Penguinos!

The Bean and Double A got out of school at 1:00 today, so we got to hang out all afternoon.  And we didn't just get to hang out, we got to hang out in matching penguin pajamas! Here we are modeling our PJs:

Yes, I'm aware that we have no heads...  So, why do we have matching pajamas you ask?  I ordered them for our movie marathon a couple of weeks ago, but they didn't arrive until yesterday.  It actually worked out OK since we all went to see The Penguins of Madagascar tonight and had themed outfits for the event.  Yes, I'm almost 40 and just went to the movie in my pajamas.  Don't judge me.

Sadly we didn't have any penguin shoes to go with our outfits.  

They're all adorable, so instead of saying that for EVERY picture, I'll spare you and only make the one comment.

 

 

I'm not sure I would call these adorable.  They're interesting, certainly, and even more so because they are vintage.

I hope you have some adorable pajamas to sleep in this Christmas.  If not, you should find some nieces and go out and get matching ones!

White Crocheted Ornaments

Tonight was the Elementary program at school, so we got to go see The Bean, The VH, Pippi, and Tink perform.  It was a lot of fun if you were able to block out the amazingly rude adults sitting behind us.  The Bean and The VH both play the saxophone.  They are in 6th and 5th grades, respectively, and those performances always crack me up.  The students are all so earnest and the music is all so loud and kind of monotone.  It's awesome, and I totally remember being the earnest flute player in the 5th and 6th grade bands.  Tink and Pippi both sang 2 songs with their classes and did great jobs.

I think I also finished decorating at Mom's house today.  At least I'm saying I'm done.  I'll need a fairly compelling reason to do anything else.  I finished decorating the tree in Mom's room today, and spent way more time than necessary (because I was being OCD and stubborn) putting up these cool, old frosted Christmas lights from my grandma's house.

Speaking of trees, here is the one I finished yesterday:

No, wait.  Dad actually finished it, because he put the garland on, shoved it back in the corner and put the tree skirt on.  This is the living room tree, and the biggest one in the house.  It used to be full of all of the random ornaments we kids got each year, so of course nothing matched.  Then we finally grew up and moved out and Mom could have a themed tree.  And that theme is white crochet.  And some tatting.  And some cross stitch.  And a few  things that aren't white.  But you get where I'm going with this.

So of course, white crocheted shoes!  These are pretty, but I would most likely have them (and every pair following) dirty in about 30 seconds.

Also pretty, but my favorite part is the visible sock line.

This isn't my favorite style, but I really like the crochet on these.  So simple and pretty.

The obligatory baby shoes!

 These are Toms.  They are white.  And crocheted.

Slippers!  I could probably even make these if I had a pattern.

These were listed as wedding shoes.  I hope they have some kind of sole, or they are going to be ruined in no time flat.  Plus a bride needs some good arch support.

Holy buckets I'm tired.  So this is good night!

Talented

Christmas has definitely taken over, and not just with the blog posts.  I've been busy wrapping, mailing, baking (OK, not baking so far, but still making cookies), sending Christmas cards, shopping, decorating, etc.  Monday I stayed up way later than planned because I was watching A Miracle on 34th Street and finishing crocheting a Christmas present.  Yesterday I decorated Mom's big tree in the living room, and went to the high school Christmas program.  This year they did it a little differently:  In addition to the concert, they also had 2 short plays performed by the drama department.  I finally got to see Double A act!  She's really good.  I was one proud auntie/former drama nerd.  I also got to snuggle with The Bean for most of the performance.  Oh!  I also got my new glasses in the mail yesterday!  So today Dad and I traveled to the "big city" to get them adjusted because they were giving me an awful headache and I couldn't really see that well.  We got the glasses adjusted, ran some errands, had lunch, and came home.  Tonight we went to the theater for a small movie party.  Dad had invited some of his friends to watch his favorite Christmas movie, the musical Scrooge.  Can I just say it's awesome having a family who owns a movie theater where we can go watch DVDs on the big screen?  I got more snuggle time from The Bean, but tonight it was because she wasn't feeling well, poor thing.  Since tonight was at the theater, I took a picture of the Christmas tree there, that Dad and I decorated on Sunday:

 

Hmmmm... it seems to be leaning a bit.  Oh well, what I want you to see is that every ornament on this tree, with the exception of the tree topper, was hand painted by my mama.  Each stocking was made in honor of every employee they've ever had, with the employee's name on the back.  The rest are a bunch of different Santa Clauses.  She's pretty awesomely talented, my mom.  Dad cut them all out, too, so I don't want to leave him out.

So, all of tonight's shoes are hand painted.  I've had lots of hand painted shoes on here, but tonight they are all hand painted and all Christmasy.  I want these.

 

I'll take a pair of these, to, please.  Maybe I'd wear one of each of these 2 pairs for a nice contrast.

These are just begging for a gorgeous, coordinated Norwegian sweater.

Awww...colorful and whimsical.

I know a teacher who needs these.  He has some Christmas ones already, but I think he needs these too.  And maybe a matching tie.

 

Yummy little candy cane shoes!

See?  The whole family could have Christmas tennies.  It would be very festive!

All of these painter people are very talented.  That's not a skill I have.  I can't draw, and I can only paint walls if they aren't too complicated.  And now it's back to Christmas cards, and then maybe some crocheting.

Jingle Jingle!

