O, Holy Night

A blessed Christmas Eve to you!  I spent the day with (some of) my family.  Definitely missing the hubby, though.  We had way too much food for the 5 of us who were here for dinner, but it was all yummy.  Well, all but the chocolate dipping sauce I made which did not turn out at all.  I think the Christmas baking bubble might have burst for me.  After dinner Mom asked me if I would do a Christmas Eve service for the family, so I did a brief liturgy with communion.  It was nice, and a little bit weird, and now I'm feeling a little weepy, although the weepy could be a combination of things.  The nice and weird apply to my own feelings...I have no idea how the family felt about it all.

I've decided to forego shoes tonight and just leave you with the Christmas Eve reading from the Gospel of Luke 2:1-20:

1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Miser Brothers

You want to know something cool about having a family who owns a movie theater?  Watching Christmas movies on the big screen!  Tonight Double, Dad, the Brother, and I watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Year Without a Santa Claus.  Ostensibly it was to make sure that the new doohickey was working because the last time we watched a movie the sound was all wonky (yep, those are totally technical terms), but mostly it was just to go watch Christmas movies on the big screen.  I've already done Grinch shoes, so tonight I went in search of Heat Miser and Snow Miser shoes.

Fleep flops!  I won't even make my usual snarky remarks.

Both Double A and The Bean are quite good drawers and painters.  Maybe I should get them started on all of the themed, hand-painted shoes I need?

That's all I could find for shoes, but I found a few other things:

Usually I say cookies like this are almost too pretty to eat, but that Heat Miser cookie might be too scary to eat!

Hilarious.  The brother needs these.

I would totally do this on my toes!  Again, Double A can paint, and often does fun things on her fingernails, I wonder if I could talk her into trying this on my toes?

If you've never seen A Year Without a Santa Claus then your life is sad.  You need to watch it so you can learn the words and sing along with the Miser Brothers!

Cookies

I was very Christmas-y today.  This morning I watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town while crocheting Laughter's Christmas present.  This evening I decorated Mom and Dad's big tree in the living room.  In between I spent the afternoon in the kitchen making Mocha Truffles, Mocha Pecan Balls, Coconut Pecan Praline Cookies, and Popcorn Balls.  I was going to do more but then it was time to work on getting dinner ready.  I think I'll do a couple of more kinds of cookies/candy tomorrow.  I'm in a groove, apparently.  Tonight's shoes are Christmas cookie themed to keep the groove going:

Did you really need the same shoe in 2 different colors?  Well no, but clearly yes.

These are almost too pretty to eat.  And yet I would still eat them.  Because I am rude like that.

These just make me smile.

As do these!  I totally need a pair for when I bake Christmas cookies.

I've posted cookies made with this cookie cutter before, but I appreciate that someone made them into Christmas shoes.  Very festive.

I think I will now go read while gazing at the Christmas tree.  Yeah, it's a rough life...

Ugly Sweaters

Guess what?  Today was National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day!  I don't have an ugly Christmas sweater, so I couldn't participate (although it's currently about 5 degrees, not counting windchill, so a sweater, regardless of beauty, is fairly necessary).  In honor of this very silly holiday I give you the following results from a search for "ugly Christmas sweater shoes:"

I'm just going to leave these here for you...you're welcome...

Christmas Programs

Christmas Programs are the theme of this week.  Flower's was last night and she looked beautiful and did an awesome job.  She played her clarinet and sang in the choir, and even had a speaking part!  (Pippi's and Tink's was also last night but sadly I haven't learned to be in 2 places at once)  The Bean's was tonight and she also looked beautiful and did an awesome job.  At least I'm almost positive she did, but I couldn't actually see her, which sucked.  She was smack behind the director, and even when the director moved all I could see of her was about 2 inches of her forehead.  That's what happens when you're short and play tenor sax so you're in the third row.  Oh well, it was still fun to listen.  (Flower and The Bean both had cute shoes for their programs, but did I take pictures?  No, I did not.  I'm a terrible auntie)  Laughter's is tomorrow at 1:00 and hopefully the weather holds so we can go.  Then Pippi and Tink's church program is tomorrow at 5:30, so hopefully the weather holds so the trip home isn't too terrible.  It's a busy week full of my favorite little people!  In honor of all of these programs tonight's shoes are a random assortment of Christmas shoes:

These wouldn't actually have to be Christmas shoes, but red plaid is rather festive.

