Don't make me get back into the van...

Today was a pretty productive day, all things considered. Dram-Dram (my mom) is here visiting and her presence really helps out with the kids. Somehow Girlie and Zim slept in til noon--it must be all the holiday video game playing catching up with them. While they slept I caught up on laundry while Drammies sewed flannel pajamas for the kids. Once the babies were up and about, we set out to pick up Girlie's new reading glasses from the optometrist, which she swears make her look smarter.

I tell her she doesn't need glasses to look smart, but she feels good all the same. ZimDee decided to have a meltdown in the van, and that zapped any energy I had to get on with the rest of my day. But persevere I must, so it was off to the beauty supply store to take advantage of my wholesale discount and stock up on shampoos and such. Next came the grocery store for stuff for tonight's spaghetti dinner.

On the way home we stopped at the barber and had Zim's "ears lowered" as my Grandpa used to say.

Doesn't he look handsome? And that's little Sprout hanging out on the floor practicing rolling over. He's trying on the flannel pajama top that his Drammies is making for him.

I've done surprisingly zero knitting in the past couple of days, which is not at all like me. I think I was distracted by all my Christmas toys. I'm supposed to be meeting my ornament exchange buddy on Saturday to give her the 12 ornaments I was supposed to have finished a couple weeks ago. I wanted to knit them this year, and found the cutest heart ornament pattern in Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishment book.
I knit this up in Lion Brand Suede in size 9 needles. I modified the pattern to make it smaller, since it knit up kind of big for a Christmas tree ornament. But the larger size would be good to hang from a door knob or from the wall.

I've done all the knitting for the ornaments, I just need to sew them together and stuff them. Like a lot of knitters, I'm not very fond of the finishing part of knitting. I've signed up for a finishing class at the Knitting Bee for next month, so I can get comfortable with using the correct stitches and have them look good. I've got two baby sweaters and a pair of baby leggings all knit up, but I'm terrified to ruin them with a bad sewing-up job. Hence the class. I just hope that little Sprout doesn't grow out of them before the class is over.

The Count was talking about taking a drive in the van to go see some holiday lights that will be on display until the end of the year. But after spending a traumatic day running errands with my little monsters/angels, the last thing I wanted to do was to pile them all up again and sit with them for a couple hours strapped down in that cramped space. Besides, I've already changed into half of my uniform, flannel pajama bottoms, within minutes of walking through the front door today. I remember the days when I used to think that jeans were
comfortable.

The sweetest thing happened tonight. I was down in the dungeon (basement) trying to figure out this whole posting pictures onto the blog thing, when down drifted the smell of dinner cooking. Yes, it was the Count, cooking up the spaghetti dinner I had planned and laid out. I am married to a great guy. And it tasted fabulous.

Oh, now for my first movie line trivia question. Guess which movie this line is from: "Did they teach you that at the Bureau? How to rile up the deviant?"

The first person to guess correctly will be mailed a delicious chocolate candy treat. It's on now. Good luck, me hearties.