Dinner with the Woods

Boy this has been a busy week. That's a good thing :).


joe finishing up some hashbrown casserole ;)



Tonight was the last dinner date of the week, and the company was the perfect pair with which to have it. Earlier in the week, Joe had arranged for our pastor and his wife to join as at some point for dinner at our new home, so we settled on this evening.

Pardon me and my short entry; it's been an interesting, eventful week, and frankly, I'm spent. :) It's either that, or the [incredible] hashbrown casserole that Debbie brought over is dragging me into a food-induced slumber that *might just last through the weekend. Whatever it is, I've been reminded all throughout this week that I am blessed. Blessed beyond reason, and blessed beyond imagination.

Tomorrow is new year's eve. I suppose I should get to sleep and start dreaming up some resolutions... or something. Hah.

xo | cmd

Company Cooking Class

Here in Illinois, there is no Kroger [love you, Ohio].

However, we have a marvelous store here: Dierberg's. All you Illini and Missourians [?], too, know exactly what that is. It's a grocery store of the tremendous sort, full of fresh, local produce, hard-to-find spices and novelty foods, and at least 6 designs of their own reusable shopping bags. Sure, it airs on the slightly more pricey side, but it's close to our house, and I happen to dig it, completely.

Well, when it came time for my office to brainstorm an idea for a company Christmas gift/celebration, we came up with everything from a plain ole' group dinner out to bowling, ice skating, white elephant gifting, and a few other ideas that just couldn't stick. It was Diana that finally suggested we reserve a couple spots on the roster for one of the cooking classes offered at the Dierberg's cooking school. We went with that.

Tonight was that night. We found out from Marc, Diana, and Nancy that this wasn't actually a class in which we would do any cooking, rather just sampling from examples whipped up by the instructors. That being the case, Joe met me after work, and we joined Meagan & Rob for an appetizer at Applebees, then the four of us joined the rest of our group at the Dierberg's down the street from our office. Nancy surprised us all; we thought her guest would be one of her daughters, but it turned out she brought Karen, the most recent Express veteran.

I'm glad we experienced that. I have to admit, it's going to be a very rare occasion that would motivate me enough to actually re-create anything I saw tonight, but it was interesting to watch the process as a third party from start to finish. We joked later that it would be no big deal, at all, to fashion the recipes at home if each of us did in fact have the 4 ovens, 3 sinks, 2 stovetop ranges, 2 microwaves, 1 walk-in fridge, and 1 assistant solely dedicated to following after and doing instant cleanup of dishes and other cookware. Sure, then, it would be a cinch. Haha. All in all though, glad we went. :)

Tomorrow is Friday, and that means we are one day closer to 2012. Woot!

xo | cmd

Eckert's with Eric

The boys texted me at work today asking,

"Dinner tonight. Eckert's, or Lotawata Creek?"

winner!

Oh man. Tough decision. Seriously. After much consideration, we collectively decided on Eckert's. It didn't really matter to Eric, since he's not been to either one, but the way we had it figured, Eckert's is both closer to us, but also holds the tiny advantage in that its farm and market atmosphere and fried biscuits are very hard to turn down. :)



fried biscuits. magic.



So Eckert's it was, and it wasn't even in the slight a bad call. I learned during dinner that their round of competitions had absolutely extended into today, over everything from chugging rootbeer to conditional consequences off missed basketball free-throws. I wasn't surprised, but honestly it was a welcomed comical break in the other repeated tedious nature of my work day.

Eric leaves in the morning; we're praying now for travel mercies.

Oh, and tomorrow night, we've got a cooking class to attend, compliments of my bosses. This was our original arrangement for our 'company' Christmas party. I've never been to a cooking class, let alone with Joe. This should be fun :).

Better get your chef face on.... 8=:-]

xo | cmd

First Snow | Eric Visiting

our backyard this morning = first snow

Well we survived the bustle of Christmas visitors, and spent the day yesterday in full-on recovery mode. Today, it was back to work, and quite the malicious first day back, just as a note. This was my Monday, and boy, am I glad that the 8-5 portion of it is loooong gone :).

I am happy and simultaneously a bit bummed that we saw our first snow today. I don't care much for driving in snow, but I do love to play in it; seeing as how it would seem seasonally appropriate, I felt like this delayed first snowfall should've been more than an inch of dust. Plahhhh. :P.

