Tara's new scarf

After the frenzy of hat making was over here, Tara told me she wanted me to make her a scarf. I figured if I was going to make her a scarf, I was going to make a Dr. Who scarf.

I have this vague memory as a kid of watching Dr. Who on a little black and white TV. I don't remember a lot, but it was the forth doctor, with his curly hair and ridiculously long scarf. Maybe it's a fake memory. Maybe I just spent too much time as a kid watching my Dad's oscilloscope.


Anyway, I finished the thing today. It's over twelve feet long, and seven different colors. Hopefully it keeps her warm, and if she ever ends up in a room with a deranged computer in control of a high powered laser, she can use it to distract the computer and get away.


I think Emma *might* want one as well, but she hasn't yet come right out and ask for one. This one is clearly too big for Emma.

For now, I plan to get working on the dozen books sitting around waiting for me to read.

New family rule - "Don't water the fake Christmas tree"

This morning early, Ruth and Lily had one or more cups of water (we suspect more), of which one or more got spilled (we suspect more) by Lily and or Ruth (we suspect both) into or near (I suspect into) one of our Christmas trees.  Tara called me this morning explaining that there was a large puddle of water over there, and all the presents the Grandma and Grandpa Payne brought were soaked.

We ended up opening these presents tonight with the girls, I hope they don't get any bright ideas in a day or two.  All the presents ended up being ok, lots of boxes were wet...

Lily and her giraffe puzzle

Kate and a new reading light

Adam and trucks

Mary and a bracelet weaving kit

Emma and a wooden dragon sculpture - some assembly required.

Ruth and a crocodile game

And finally, my Mom made all the kids sweaters.  The girls really like them...

More Christmas stuff

We've been a little bit busy this week.  Hopefully things settle way down in the next seven days so everyone around here can relax.  Normally we give out Christmas cards to people with plates of cookies every year.  This year I don't think we are going to make it.  I haven't had the time or energy to focus too much on it, and lots of the people around us are about to leave town for the holidays.  I don't think I will get around to mailing out Christmas cards, either, sorry everyone.  We have the cards, I'm just too lazy to deal with them right now.  I think we will maybe do a limited Christmas plate distribution in a couple of days, the girls really like going out and delivering plates of stuff.

Every year, the University has a Christmas party for employees.  Well, their kids, really.  The thing always has a playland, with all kinds of games, a craft area, doughnuts, Santa, and performances from singing and dancing groups.  The girls like this thing every year, but there are so many people there every year, it's kind of hard on the parents.  This year, I took the girls early so we would get there before all the crafts were done.  The girls really like the crafts.  This was the best picture I could manage.  After crafts, they ate (a lot) of doughnuts, we did one thing from the playland, and called it good.

I've been busy since about Halloween making hats for the kids, and all their cousins.  Here is a small sample.  (I wrapped a large pile of them before thinking about taking a picture.)  I still have a few to go, it's been taking up a lot of time...

It wouldn't be Christmas without (obligatorily) fuzzy pictures of the annual school Christmas concert.  I think we are less fuzzy than we have been in the past, but it's still fuzzy, none the less.  Mary and Kate were in the choirs this year.

Emma's performance at the house was a warmup to the performance at the school today.  I only got one of the songs, the phone didn't have enough charge to do more.

Note:  Dear Verizon, I don't know if it was Google or you that did it, but I really would like a zoom feature back on my phone's camcorder function...

New Suitcoat

This is not the start of a talk for church...

Several months ago, I was called to serve in the Bishopric. I may not have mentioned it here before, but there it is. I was called on a Tuesday, and put in the Bishopric 11 days later. The Sunday before I was put into the Bishopric, I wore a white shirt, sleeves rolled up, no suitcoat, just to give myself one last chance before I wore a suitcoat every week.

Anyhow, I quickly came to the realization that owning only one suit, and no extra suitcoats was eventually going to be a problem. I've been fairly busy at church every week, and have only been able to get the suit cleaned once since being called. My suit was starting to look like it really needed to be cleaned.

I've have a new suitcoat or two on my "buy" list for several months, but didn't really look forward to shopping around for one. There are also deals every once in a while, I kind of wanted to get a better bang for my buck. Last week, Men's Warehouse had an online clearance sale (found out about it from slickdeals) on suitcoats. I went online, added a few to my cart, then went out grocery shopping with Tara without making the purchase. I figured that I wasn't completely confident that buying a suitcoat online was a good idea, and wanted to let it sit for a couple of hours to see if any suitcoats were still available. (Usually things on slickdeals start selling like hotcakes. Letting a purchase mature a bit usually isn't the best plan when you find things on slickdeals.)

Anyway, one of the suits I had added to the cart was still available. It arrived in the mail yesterday, and fits pretty good. I wore it tonight. It's lighter weight that the suitcoat I already had, which is good, because I still bake inside my suit on Sundays.

Turns out that shopping online for suitcoats may be a viable alternative after all. Or maybe it's just that "You're gonna like the way you look"...

Adam mows through a meatball

Keep in mind - these meatballs are bigger than his fist, and this is his second one. The first one was "gone in sixty seconds"...

Christmas songs - by Emma

(In Chinese, if you couldn't tell...)

Too much chili

Tonight we had a ward party and chili cookoff. I made a fairly straightforward and standard (for me, at least) chili, but this time made it in a roasting pan, covered it, and cooked it at 425 for an hour. It was pretty tasty. Before we left for the party, I had a big bowl of it, and most of a bag of tortilla chips.

When we got the party, I put my chili on the serving table, and they told me my chili couldn't be in the contest, because I was one of the judges. I only wish I had known that before I ate the pre-festivities bowl. I am now stuffed. Eating so much chili while trying to pick a winner will do that every time, I guess. I would say over stuffed, but I must not be really, since just just stuck something in my mouth. Maybe I'm just a glutton.

There were many different flavors, the two I liked best were both disqualified, but that's ok. I just should wait until I get there next year, before I start diving in to it. I was still up to the challenge. Like I told my friend Rich tonight, "I've been preparing all my life for this moment..."