Holidays are Here!

Actual size, next to average
green grape for comparison

I finally feel like having Christmas! At least there is a week remaining to enjoy the festivities and do fun little things around the house.

Friday evening was spent in Bellevue for J's company's holiday party at the Bellevue Art Museum where there was an exhibit about George Nelson. Really interesting and now I want to read more about him. Also, they had these cute little appetizers that were little pieces of fingerling potatoes, filled with pea puree and garnished with carmelized vidalia onion, chive and sesame seeds. I think I made a friend when I mentioned to the head catering guy that they were tasty but I felt so sorry for whoever had to make them! He proceeded to push food on me the rest of the evening. :)

Saturday, I got to have my tiny cavity filled (when hearing that I had a "baby cavity", J proclaimed, "See? Even your cavities are cute!"), and then ran around running errands. Christmas present shopping is just about done so that we'll be able to sit back this week and avoid the stores. On a lark, we decided to go to the Theatre Sports (An Improvised) Christmas Carol. It wasn't hilarious, but it was entertaining and a fun way to tackle the story.

View from the chair at the dentist,
not a bad way to have a cavity filled!

Sunday, I went over to visit my sister and meet her sweet new little kitties: Wally and Wade. They're about 6 months old and little love monkeys. Reminds me of when Ivan was that age! I brought over two early gifts for the Monster Nephews - stockings I made for their kitties.

Mouse stocking

Squirrel stocking

"Wha'chu lookin' at?"

When I got home, we finished decorating the tree as much as we're doing this year. Presents from my mom had arrived so we were able to spread out the tree skirt and place the prettily wrapped packages on top. See, we can't put out the skirt until it's ready to get half covered up or a certain fuzzy critter spends all his time attempting to destroy it. One present sent by A's mom had curling ribbon on it and Ivan already tried eating it so that gift had to be removed to safety. This left one little opening and as I sat on the couch reading the Sunday comics, I heard a crinkling and crunching sound. I spied to see what shenanigans Mr. I was up to, and he had managed to wriggle and waggle until he had full backed into the narrow space left by the rescued present. He kept looking at me quite belligerantly, as if trying to thwart any scolding he might receive. I don't mind him under there as long as he's not chewing or clawing at anything!

The Elf Who Came Early brought us some ornaments and me a DVD containing many of the very old cartoons I remember watching when I was younger. We had a VHS with about 10-15 holiday cartoons from the 30s-50s that were fun and unique. The VHS has long since been lost or given away and my Internet research had only managed to find a few references from other people who had enjoyed the same VHS as children and were looking for either replacements or a DVD copy. The Elf managed to find a compilation DVD that contained all the ones I remembered, plus more than a dozen others! Here's one of my favorites, "Christmas Comes But Once a Year"

Tonight I hope to finally finish putting up our outside lights and then getting the boxes put away. If there's time, I will start on my last two presents to make and/or wrap up the ones I have secreted away so far.