Anyway, sometime earlier this afternoon, Joe texted to let me know that Eric would be en route to our house later in the day for a few days visiting. It was short notice, but definitely good news. Eric is Joe's best friend, and was one of his best men in both our original marriage ceremony and our big, fancy vow renewal. He made it in early evening just in time for dinner, and then it was off to the Joe & Eric races.


eric & joe | earlier this year @ the slopes



By that, for anyone who doesn't know them well enough to assume what would inevitably transpire, I'll fill you in. My husband and his best friend are probably in the top 2% of people in the world when it comes to a spirit of competition. These two have a naturally inborn acceleration that forces them to accomplish a goal no matter what. And I do mean, no. matter. what. I've never seen two people so bent on succeeding at any one thing before in my life. If a goal gets planted, watch out. That being said, the two of them together transforms scenarios of everyday living into a marathon of mini-races.

For example: Following dinner tonight, I left them to their own devices in our still-spacious basement, only to be called down an hour later to find every available object arranged into part of an obstacle course. They'd planned out an instructed course of jumping, rolling, football-catching, hopping, and darting around the basement, and were timing each other through it. Hilarious.

So yeah. Eric's here, and so the visiting company continues. Good times, good times!

See ya, tomorrow....

xo | cmd

Poor December 26th



lazy days :)

As I sat at home today after my parents had left, and did purposefully and exactly... nothing, all day long, I thought about what other people might be doing today. The majority of my friends and family did something similar to what we did. I know a bulk of people flooded out to stores to soak up post-holiday sales, but after a weekend filled to the brim with cleaning, cooking, and company, I would've stayed planted in one spot for the entire day if I could have. Granted, I wasn't far from that mark, but overall, I can probably say that this blog entry is one of the most productive things I've accomplished today. Even Sydni seems to be in total veg mode today. My family collectively is in Christmas recovery mode. :)

I thought a second today about poor December 26th. It's one of those days that, aside from retail appeal, gets very little to no recognition. It's like the day after a birthday, after a huge event, after anything significant, really. It's one of those days that's parallel to being a sophomore in high school: Freshman year is December 1 - it's the entry point to the most prominent month of holiday magic. Junior year is December 24th - you're almost there, almost the big deal. Senior year is Christmas Day - all eyes are on you and everyone's celebrating. But poor, poor December 26th. Nobody sees you. Well, I saw you today, and I just wanted to say thank you for partnering with me on an ultimate day of rest and relaxation. I appreciate it :).



my favorite lazy bums ;)



Okay, so I've had a lot of time on my hands today. I'm okay with that.

Tomorrow, it's back to work. Short work week, yeah!

xo | cmd

Merry, Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas, loved ones!

It's Christmas!!

The only thing that I can pin that would've made this day any better would have been the presence of Joe's mom and family. Aside from that, it was an incredible day filled with worship, food, family, and friends.

We started the morning with the customary opening of presents, followed by breakfast, followed by our church service. The usual Towerview morning worship was replaced today with a choir-based service, complete with cantada and mini-message from Pastor Ron.



yay, presents!



After the service, we rushed back to get started on the afternoon's menu. I finally put the turkey given to me as a Thanksgiving gift by my bosses to good use: we had that buster in the roaster in no time and were on to getting everything else done. Three hours later, we were putting the finishing touches on maple-glazed carrots, green beans almondine, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, and salad. Our guests started trickling in around 3pm, and in no time we were off to a full course meal. The Pages were the first to show, followed Jarod, and the by the Babots. Both Lara and Cathie brought desserts to share, which were absolutely delicious; I'm glad they took the leftovers back home with them, for the sake of my diet. ;). The kids were able to run completely wild in the basement, and eventually settled in the living room for an early evening showing of Finding Nemo. Even the Sandvens stopped by after dinner with Tessa, who wasted no time joining in on the cycle of kids racing throughout the house.

This may be one of the best Christmases I've had so far.

We are truly, truly blessed. Amen.

xo | cmd

Eve of Christmas, 2011

dad & syd

ONE MORE DAY!!

I'm so excited for Christmas. It's not the gift exchange part I'm most anticipating, but the fact that we have a gorgeous home this year, and tomorrow, we're going to pack it full of some of our family and close friends. I know what it's like to spend the holiday away from family, so I feel honored that some of our friends and fellow military families are going to be here tomorrow in lieu of traveling far out of the state to see theirs.

Today was beautiful. We were able to spend breakfast together as a family before Heidi and Paul headed out to head to Kansas to see Paul's family. Mom and I made a trip to the grocery store to get ready for tomorrow, and did some last, last minute shopping.