I had a rather amazing day.  I was really productive (part of that productivity was paying bills, which is necessary but not exactly fun) and my dad and I went on a drive out in lovely nature and took some pictures of my beautiful home valley.  Good stuff.  I know it doesn't actually sound like much, but i haven't had many days in the last year where I felt really good emotionally and physically, so I'm putting today in the win column.  This is one of my favorite pictures from our outing:

It looks like a painting to me.  I guess fog is good for something!

In tree decorating news, yesterday while I was having a getting-over-being-sick nap Laughter was busy decorating a tree with Nana:

This one is in the kitchen, where we've never had a tree before.  It used to go where the gingerbread tree now lives, but then the gingerbread theme started taking over, and the jingle bells kind of got the shaft.  But now they get to brighten the kitchen!  In case you can't see, there are red and gold jingle bells and then these really fun gold, squiggly ornament hangers that we just use as hangers because they're really fun, gold, and squiggly.

Sometimes procrastination pays off.  I was finally sorting through my inbox today  (productivity!) and found this pin that the Pinterest Friend sent me.  It just happened to go with the theme of the post I was planning for today, so I figured the universe must approve.  I'm glad these are drawings because those shoes make my feet hurt just looking at them.

Festive!  And these look like they could be a fun and simple DIY project.

I don't usually like gold accents, but I love love love these.  Definite holiday shoegasm.

They aren't terribly bright and festive, but I still think they're adorable.  Again, a DIY project.

Oooo...the St. Someone parish administrator NEEDS these! Actually, I might need them too...

Not my favorite crocheted booties, but still cute and festive.

I think I'd go with these for PB instead.

Tune in tomorrow for possibly yet another tree!

Souvenirs

First the excellent news:  I haven't had a sinus infection since March!  Sinus issues, yes, but no actual infection requiring antibiotics!  In less fun news, apparently the gods of illness were disappointed with my coming to Montana and not immediately getting the head cold/sinus infection/bronchitis from hell, so they decided to gift me with stomach issues.  Yep, again.  I woke up yesterday feeling nauseous and crampy and didn't feel completely human until this evening.  Blah.  It was less than fun.  But at least now I'm feeling better, and I can show you the tree I decorated on Thursday night:

This is the tree in Mom's office, and it has all of the ornaments she has collected from places she has visited.  Or, in some cases, ornaments from places we kids have visited and gotten ornaments for her.  She started collecting them 20 years ago when she and Dad and I drove to Washington DC and about a million other places.

Here is a close-up of one of the ornaments so you get a better idea.  Some of them are just gold, but others have lots of color on them.

I don't have a travel tree, so I thought I'd look for shoes from places I've lived or visited.

Montana!  These are U of M Grizzly shoes.  UM is my alma mater.  Plus, people tend to think that Montana is full bears that just wander around so everyone sees them on practically a daily basis.  I lived in Montana from birth until I was 24 and then I moved to 

 

Texas for 3 years where I lived with my aunt.  I also lived there again for a summer while I did my chaplaincy training at Children's Medical Center of Dallas.

 

From Texas it was off to seminary in California for the first where I have now lived 3 separate times.  Look!  More bears!

These are Penn State shoes.  I lived in Pennsylvania for a year for internship.  I don't like to talk about it.  But I won't hold it against these cute blue and white striped shoes.

 

I haven't lived in Hawaii, but the BSF did her internship in Honolulu, and I got to my 3 week cross-cultural experience for seminary on Oahu and stay with her.  My choices were Hawaii in January or South Dakota in January.  Um...duh.  Flip flops are perfect to represent Hawaii.  Except there they call them slippers.

I've been to Washington  DC three times:  Once in High School (the first time I ever flew and ever traveled by myself--totally freaked out the flight attendant with my crying), then that trip with the parents and all of the driving, and again in College for the Lutheran Student Movement National Gathering.  I would love to go back.

These are actually New Orleans Saints shoes, but I just like them for the fluer de lis. I've been to New Orleans twice. First for Mardi Gras when I was 26.  That was interesting.  Although my memories tend to be a little fuzzy...  The second time was as a pastor, taking kids to the National Youth Gathering.  I would also love to go back there, as I really haven't seen much in terms of touristy stuff.

I've been to lots of other places, but this seemed like enough for one post.  Now I'm possibly off to bed, but with the amount of sleep I've gotten in the last 2 days, I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to sleep tonight.

Shiny Red Nose

Poor Bean was sick today, so she stayed here while her dad was at work.  She got some good sleep, and we also watched 2 more Christmas movies.  Yes, we're obsessed.  We can't help it.  Christmas won't come if we don't watch our quota of Christmas movies!  Anyway, I couldn't find any good shoes to go with today's movies, so I'm going back to Sunday's marathon and going with a Rudolph theme:

Very festive!  It might be the shoe, or just my imagination, but does Rudolph look chubby?

Rudolph slippers for wearing during Christmas movie marathons!

Cute.  People who paint all of these adorable shoes and then tie them with fun ribbons are awesome.

I love this kind of baby shoes.  They always have a pair that goes with my theme.  And they stay on slippery little baby ankles.

 

Um.  What the heck?  These are ugly on so many levels.  And why is Rudolph red with a green nose?  Just wrong.

 

Hey, look!  It's the Rudolph from the movie!  Maybe THESE are the slippers I need for movie marathons.  Wait, would I need a different pair for each movie?

 

And there are even Clarice slippers.  So I could wear a pair, one Rudolph and one Clarice.  Then whoever was watching with me could have a matching pair!

 

But then I would need a third foot for the Bumble slippers.  So many slipper dilemmas!

Speaking of Christmas movies, I'm off to watch the 3rd in the trilogy of Santa Clause movies.  I told you, there's a quota!