I’d Rather Be Skating

Seriously. It sure beats sitting here, waiting for 5:30 to come, and getting freaked out because it sounds like someone is sitting in my heating vent and tapping on it every so often to get my attention.

Weird Lighting

The moon and the snow blowing around makes for an eerie drive home…

John’s Lasagna

John made his lasagna. It was delicious.

He hasn’t been around my bloggy (heh) self enough though and felt weird that I was taking pictures of it all, so I didn’t get a picture of it when it was finished.

Happy Christmas!

An inside look at the Panzer family Christmas.    Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. See you next week!

John Ornament

[John Ornament]

My mom gave me this ornament when I got off the plane in West Palm Beach a couple weeks ago.  Isn’t it nice?  She and my sister found it while they were shopping on black Friday.  She gave a second one to John’s mom, and was sad that they only found two – meaning she didn’t get one.  It’s a little big for our 3ft tree, but it’s still really nice, and will be a great addition to the tree next year.  Thanks Mom, and happy Christmas Eve to those who celebrate it!

PS: Holy cow, I just realized that not only did I get the pom-pom garland idea from Beki, but I also got the letter wall idea from her! So, thanks Beki too!

Pom-Pom Garland

[pom-pom garland]

I saw these all over the internet and knew I had to make one for myself. I used embroidery floss though, which I don’t think was the best idea. Kipp has been eager to get at the toys in her stocking, and embroidery floss stretches. But it was a fun, easy project that I could absentmindedly do while watching TV. It seems the trick to doing crafts on the couch with a puppy is to have someone else there (John) to distract her!

Some Christmas Decorations

I only put up the 3ft tree this year because of Kipp, and I loaded it with waaaay more ornaments than I did last time I used this tree. I really liked how it looked over on the sewing table with the toy train I got while thrifting for my ugly sweater, and one of the snowmen I got way back in Miami. Unfortunately, the table wasn’t enough to protect the tree from Kipp; she chewed on the wattage tag on the tree and accidentally chewed through the wire. On the pre-lite tree. Grrrrr. John bought a new plug for it though, so it should be fixed soon.

I wrapped some garland around our dining room table chandelier and hung various ornaments on it. I think it looks really cool, although I do keep it somewhat dim because I’m not sure how the old wiring will take the garland. It’s been up for a few weeks now with no problems though, so I think it’ll be fine. Some of the ornaments hanging from it were made by John’s uncle, who passed earlier this year.

All my bears from 2001 on. Last year, Walmart started to only make the large versions, so I don’t know what I’m going to do! I bought the large versions for last year, but I really don’t want them this year. I don’t have room to store large bears!

Our nutcrackers. My parents bought the soldier one for John this year.

Robot Christmas Table

Normally I just put a table runner on our coffee table, but with Kipp’s love of chomping on everything, I decided to do something different. And I think I like it more. I think the “how to” is pretty self explanatory, but I took pictures along the way, so I thought I’d write up a tutorial.

1. Tape a bunch of pieces of cardboard together, creating a frame that’s a little larger then your piece of glass. (I used various sized food boxes from our recycling bin.) Put the glass from the table on top of the frame and trace. Cut out the shape slightly smaller then the box you traced.

2. Stop your pets from eating the scraps and attacking your work.

3. Put your frames on the table to make sure they fit. Make any adjustments needed. Wrap frame with decorative paper.

4. Try not to do it at 11pm because you might not notice when the cardboard folds over on itself and you wrap it up too small. :-/

And that’s it!  Easy peasy.

Auction’s Over!

The auction is over! Whoooo! Now, I just have to organize all the certificates so that they are matched up with their winner’s names. But that will be done this weekend. I’m going home!

I Made Sushi! (Kinda)

John came home today for the Christmas holiday! He’ll be here until the 31st.

I tried my hand at making some sushi. I have had this sushi making kit and Asian dining set for ages, but I avoided trying to make sushi because I didn’t know where to get sushi grade fish. So, I made carrot and cucumber rolls instead.

I used brown rice because that’s what I had, but I cooked it for a while to make it sticky. I ended up cutting waaaay too much cucumber and carrot. It was a pain to do since I didn’t want to use a grater or anything. I should have just cut up half the cucumber. Oh well.  I made rolls and then one cone for each of us.

It ended up being really messy, and the rolls didn’t want to stay together. I tried using water to make the seaweed sticky, I tried putting rice along one edge since that was sticky, but I ended up just having to smush it. Plus, I don’t think my knife was sharp enough, because it broke my rolls most of the time when I tried to cut them. That’s why you see those random edges of rice sticking out of my rolls. 

But they still tasted good, and I guess that’s what’s important, right?!