When we got back to the house, I let my parents talk me into something I nearly regretted. When I was a kid, my parents were just like so many other parents in history who were dedicated to capturing every available memory on video. It doesn't sound that bad now, but I'd both forgotten how awkward I looked in my pre-teen years, and that I was absolutely a bit crazy. Since the original videos were trapped inside a little 2x2" black cassette, they'd been laying dormant for the last 15 or so years in a box under my parents' television. As it turns out, my mom had them transferred recently onto DVD's, making for both instant and easy access.

Greaaaaat........



Christmas present from my mom to us:
handmade watercolor portrayal of family, faith, and future.



So they thought they'd bring them and we'd watch. I chose one that I thought would provide the least amount of embarrassment for me, and we popped it in. I was flashed back to Christmas 1994: I was 10. That meant I was still in my super-curly hair stage, but moreso had gone with a short haircut. I looked like a poodle. Couple that with goofy kid behavior and and you've got me, fresh out of bed on Christmas day squeeling over a remote-controlled Barbie car. Haha.

Fast forward to the next set of transferred clips, a few years later. I was 13, and just as every bit silly, only this time wtih braces, complete with mult-colored neon rubber bands. Oh, man. I was cool.



sydni setting the table for dinner!



That's how we spent our day. Revealing as those home videos may have been, it was quality time spent with my family. Besides, one day down the road, I'll have the same type of videographic footage with which I will thoroughly embarrass Sydni and any other children who wind up in the perhaps unfortunate grasp of my creative parental endeavors. Haha.

I sang a song by MercyMe for the Christmas Eve service at church, titled Joseph's Lullaby. It's a really beautiful song, and I'd like to say that I thought of singing it on my own, but I have to lend the credit to Jarod for suggesting this one. It went off with minimal pitch issue, even though it was a bit of a range stretch for me.



an early Christmas present for sydni!



We ended the evening by opening one gift; that was the custom in my house growing up and it continues here :).

Santa's coming tonight, if you didn't hear ;)

xo | cmd

Pre-Christmas Begins!



comfort candle
accompanied by frankson the festive flamingo

So it was decided by Diana yesterday that we would do an office breakfast together this morning in early celebration of the big day. Diana and Marc made a baked French toast of which I regret both a) not photographing, and b) eating, but both of those ensued just that way, and that’s that. Breakfast was accompanied by the gifting of aromatic candles catered perfectly to the individual stylings of each of us, plus a very nice little bonus. My two staffing consultant colleagues did not disappoint in their thoughtful gifts, either. Between the French toast, white-chocolate pretzels, homemande puppy chow, miniature fruit cake, and various other festively-sugared adornments, it was a wonder we all weren’t bouncing off the walls by the time we bid the office adieu for the long weekend.



sydni & her guests:
pappy | nana | aunt heidi


My parents and sister were on their way in from Ohio, and, with medium amount of fuss, arrived at our *house* late in the evening. This is special in that Joe and I have been blessed with a house that very unique arrangement between us and one of the families at our church here in IL. Long story short, the townhouse we originally shared when we first moved here was working out just fine as a temporary thing. A couple at our church was in the process of a job-related relocation out-of-state, a situation requiring them to buy a home at their new destination, but also leaving them with an unsold house here. The only catch for us was that they had already enlisted the services of a real estate agent. In the meantime, they decided to entrust their beautiful home to a young family in their church [ooh! That's us!]. So we're here, disguising this house's mortgage payment as monthly rent, and in doing so being blessed with the space and amenities of an actual house, not a townhouse apartment.

God is good. God is faithful.
Thank you, Lord, for your blessings.



family shot | sisterly jam session | duets with paul & heidi



Anywho, so here we are, and there my family was, walking through the front door under the semi-false pretense that they were making a pitstop at the home of some of our church friends. Not a total lie, no, but we wanted to give them a big surprise for their first visit to our house. Needless to say, our near month of careful awareness in passing conversation paid off; they had no idea.

We got another surprise for the weekend: My sister's beau, inspired Christian Contemporary artist Paul Clark, made his way from Kansas to spend the evening with all of us. That meant an inevitable chunk of the evening dedicated to guitar-playing, singing, and eventually an impromptu photo shoot of the whole family loaded up with guitars and huge smiles. We have a blast around here :).



happy almost Christmas eve!



I love my family.

The lineup for this weekend looks pretty solid: tomorrow, we'll relax here and spend the day together before the Christmas Eve service at church. On Christmas, we'll enjoy the church's Christmas Day celebration, and then we'll cook our hearts out for our Christmas dinner with our family, the Babots, Pages, Sandvens, and Jarod :).