 

I love these.  So cute!

Awww...the PB needs these for the imaginary baby closet.

And these!  Also, can I have some?

This appears to be two different kids, otherwise it's someone with very strange feet, but I would totally wear one green and one red shoe as a pair.

Well, I'm off to bed so I can get up and go to more programs tomorrow.

Puzzling

I've been doing Christmas puzzles on my Kindle this week.  I'm terrible at actual puzzles, but quite enjoy them on my kindle.  Each puzzle can be done with 35, 70, 140, 280, or 630 pieces.  I usually do the first three.  I've done one puzzle with the 280 pieces, and I haven't even attempted the 630 pieces because the screen on my kindle is tiny and I don't even think I could see the pieces.  Tonight's shoes are puzzle inspired.

I like all of these, although the first one is my favorite.  I think I could maybe do the last one. It's only 500 pieces.  Maybe.  Did I mention that I'm terrible at real puzzles?

 

These last 3 are all from Zazzle.  CHRISTMAS shoe puzzles!  I think Zazzle is my spirit animal.  If only I could actually afford to shop there.

 

I keep thinking of this quote as I'm puzzling.  Thankfully my puzzler has yet to get sore from the puzzling.  Probably because I skip the 630 piece option.

More Crochet

I have been informed that my Christmas headbands weren't as lame as I made them out to be. I was just feeling down about Christmas this year since we're having a bit of a rough go and I made presents out of leftover yarn.  I felt kind of cheap and chintzy and cheesy (but I can still rock the alliteration).  On this 3rd day of Christmas I won't be giving you 3 French Hens (why are there so many birds in that song?), but I will be showing you some more random crochet:

This was kind of an experiment.  I was looking at patterns and found these crocheted nesting bowls.  I love things that nest!  I gave them to SKD (and the hubby thought I was absolutely crazy).  She said she was going to force various pets and family members to wear them as hats.  This is why are friends.  I think they are weird and random and fun, and hopefully SKD likes them as much as she seemed to and wasn't just being polite. 

I will also be showing you some red, green, and white shoes to go with the nesting bowl color scheme.

Stripey!  And Mom just sent me a video on how to make shoes like this with fabric and fabric glue (and an xacto knife, which probably seems like a bad idea for someone as klutzy as me).

 

Stripey ballet flats.  I could wear these for more festive occasions.

No green, but very festive and fun.

This is a little cheesy, but Christmas is the perfect time for cheesy shoes, don't  you think?

Awww...Christmas shoes for the PB.  I'm going to pretend I don't see that the trees are made up of mustaches.

We're at the office today so I'm taking advantage of having internet access.  We're in the process of selling the house, which is why we're at the office so much since we can't be home while the house is being shown.  I haven't been writing about it, and if you comment, I'd rather you comment here rather than Facebook since I don't think I'm ready to make it Facebook official and the blog is a little more private.  Can I just say that I'm not enjoying living in a house that has to be show-ready all the damn time?  And vacuuming every day has not made me appreciate it any more.   This will be move 27 since I started college, and since we're going to rent for awhile and then buy something else, move 28 will be happening before 2016 is over.  At least I made it a little over 3 years in this house, I hadn't been anywhere for more than 3 years since I moved out of the parents' house.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!  I hope you are having a wonderful day with family and friends and lots of love.

This is a store window in Seattle, and I stole this picture from a friend on Facebook who took it and posted it. So festive! 

This one was sent to me, I didn't steal it. It's a shoe tree wth actual shoes. I both like it and think it's over the top crazy. Plus I think it's in a bathroom. 

I've been wearing Christmas socks exclusively for about 2 weeks now, so even though you've seen them before I'm showing them again. 

This is the newest pair, that SKD gave me last year after after she saw them on this post.  She has the green pair, of course!  Tallulah gave me an assist on modeling of the socks.

I've been pretty secular the last couple of days, so if you're needing some baby Jesus, here is the link to last year's nativity post. I did go to church last night which was lovely. The pastor's 5 year old daughter sat with me and snuggled with me and then told me,  "I just love you. " Yeah, I needed that.

Merry Christmas! I'm going back to sleep since the hubby woke me up at 4 to open presents and again at 7 to chat.