Post-Christmas Post :)

Now that Christmas is over, it seems like a good time to catch you up on some of the goings on around here...

First, let me show you the advent calendar in its entirety:

I think it turned out really well, and since they're just little magnets, they're easy to store away and take out again next year. I have some other fun ideas for how to make shrinky plastic advent calendars - maybe I'll get to those next year. :)

Christmas day was a fun day for us. We had a nice lazy day filled with lots of cooking, and then sat down to a great big turkey dinner, complete with mashed potatoes, carrots, peas, stuffing, and tourtiere.

Our friend Gabriel joined us for dinner - here he is pouring the champagne - the perfect accompaniment to turkey, I'm sure!

Boxing Day was equally quiet - we tried to go online shopping to get in on the deals, only to remember that America doesn't do Boxing Day. So we just spent the day playing board games instead. :)

There's also been lots of knitting going on here...

This is the 'Over the (Hudson) river and into the (Canadian) woods' scarf, so named because I started knitting it on my trip to Ottawa in October. I made it for my PhD Supervisor, as a 'thank you for putting up with me and for being such a great supervisor' gift. Its made with Noro Kureyon, and Terra Yarn from the Fibre Company. Terra is a silk, alpaca, merino blend, and I think its about the squishiest yarn ever. I love it, and if only it were just a little bit less expensive, I think I might have been forced to buy out all of Purl's stock. :)

Next on the FO list is Igor, a Doctor Elephant from Russia, who passed through New York on his way up to Ottawa to see Emmett, and help him through some upcoming minor surgeries.

The pattern is one of the Lovable toys from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. His coat is a very much modified tomten jacket, and the stethoscope was just something I made up as I went - just an i-cord that became a Y, and a modified Elephant's foot really. :)

More recently, I've been working on a Tomten Jacket for Mike's cousin, which I believe is to be passed on to her friend. I just finished it today, and its currently bathing. I made the Tomten out of Karabella's Aurora 8 yarn, and it has a tendency to grow - I'll post my findings on my ravelry page once its dry.

I have one other knitted item to share, but I'm afraid it will have to wait a few days... its not yet received its recipient, since I seem to have been incompetent with the post this Christmas! :)

But now, I think I must be going... I have a pot of poultry stock on the go, and I think (after almost 5 hours) its getting close to done! :)

Happy Christmas Eve!

Are you guys tracking Santa with Norad? I am so obsessed with this today - where's my 4 year old nephew when I need him - at least then I'd have a proper excuse to follow Santa's movements so closely! :) But can someone explain to me how Santa was able to give presents to all the homes in Tokyo in only FOUR minutes?!! ;)

The dangers of shrinky dinks...

And just so you don't think its all fun and games and shrinky dinks plastics around here, let me show you just how dangerous this shrinking plastic thing can be!

Behold!

the bottom of our kitchen radio, which lives on the relatively heat-proof top of our toaster oven, the interior of which is the scene of all this recent (intentional) plastic shrinkage. This is what happens when Glenda turns on the toaster oven, and then forgets that its on for the next hour and a half! And I was doing so well, too... its been AGES since I last melted something this badly. :(

Well, at least the radio still works...

Christmas Tree Day!

Today we finally went and bought our Christmas tree from the stand that's about 1/2 a block away (so loving the convenience of this city!). It cost us a smallish fortune, sure, but it was nothing compared to the $160 Xmas trees that Mike saw in Times Square last weekend!

Here's a pic of our great big tree, just after we put him up today - you can see that his branches had yet to fall into place. Now I'm off to bake up the gingerbread cookies that we're going to use as decorations! :)

ps: for scale, the bookcase is 6.5 feet (198cm) tall, and the stand lifts the tree about 2 inches off the ground. He's a bit bigger than the trees we've had in the past! :)

Adventing Catch-Up

I got back to New York today after a quick 1 week trip to England and Scotland. Lots of photos and things to share with you, but I thought I'd start by bringing us up to date with the advent calendar! :)

are you sure its still December?

(image source: http://www.designboom.com/contest/view.php?contest_pk=23&item_pk=23683&p=1)

Forgot to take a photo of today's advent magnet, so just picture a snowman with a top hat and cane, a star over his left shoulder, and a number 3 beneath the star. Of course, given today's insanely warm 19*C/66*F temperatures, this pic is a much better representation of how Mr. Snowman would look if he stepped away from the fridge that he's attached to! :)