked last). I think the recipe was from Bon Appetit magazine, but I'm not certain. It's possibly available online somewhere. These, also, are really yummy.

Molasses cookies:



These are from ZMrK's grandma's recipe. They came out exceptionally well this year, and he thinks it's because he made them with olive oil instead of the usual vegetable/canola oil. They were extra fluffy and cakey. I think they were my favorite out of all three cookies we made.
If I read the recipe correctly, they are also vegan.

I also knit some ornaments:


I cropped that a little off-center because I think the glass ornament in there is so pretty. ZMrK has a great collection of vintage glass ornaments (and I guess I do now, too!).


The mitten came out a little blurry in this picture. They're now on my parents' tree, so that's the best shot I can get this year.

This is my mom's gift:



I made her a non-beaded Odessa hat, and a pair of gloves (which fit her PERFECTLY, by the way. I'm good. Okay, so our hands are about the same size, and I kept trying them on). I bought the yarn back in May at the NH Sheep and Wool Fest (remember, when it flooded in most of Central to Southern NH???? Yeah, we were wading around the fairgrounds fondling fiber with my friend Lena.) It is, I believe, a sock yarn because it seems to have a bit of nylon in it. If that dealer is there again next year, I'm going to buy a bunch of it because it's really nice, and it was cheap!!! I think I got roughly 7 oz for about $7. I made all this and may have enough left over for another Odessa, or I could combine it with other yarn for socks. I haven't decided.

This is my parents' tree:



See the Incredible Flying Red Hat? Some really cute guy decided to toss the hat I made him last week into the picture, and was delighted when it showed up.

My parents' house (built around 1893-94) has an alcove, which is perfect for a tree. They usually have a table there with tons of pictures on it. As you can see, they also have a lot of plants. Two of the windows got covered up in the 80's to make the room a little less chilly, but the alcoves on the 2nd (parents' bedroom) and 3rd (attic) floors still have all the windows. My dad used to have white fantailed pigeons in the attic alcove, so there's still seed all over the place up there.

I'll post Christmas dinner along with a family photos later!