the chubby bunny kind of life

Life has been like a game of chubby bunny in the junior high youth group. Shout out to my friend Mark D. who won that game every time we played it. For those unacquainted, you shove mini-marshmallows in your mouth and whoever can say “chubby bunny” with the most marshmallows in, (none falling out) wins.

We’ve packed a lot of figurative marshmallows into our lives in the past few weeks. But, can we still say “chubby bunny” you ask? It’s more like chu-eee un-eee, but hey, close enough! We survived!

And now, chubby bunny hits the blog. Prepare yourself for a very stuffed post.

December brought our nightly advent reading by the tree with p-jams. (And an unusually headless Elianna pictured here).

We spent a memorable night out with family enjoying the supreme cuts of meat at Fogo de Chao, followed by a rousing and just-plain-great performance of Les Mesirable at the Orpheum. Here are my bro and sis-in-law. They’re funny and photogenic.

I also enjoyed the Creme Brulee. One of my faves.

Of course there were plenty of ordinary moments as well. Lots of them squeezed in there. Like fun with counting bears. Who doesn’t like bears in a muffin tin? So many sorting possibilities.

I’m doing my best to take cool pics these days. Right-o.

There’s been lunch time excitement with chocolate chips and afternoon adulation while finishing schoolwork. Just kidding about the adulation part. I just like saying afternoon adulation for the alliteration. Amazing, as always.

Eat chocolate much? No. Why no. Of course not. What would give you that idea?

Spelling is so sweet in the sunlight. (I’m sorry. I can’t stop.)

 We were all pleased with the particularly proficient piano party. Eliza performed perfectly. (I promise to stop now. I’m pathetic.)

Next came the dance recital. The girls have only been in dance for two months. They’ve loved every minute of it. Therefore, I’ve loved it too.

Phew. Lots happenin’! It’s always helpful to make lists at such a busy time. I’ve got a few list makers under my roof.

Don’t forget to make cookies! That’s a must. And some stockings too.

Next come the gifts. Oh, the gifts! We’re thankful for the many gifts this Christmas!

And there’s nothing like an exhilarating game of don’t-let-the-balloon-touch-the-floor after the gifts have been opened!

And who could guess, but more creme brulee! If ever there’s an opportunity to use a torch of any size, kitchen or otherwise, I take it. And I teach my children to do the same.

And more presents and more fun and more family and more food! And my nephew turned 16. Knock me over.

And more gifts! Crazy, I know!

If I looked this cute with Hello Kitty fashion stickers stuck to my face, you can be sure I’d have them on everywhere I went. You won’t be seeing them on me anytime soon.

And another day, another celebration, another birthday, and guess what else? More cookies! Cookies with helping hands to arrange and touch each one before they are taken to the table. As it should be.

In the midst of it all, we must make time for pretty painted nails and puppet shows!

Oh and wait! Another birthday with, wait for it, more food. Who needs a birthday cake when there’s a tower of scotch eggs to be consumed?

What’s better than ending the night with Dad’s Famous Hot Fudge made with Heavy Whipping Cream, naturally. Is there any other way?

And with NO SNOW to frolic in, we end the month by slipping and sliding on the ice in the dark with the family. Treacherous? Nah. The ice is about the same slippery in the light as it is in the dark.

About the same fall factor, I’d say. And the same fun factor.

I guess that about wraps it up. Chubby bunny, indeed.

Thanks Lord for a chubby bunny kind of life. And thanks for always making room for one more marshmallow, one more blessing, one more chaotic day, one more lesson in love.

the Bill Cosby sweater stocking project

It’s the last days before Christmas and I decided to go on a hunt for Bill Cosby sweaters.

Why? Well, we needed new Christmas stockings. I’d looked online and looked in stores and I just wasn’t excited about my options. I knew I wanted to make something, but didn’t feel like I had the time. The past few years I’ve tried to talk myself into knitting some great stockings for us, buuut.. I.. can’t.  I just can’t. I’m not sure why, because I like to knit.

I think it’s because when I realize I need to knit us some stockings (the day after Thanksgiving when the Christmas decor goes up), there isn’t enough time to get it done. So, then I’m faced with starting the stockings without the gratification of finishing them before Christmas OR starting them after Christmas. And let’s face it, after Christmas there’s just no way.

So, I saw this idea on pinterest. You take a sweater and make a stocking out of it! Perfect! So I did. Here’s my tutorial.

Start with a sweater. The more Bill Cosby-ish the better. You know you know someone with these kinds of sweaters. Gently tell them it’s time to say goodbye to the 80′s. And their sweaters. (This one is not a Bill Cosby sweater, obviously. I forgot to take pics of my best ones. Figures.)

Turn it inside out and use an old stocking as a pattern. Or free hand one. Then, trace it on the sweater.

Next, pin around your trace. Then get your machine out and sew on your line. Sew first, cut second, in order to keep it from coming unraveled, especially with a knit sweater (which was all of what I did, except this one).

Get your scissors and cut the thing out.

Turn it right side out. And viola. Presto. Stocking almost complete.

All you need is the loop at the top to hook it up with. Take a strip of sweater, fold it and sew it.

Then, sew it to the top of the stocking. Either by hand or with the machine, whatever you feel like and whatever your machine can manage, since some of the best sweater stockings are wool and really really thick. I opted by hand this time round.

Here are all the stockings I made in the eleventh hour. Finished on Christmas Eve Eve, as we say.

And here are my family’s new stockings. Hung with care and properly stuffed.

My mom says that I can “trick them out” more each year. Wha?? Hi Mom, I’m Abigail, nice to meet you. We’re from Iowa, in case you forgot, and “trick them out” isn’t in our vocab. Oh well.

And that concludes my Bill-Cosby-Sweater-Stocking-Project-of-Christmas-Eve-Eve-2011. See you next year.

the final wait

We have entered the last week of advent. We remember the wait for the birth of baby Jesus.

We remember the waiting that has already been consummated. It has been completed: Jesus did come. Yet we remember and reenact it. But we do not wonder what it’s like to really wait, as though it’s a reenacting apart from our present circumstance that we merely remember. We have our own waiting to do.

For ours is the final wait. We wait for the end, the returning, the perfecting, the new heavens and new earth. Or we wait for our own end that will take us to an early glory. Yes, we are familiar with waiting. Perhaps we are less familiar with the arriving. The actual completion of things waited for. So, we practice the completion at Christmas. We remember that the Messiah, long awaited for, finally did come. And so, we take heart in ours, the final wait.

“8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8,9

Thank you, Lord, for the waiting.