christmas with katie

you can't stop christmas from coming--it came!

eve of christmas eve:


michealah was making snowflakes out of wrapping paper

 katie was having a hilariously frustrating time making sugar cookies with her girls.  i documented it.

the eve
christmas eve day i got up and started peeling potatoes with the crappy potato peeler.  it was my job to make potatoes au gratin for christmas eve dinner.  katie and the girls were out delivering the papers in the pouring rain. brent was wrapping katie's presents at the dining room table (the dining table of our youth).  we chatted about what he got her.  brent and katie are a particularly funny brand of husband and wife duo when it comes to presents.  katie wants something practical like a vacuum and brent wants to get her stuff just for her because she never gets stuff for herself.  while we were chatting elizabeth watched her tv programs and traipsed around being cute.  brent told me to stop using the potato peeler and he would go buy a new one.  so i grated cheese and cut up some green onion.  elizabeth became a cheese monster.

when katie and the girl's got home they were walking pools of water.

stuff happened.  presents were wrapped.  things were done.

the baking party was just beginning when we got the call that my package was ready for pick up at the bus depot. so i left to go get it and when i got back the place was a mad house of multiple baking projects all going at the same time.  brent making almond rocca, katie baking short bread and natalie icing sugar cookies, for example.  i joined in the frey.

just before 4 we set up my laptop in the living room and signed in to skype.  what followed was about an hour of confusion and frustration but in the end we had a video conference between us, sarah and kyle, mom and dad and doug and delanie's family.  so we had a little devotional.  there was a prayer and we sang silent night to michealah's piano playing.  that wasn't so pretty because of sound delay. then we had a sort of candle ceremony which was nice.  it was hard to speak at times because of all the noise from kids at different houses so doug came up with the idea that the families that weren't doing the candle, would mute their mics which was quite smartie pants of him.

the whole thing had taken so long that we had to hurridly eat supper during the candle ceremony.  whoever was taking a turn would go to the middle seat at the table where were now set up.

after that we went to the young's.  it was joel's birthday and his daughter invited different people over as a surprise.  we were supposed to come between 5:30 and 6 and got there right at 6.  it was a little awkward at first.  well the whole thing was awkward for me, but i just hung out in the shadows.  we went up into the impeccably decorated house and all squished in on the couch.  we talked for a while and then bob and tammy arrived and joel brought out some cookie platters--the most notable being a platter of cookies artfully arranged to look like a snow flake.  "i'd never fit in here" was my main thought.

we left there to go caroling.  with our small numbers we only went to 3 places. first to sister weber's.  she's adam brown's mom.  anyways she has a log cabin house way up above rock city road with a 180 degree view.  she invited us in and gave us a tour.  it was super hot in there.  it was a mild night as it was and i was wearing my new purple scarf unnecessarily just because it was christmas eve caroling and it felt right.  my favourite part of the log house was when you walk up the stairs to an open loft master bedroom with a jacuzzi tub.  but the heat was killing me.  old people.

next we visited sister walker at the hospital.  she's so cute.  there was an outspoken lady in her room who asked katie to take elizabeth out because she was coughing.  katie explained that elizabeth wasn't sick, just that she had a tickle in her throat.  then when we were leaving she asked "you only come once a year?--you should come every week."  i'm not sure if it was censure or enjoyment or both. she looked at us unblinkingly as katie said "i'd like to.", smiled and we left.

last was annshack.  "more." she requested when we had finished far far away.  so we sang silent night too.  ann agreed to come for christmas dinner.  she had turned two other families down but sheepishly agreed to come to ours.

that night i wrapped the girl's presents and was twice sent up to my room so katie could wrap mine.  brent abandoned us and went to bed.  he was having a gout attack and an attack of the sleepies.  i was having an attack of the sleepies myself but that doesn't mean you can go to bed before everything is done.  no, no it doesn't.  not on christmas eve.  so katie and i put on meet me in st louis.  we had been watching it the night before as we had been working on christmas things late into the night.  the movie was a revelation to us.  a new and delightful christmas musical.  so we watched the end of it and then i don't remember what we had on as we finished up our christmassy preparations. all i know is it was late when we went to bed.

the day


didn't wake up until 8ish.  and soon after that we went down to the tree.  in katie's family everyone get's their stocking at the same time but they each take a turn pulling something from their stocking.  the kids did their stockings first and then the grown ups.  katie and brent got me a stocking which i wasn't expecting.  they put it in a white lacy stocking.  i got three different kinds of shower gels, some pesto dip, pink hot chocolate, smore hot chocolate and the sound of music!  i also got everafter, but since i already have that we're going to switch it. brent put most of katie's gifts in her stocking so he didn't have to wrap them.  :)

here's some blurry happy girl's with their stockings:

then the girl's handed out the presents and one by one we opened them.  it was lots of fun.  i had so many presents under the tree just from karey and katie and brent.  i got katie a red purse.  it was hard to find the right purse and i was worried that she might not like it because buying someone a purse can be quite a presumption.  but she seems to like it.  i got brent some itunes gift cards because katie got him an mp3 player.  i got michealah a lip gloss stick with 5 or 6 different colours stacked on top of each other from sephora.  she got a little make-up stick in her stocking since christmas morning has been spending time trying out different make-up looks.  she's getting to that fun stage to buy for.  i got natalie a course for her motorized hampster to run through.  i gave both girls a collection of lucious rosettes and two rosette headbands.

