All I want for Christmas is...

no, not my two front teeth, I already have two Chicklet sized chompers that would rival Mr. Ed's in girth. What I really, really want is a transmission for my 1997, 6 cylinder, automatic Dodge Caravan. The poor old thing lost it today while my DH and A1 were heading to the store. It just dropped* . Ker plunk. Luckily they weren't too far from home. I'm searching the internet tonight and wrecking yards tomorrow (via the telephone, obviously) for a used transmission.

I'm thinking that Jessalu's bumper sticker curse is contageous. And believe it or not, I thought of her and the curse while installing this . And although it isn't technically a bumper sticker, it is the closest thing to one I've had.



I took advantage of the girls' last school day and wrapped presents in their absence. I stink at wrapping packages, but I didn't want to resort to the reusable gift bags. There is just something satisfying and necessary about ripping the paper off of packages at Christmas time.


The dolphin hasn't been cast on yet because of other pressing matters, but maybe tomorrow. One of the "pressing matters" included baking and decorating gingerbread people for A1's school party.





Other than some last minute knitting and vehicle repair, we're as ready for the holiday as we'll ever be. Hope you're all remembering to slow down and enjoy yourselves. Cheers.

* Okay, it technically did not "drop" out on the ground, that was just the sound the engine made as it died. I wonder if I could knit a transmission?

Well howdy! Things are full-speed ahead, like always here at the looney bin. On Sunday A3 celebrated her 6th trip around the sun.

Here is a picture of my littlest when she was only a few days old... This is probably one of the only times in her 6 years that she's held still.

Her party was fun, and true to the nature of 5 & 6 year olds, it was all over the place. The trampoline and dress up clothes trumped pin the tail on the donkey and the other planned activities. No worries, we just let them run and do whatever kept them busy and happy. Chaos reigned supreme and this is the only picture taken of the festivities. All that can be seen of the birthday girl is some hair and the back of a pink dress peeking out from behind dad. The intended crafts, etc. were bagged up and sent home with party guests.

On Saturday... or was it Friday? Anyway, last week a box arrived. Our mail is delivered into a locked mailbox cluster with two attached, locked package compartments for large boxes. The larger boxes can only be opened with special keys. These keys remain in the locks of outside of the empty package compartments and the keys can only be taken out when the mail carrier inserts her magic key into a lower lock, thus releasing the key that opens the package box. When someone has a package one of the package keys is placed into their little private cubby so they can retrieve their package. Well, whenever I get mail the first thing I do is see if there are keys missing from the outside of the package cubbies. If so then I wish really hard for one of them to be in our box. After all, packages are fun! The other day I opened our little cubby and beheld one of the magic parcel keys. I did a happy dance and immediately ran to the other side of the cluster to open the compartment. And what I saw triggered peals of laughter. Not just the little tee hee giggles either, but rather the whooping out loud, snorting kind of laughter. Any neighbors witnessing the display made mental notes to avoid the crazy lady. I skipped back home with the box. The source of the giddiness was a box covered with this packaging tape.

The box was a prize package, courtesy of the Yarn Pirate! I won a contest she had sponsored and this was the loot. Argh, the booty still has me imitating Jack Sparrow (rather poorly though).

The treasure included: Yummy candy, a heavenly scented candle, wonderful hand balm, two kinds of wool wash, size 3 bamboo dps and the most amazing yarn from Sheep Shop Yarn Company.

The candy was immediately devoured, and the needles were fortuitous indeed. Just that very morning I had broken a size 3 dp needle while making a hat. Thank you Yarn Pirate, you saved my arse!

And yes Cindy, I know that I vowed "No more Christmas Knitting" several weeks back. What can I say except that, I'm weak, a fiber addict, a sucker for requests. My daughters asked me for Mom-knits for Christmas. Can you believe it? They want me to make them something! A1 and A3's requests are no problem. But A2 wants a knitted dolphin. Yikes! I found a book with a dolphin pattern, but since nobody has the coveted book in stock, it wouldn't arrive until after Christmas. So, today's engineering feat: transforming short rows into Flipper. It could get ugly. Cheers!