I’m just popping in from Blacksburg, Virginia to share a few Christmas goodies given

and received.

We’ve had a fantastic holiday so far - introducing family from all over the East Coast to two of our favorite little people.

I hope you had a lovely Christmas.

And I hope you have a fabulous New Year’s Eve!

EDIT: I got the idea for those hand-prints from plumpudding, a cute blog you should look into. :)

We’re on our way out the door this morning, and we’ll be gone for 2 weeks.

I’ll try to pop in and say hi from wherever I happen to be.  Which could be Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, or Virginia.  Or somewhereelsealongtheway.

Evan and the babies took me antiquing.  I came away with a few pretties I’ve been meaning to share with you.  So here’s some “Happy Monday” eye candy.

By the way, today there is ice inside our kitchen windows.  Like the frost that accumulated inside our freezer when I was a kid.

It’s very very very cold.  Just another excuse for more of this:

P.S.  I’m trying to wean myself from Flickr’s Picnik tool and actually learn how to use my camera.  And my new tripod.  So things might begin to look a bit different around here (with the exception of some curved corners on occasion - I like them).  I hope that’s okay! :)

Here are two of Emily’s Christmas presents.  Since she can’t yet be sneaky and doesn’t even know why she should be, I can actually show you what I’m working on.  So here’s a bear hand puppet in the spirit of her much-loved (ha!) Halloween costume and a dolly based on One Red Robin’s free Ruby pattern.  That pattern is fantastic, by the way.

If you have any more gift ideas for babies and toddlers, please tell me!  I have maybe 3 crafting days left before we exchange gifts.  So I’d better get to it!

P.S. I made these crackers, and I highly recommend them.  Add garlic salt & parmesan for extra yum factor. :)

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Thank you for all the kind thoughts and prayers.  You’re one lovely bunch of people, indeed.

God bless.

I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

-from In Memoriam, Lord Alfred Tennyson

Thank you for sewing Barbie clothes with me, teaching me about Jesus, packing away your sweet pickles, praying for me, being patient with me, imparting a spirit of generosity. I miss you.

And I love you, Grama.

Let me direct your attention to some great Christmas posts from my favorite blogs:

• Alicia Paulson always has pretty Christmas decorations, and she links back to her old Christmas posts too
• Danielle Thompson is killing me with cute this season
• I’m loving Hope’s wreath and towels on Going Sew Crazy
• The Small Object has the best hodge-podge of stockings and ornaments that I think I’ve ever seen
• This little holiday dog pattern by Helen Dardick should be required stitching (and you need to get to know Ms. Dardick anyway)
• Truly, any post by Resurrection Fern is a winner, but here is a bit of her latest Christmas-y-ness

Now listen to some Sufjan, light some candles, eat some fudgy brownies, and have a wonderful Decembery weekend!

We’re a little late this year, but typically I like to put up the Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. I love Christmas decorations. And having a little family party of sorts while pulling out all the remnants of past Christmases warms my soul.

So we had a little pre-party involving candles and fudge brownies and attic boxes, and then we went to our Christmas tree nursery.

This is the only place we’ve ever bought a Christmas tree as a couple.   Sorry to get all sentimental on y’all.

With Jake-Jake crawling, nom-ing things, and pulling up on anything he can grab, we thought that a table-top tree would be best this year.

The nursery made no bones about it. All their little trees were appropriately labeled “Charlie Brown Christmas Trees.” Seriously.  Jammed into a tiny hole in the ground was our perfect evergreen shrub.

It was only $8. I mean.

That’s alright with me. Even if it is already starting to lean from the burden of ornament-holding. As long as it doesn’t snap in two, right?

Finally, it feels like Christmas around here. *happy sigh*

And I’d like to introduce you to my new (to me) Tuesday Towel.  Isn’t it great?  Mom Derrick told me yesterday that the set (complete with a “Rest on Sunday” towel) was indeed made by her grandmother.  She thought I would appreciate them, and rightly so as evidenced in this post last Spring.

Does anyone know the best way to wash these?

Evan got me a tripod for my camera.  Which is awesome.  I played with it some today, but I really need to have a date with my camera manual in order to fully appreciate my new accessory.  My first response to the tripod: “Hey!  I can make a cozy for it.”

To which Evan responded with a confused brow, “But you still haven’t made a cozy for the camera.”

To which I giggled and said, “I guess I needed accessories to inspire me!”

Surely he’s just thankful to hear my priorities.

So here’s a picture taken with the addition of the tripod.  Every photograph I took today involved it.  Which may have been unnecessary.  But I liked it.

I love how my birthday happens to fall at just the right time for cake to be totally revolting.  So I’m more likely to stick a candle in this and make a wish for all the “bad fat” in my body to magically disappear.  (Just kidding… sorta.)

I’m looking forward to a day of routine and quiet time with my babies.  We just arrived back in town late last night.  I waited until just after midnight (on Virginia time since the gift was from Mom Derrick) to open my first birthday present: a set of embroidered days-of-the-week tea towels.  Evan thinks they were made by a great or great-great grandmother.  They’re absolutely perfect.
I’ll definitely share them soon.

But right now, I’m going to take a Birthday Shower and eat some Birthday Oatmeal. ;)