Post-Holiday-Post

I won't lie - it was a long weekend of head colds, clingy kid, and tantrums toddler (same child). (Seriously had to argue with her over removing a wet diaper Sunday morning.)
There were good times too. I focused on those...
Abi had been home sick since Thursday. At some point she brought me a handful of small hair ties and insisted I give her pony tails...

Friday evening - Christmas Eve - we had a fondue with Robin's cousins. It was delicious, but I can say with certainty that it is difficult to fondue with a clingy child in your lap.  She was eventually enticed away by Dora so I could finish eating.
Then she got some presents:

The second package contained art supplies, including some paints which Abi just had to use the next morning before she would even look at the other gifts under the tree.

 She was even afraid to come downstairs in the morning because she feared Santa would be there.  She finally agreed to come look at the tree from the stairs and from that point we were able to convince her that Santa was not around.  Even so, she was not particularly interested in opening gifts.

sneezing, not crying - at that moment

We handed her a stocking and convinced her to pull out the contents - at which point she was quite happy about the Candy Canes and probably would have spent the rest of the day eating them if she could. Then she decided she wanted to paint, so I gave her a small gift I'd prepared with craft supplies including new paint brushes.

After painting she finally agreed to open some gifts.  Once she got started she was quite delighted, but still took her time.  See some of the final products around:

 Sylvanian Family / Calico Critters in the new bedroom set in the home-made box doll house.
(Wooden couch set sent earlier by coworkers of Robin's from Mexico this summer; other wooden furniture found in a bin marked 10/$1 one day years ago. Wooden blocks round out the furniture and there are plans to sculpt some more items from the Sculpey I have.)
 New train set addition from Nana and PaPere and fairy wings (from the Christmas Fairy, just like in her book). New Cabbage Patch Kid doll in the background - from Aunty Ericka. I think I might also see the My Little Ponies and new phone from Gam-Gam

 Vet dress up clothes - from Aunty Corey of course.

 Hat from Alaska from Grandpa - it's too big right now, but that's okay. She'll grow into it and has plenty of hats for this year.

Here's a short video of the beginning and end of Christmas morning:




 And then there's my stash-addition - bought by me on behalf of others. (Thanks mom, dad, and Alan)

 Yarns and fiber and a turkish spindle from Knit Picks, plus a project bag I found at Value Village (pretty cute!) and my sweater kit from Knit Picks (only $25!!). (Not shown are some needle supplies already put away or in use.)
The dark brown is a lovely handspun by the Roving Spinners - with alpaca and silk and other delightful things. The pink is a silk blend I bought to knit with it - so I can knit a larger project. (The lighter browns are some alpaca I found on sale that I hope to use to knit a smaller Caireen.)
I'm very excited to spin some dyed fiber, such as the berries and blue from Lofty Fibers - nummy.


This year I knit Robin socks - his first hand knit pair - and the cowl. Abi received the lion and various other knit items earlier in winter.

(Both socks were finished by Christmas, but I neglected to take a photo. This was the SkyFi pattern I test knit that uses Cat Bordhi's sky architecture for the gusset/heel shaping. Works perfect if you have high arches like Robin does. The yarn is Swamp Thing I special ordered through Etsy from To-Ply Fiber Arts. That's also where I ordered the lovely earthy fiber to spin, pictured above. Fabulous stuff!)

Robin and I received some DVDs (yay for entertainment) and food stuff (baked brie anyone? thanks Ericka). I watched Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog and Commentary the Musical and then Repo! The Genetic Opera (thanks hun) this weekend. Robin re-watched the LOTR trilogy as usual (Abi and I did not). Robin's still debating what he'll buy with his Christmas money. It started with an MP3 player and escalated to a new laptop at some point - so who knows!

Hope you had a lovely holiday with family and friends.  We enjoyed our time with Candace and Jon, but I did miss not having the extended family around to celebrate with :(  This afternoon Abi and I are off to a friend's house and Robin will join us for turkey dinner! Yay for Turkey!!!  As an added bonus, I can wind my new yarn there... ;)