She Knits Shizknits

cute, but in a creepy sort of way....

saw this video and at first I was like, CUTE...then about 30 seconds into it, I started vacillating between cute and creepy... Monkey Boy, on the other hand, was fascinated and wanted to watch it over and over.
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Christmas caroling- a little something to spread the holiday cheer

turkey hangover

Oh my, I've been suffering from a turkey-day hangover....we had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with the Outlaws, and another fun turkey dinner with my Sis the day after (she had come into town for a few days).

Thanksgiving at the Outlaws always includes lots of fun for the kids (who get to play with their cousins), some drama (which was largely ignored by the more sane family members), great food (turkey! pie! stuffing!), and good company. Amazingly enough,  out of 10 siblings, nine showed up with their immediate families. That meant we filled the kitchen and overflowed into the family room when we stood together for the pre-dinner blessing.  It was a reminder about how lucky we all are- MIL and FIL must have been so proud to see (almost) all their brood in one place again.

My Sis arrived Friday morning and helped me our own Thanksgiving prep.  She made the most amazing sweet potato casserole!  My mom arrived a bit later and we commenced to eating as much yummy food as possible.

Of course, it being Black Friday, I left the dirty dishes and small ones with the Dearest to go shopping with Sis and my mom.  We hit a couple of stores and the mall; it wasn't too crazy since we were going out late and most of the real serious shoppers had long gone.

Saturday, Sis and I went to the cemetery to visit Dad's grave. I can't believe it's been a year since he passed away. Some days I forget that he's gone and I think "Oh, I should call Dad and tell him...." and then I remember....  Sis and I spent a good amount of time sitting by the grave, telling stores, sharing memories and laughter.

Sis had the forethought to bring along Dad's favorite drink: Bloody Marys.  So we each had a glass and left one for Dad as well. The funniest thing was, we finished all but a bit of of the vodka, so Sis left it behind on the grave. It was one of those big liter bottles, too.  We figured Dad wouldn't mind and we were laughing hysterically over the site of the big bottle sitting on the gravestone. That earned us a  couple of strange looks from other people visiting graves, but at that point we'd each had some drink in us and really didn't care.

Sunday was spent putting up Christmas lights and getting out all the decorations. The front of the house is almost completely decorated, but we still have to get the tree up inside. I think that'll get done this weekend.  And I STILL haven't gotten my Christmas cards together-  I have no idea what to do this year. But I guess I better get going on the cards or they will be "New Years" cards!  A couple of my friends have already sent out their cards- what's with all these super-organized people?! 

Aside from all the holiday visiting, cooking, shopping, decorating, and cleaning, I have been spinning. Look at this pretty bunch of optim/superwash BFL:

There's about 700yds of this, split into two skeins. I'm a bit bummed about how loosely plied it turned out, despite my purposely overtwisting both the BFL and the optim. The optim in particular seems to need LOTS of twist.  The finished yarn is really soft and springy- I might make a pair of socks out of it, or maybe a small kids' sweater since it's all superwash.

And finally, you need to watch this video...it's a gorgeous rendition of one of my favorite songs...