katie and brent gave me these fuzzy/furry bright blue slipper booties that i love.  katie thinks i'm pretending that i love them because i have so many pairs of slippers but i really love to have lots of slippers of all different kinds and i love the bright blue softies.  they're perfect for me.  they also gave me a pillow.  it's a perfect pillow.   pillow was on my list and andrea shared my list with them.  michealah apparently lay on the ground trying out each pillow until they found the perfect one for me.  michealah sneakily made me a touque right under my nose and natalie bought me a pretty pair of dangly earrings.

ok i know reading about who gave who what can be boring.  but i just want to say that my favourite gift from karey was this absolutely gorgeous apron she made me.  it's so beautiful!  i love love love it!  it's empire waist, and double sided.  one side is pink and brown and the other side is turquoise and brown.  it has brown polka dotted ties.  i cannot express how much i love it.  i spend most of my life in an apron so a pretty apron means a lot.  now i just don't know if i can bring myself to wear it at work.  i don't want it to get wrecked.

before all the presents were opened brent was in the kitchen getting his turkey ready.  we had to call him back to open two more presents.  brent was of one mind--a christmas dinner mind.

natalie made this at school.  it's her family.  katie's the one with glasses. michealah's the one with the raised eyebrow.  see the tree and elizabeth eating candy in the background

after the hulabaloo was over i looked online to see if andrea was there and she was.  we skyped and opened our presents together.  it was so sunny there andrea looked like bright apparition.  she gave me so many great things.  i got a pair of eryn's unbelievably gorgeous feather earrings, an impressive necklace made by drew, some LAVENDER jelly which i'm excited about (at first i thoguht it said laurinder jelly haha).  she made me a cool tam touque and some felted balerina slippers which i also love and am currently involved in stretching the heels out.  i got a knitting magazine with a hundered patterns in it and three bags of delicious home made soaps.  she also gave me some healing herbs books which look really interesting and the writing diet by julia cameron.  i've already started reading it.  she made me a necklace too and gave me a whole whack of picture frames.  funny because i gave her 5 photos without frames.

but this was my big gift.  i made her open it last.  it's a book i made her myself.  a leather journal that i bound and embelished.  i was quite proud of it, but it's quite flopsy and fragile.  like many things i make, i don't think it will stand the test of time.  still it's pretty cool.  pictures below.  andrea was appropriately impressed.  :)

the pics aren't very clear because i took them in a hurry.  i had forgotten and had to unwrap it to take them.  please note the green velvet heart and the green stitching.  i didn't purposely start out with the green theme, but it just evolved that way.

i put two lace insets and on the front one i sewed a green velvet A. and placed green velvet hearts over the stitching from the snaps.  i thought mom would approve.

a bottom view.  it's not perfect.  i learned some things as i was making it that would help me do it better next time.

i made a book mark out of my most beloved vintage ribbon that mom got for me one year at a garage sale.

other than that katie helped me make her some simple earrings and i gave her a few lush things.

amy and shawn came over too which was nice.  i gave her a rebar cookbook and some lucious rosettes and headband.  she gave me and katie each some cute paper lantern lights.  mine were purple polkadotted balls.  i love them.  i eagerly showed her all my loot and we talked to mom and dad on skype.  it was mom and dad's first time meeting shawn.  meanwhile the schofield parents arrived early for dinner sending everyone into a tizzy of food prep.  it was my job to make the roast broccoli and it was all ready and waiting for oven time, but then there was a butter emergency and i just happened to know that shopper's is open on christmas day because of last christmas when i forgot to buy the frozen veg and nipped in to shoppers to buy it. so i ran off to shoppers.  sure enough it was open and there were a few doofuses looking for christmas presents.  i grabbed four blocks of butter.  they were even a good price.

amy and shawn.  note the flower headband that i gave her.  it's velvetee.  don't they look cute?

when i got back amy and shawn were gone.  "they're gone!" --sound of music....  and dinner craze was happening.  i helped katie finish off the pies.  pumpkin and pecan again.  then we all sat down to the yummiest christmas dinner ever.  natalie and brother schofield were vying for who could be the most enthusiastic about things.  i think natalie won.  annshack showed up late.  we all had a good time and were totally stuffed.

the schofield's left early and ann stayed late. we talked and lazed.  it was christmas and it was a good one.

the end.

ps.  katie and i made brent a calender out of the pics i took of them at thanksigiving.  we put our whole heart and souls into it and it chewed us up and spit us out. but eventually we got it made and got it before christmas too.  let's just say we don't like staple's calendar system though.  but brent liked his calendar.  that's all that matters.