...12.28...Making Merry...

...on Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service at Church...of course...

...it was beautiful...

...and we let Our Girl open a couple of her gifts...

...when we were at the beach a few weeks ago...they had a "Blue " toy guitar and Our Girl loved it so much...

...the Man searched for it online and its no longer made...but he found a Giraffe version that does the same functions...and a small drum kit...because noisy toys are fun...

...she loves them both and plays with them a lot...

...then on Christmas morning...we got down to some serious gift opening...haha...Our Girl loves Baby Yoda...and she just gave him a kiss...but I missed that photo...

...we had searched Amazon...for the best gifts for a 2 year old girl...and this unicorn in a pet travel carrier showed up...

...it's so sweet...just the right size for little hands...and she gave him so many kisses...

...and because they are headed to Japan in a few weeks...we also searched for Japanese pajamas...and found these adorable little pink jammies...

...they look a little large right now...but I'm sure she'll grow into them and they'll be perfect for the tropical island life...

...all that paper was so much fun...

...the kiddos flipping through the little wedding album I had put together for them...they had never had any of their wedding photos printed...and I thought a simple little album would be a nice thing...

...the Man got me this positionable light for close needlework...that'll definitely be useful...

...and then he said he got me this charger sanitizer thingy for future trips to Japan...haha...

...you pop your phone into this little case and it sanitizes it with light and charges it at the same time...

...and finally this box...

...of beautiful Vegan Cheeses...

~Wishing you a lovely (and Merry) start to your week!...

...Merry Christmas...2020...

...Wishing you Peace, and Joy and Love...

...12.23...W.I.P. Wednesday...Christmas Socks...

..well...I've started the 2nd sock...and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to finish before Christmas Eve...

...the first sock is finished...

...I'm really happy with it...

...it's so Christmas-y...it fits well...and is soft comfy cotton done with a princess sole...

...you may notice that the princess sole is a brighter white...and that's because I'm afraid I'm going to run out of both the dull white and the dull red...and I only ever had one small skein of each color...so I switched to just some plain white cotton yarn from the stash...it's both a little bit softer and a little bit thicker than the creamier/duller white of the top...which is totally OK for the sole of the sock...

...I'll probably wear them with skinny jeans and the cuff turned up so you can see the pretty pattern...I don't really have any scooped out shoes that would show the snowflakes well though...we'll see...I'll be sure to take some photos of me wearing them...or they'll just show up in the Christmas photos...haha...

...what's in your workbasket this Christmas-time?...are you rushing to complete any projects before Christmas?...

~Have a lovely day!

...12.21...Over the Weekend...

...such a full weekend...

...I'll start with the more mundane bits first...I ordered a few groceries online and picked them up...

...nothing really stands out as special this week...the rolls are for a party we're hosting...

...and so is the chocolate cake mix...oh...and the the vegan cream cheese is new to my Food Lion...so I'm pretty thrilled about that...

...the Christmas cards continue to arrive...I love Christmas cards...

...I wrapped a bunch more presents...so much fun...

...and then we started the party prep...we needed some vegan ricotta for the lasagna we'll be serving at the party...so I got out my Uncheese cookbook...I admit that I've not used this cookbook a lot lately...as there are a lot of new vegan cheeses available...

...but this tofu ricotta turns out perfectly every time...and actually vegan ricotta is kind of hard to find...

...but I also made the Mosterella from the same cookbook...only subbing the sour tapioca starch...

...cooked until stretchy and gloopy...

...then I put it into two ramekins because she says you can slice it...

...the Man ordered some lasagna noodles online...they look just like any normal noodles...

...and when I mentioned that I would also need to make croutons...he said he would save me the trouble and order some...so we got this GIGANTIC bag of organic croutons...husbands are sooo funny...oh well...I won't need to make croutons for a while...

...and he also got these three slot lasagna pans so he could make multiple varieties of lasagna at once...as I said...husbands are funny...

...we cooked noodles...

...and sauce...

...dried the noodles slightly...

...cooked some spinach...

...and mixed that in with the vegan ricotta...

...got the vegan mozzarella out of the fridge...it's pretty firm...

...and it sliced OK...

...and then started layering things into the new pans...

..it looks perfect...

...made a big salad...to go with the croutons...haha...

...greased and dusted my prettiest cake pan...

...and got everything ready to make the Guinness Chocolate cake...(vegan recipe in the link...scroll down...)

...while the cake was baking we went outside for a breather and to enjoy a beautiful sunset...

...then we made the vegan cream cheese icing...

...and took the cake out to cool...

...and set a pretty table for our guests...

...who soon started to arrive...notice the Big Sister badge on Our Girl...

...we got out the gender reveal poppers...in the envelope is the ultrasound photo with the gender marked...the Airman's Wife had her ultrasound on Tuesday...but had them seal the results so that everyone could find out together tonight...so sweet and fun!...

...finally the big moment arrived...

...and here's Our Girl holding one of the PINK streamers...so she will be Big Sister to a Little Sister...and we're all just about as thrilled as we can be...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!