This is gonna be a great weekend. I can't wait!

xo | cmd

Spreadin' Some Scarf

I’ve been knitting almost daily since that first little inkling I had a month or so back, and it’s paid off. I had an immediate goal of finishing enough scarves to assign one to each one of the names I’d added to that part of my Christmas list. I’ve always appreciated a handmade gift, especially one tailored specifically for me, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.


pretty little gift boxes | michael'scardstock cards with embellishments

In order to help me better customize, I thought I’d name each project accordingly. I got pretty creative with them [*sarcasm*]. Here’s how that’s going, so far: 

diana :: crimson reds



nancy :: cobalt blues

meagan :: burgundy & rose

I thought I’d stir up the Santa-bug a couple days early at work, so I gathered up everything last night and of course did a little documentation for the digi-scrapbook beforehand.

Just a few more days!! J

xo | cmd

Pinterest!

Today’s a big day for me J 

Add caption

For all of my fellow blogbots and creativity-fueled DIY-ers out there, if for some reason you haven’t already discovered Pinterest, I would suggest you pause my little amateur operation here and www-dot your way over there to check it out.

[You back, yet?]

Well, so today I took a time-out to refresh my bank of creative inspiration and perspective by oogling over some pins posted by people from all over the place. Understand, this is a website that could easily hoard hours and hours of my time and send me reeling into ambitious dreams and ideas on how to renovate everything in my house from the front door to the dish detergent.

I thought I’d share some of the fun with the class. Keep in mind, I didn’t generate any of these ideas, but you can bet I might be replicating some!

crochet/knit costumes for babies. i want, want, want.

santa hat brownies!



shower hook necklace library :)



this one was just an extra ;)

Have a day full of pinspiration!

xo | cmd

Orange Lights, Orange Peels

I love fog.



neighborhood street lights + fog
= fun with shutter speeds



There’s something about that low-settling mist that has both simple beauty and an eerie appeal. When I got home tonight, there was a dense fog situated over our neighborhood, covering the lawns, the cul-de-sac behind us, and almost all the way up to the tops of the street lights. I grabbed the camera and had proceeded to have some fun with the shutter speeds in the low light. 

Result? Funky, fun, orange zig zags and curly-q’s of light.

a cutie for my cutie ♥

As usual, I had my little side-kick assistant there to point out all the different shapes and lines I showed her in the photographs. She begged and begged me to take some pictures of her, but not until she had satisfied a craving for an orange. Random, I know. Now, we’ve all seen the commercials for Cuties, the pint-size fruits that claim they’re made specifically for kids. I’m here to tell you that is exactly right J

And with that, I’m callin’ it a [[good]] day, folks!

xo | cmd

Cookie Time!

I love that sometime long ago, someone decided that the appropriate edible precourse to Christmas involved cookies. Just sayin'. 

delivered to work, from karen!

Well, Monday flew by without much protest; good thing for that, seeing as how Mondays tend to be on the list of things with which I regularly squabble. Either way, the prime of this one came and went in civil fashion, leaving me with ample time to spend with Joe & Sydni once I got home. In the spirit of Christmas, and with the inspiration from the already-growing collection of goodies delivered to my work, we opted for a very appropriate session of cookie-making! 



cookie makin'

Our goal originally was to accomplish a few batches: one (or two) for immediate eating, and the rest for either gifting, or consumption at a later time. While I’m happy to report that we managed to complete the night without burning down the house or otherwise destroying the place, we didn’t quite make it to any left-overs.

cookie monster!

Oh, well. We had a blast, and that was really the only thing I cared about doing.

Enjoy.
-- The pictures, I mean. Not the cookies. There’s none left: I live with not one, but two cookie monsters ;).

Six days!

xo | cmd

S U N D A Y

Wanna know how to stretch out every inch of a Sunday?

Well, you're in luck, friend. I'll give you one good example of how to do just that. :)

I knew last night going into today that we would be on our toes and on the go-go-go for the bulk of the day, if not the whole entire thing. I was right on point; all I could do was take a deep breath as I scurried out the door in efforts to be on time for church choir.

There are, every so often, messages delivered by the pastor that stand out on a personal level and really hit home in a way that sends you home still reeling from the clear impact of what you just heard. Instead of that slightly unnerving sense of conviction that tends to pull on me in those catered-to-Cori messages, today's was enlightening, encouraging, and fueling. I left church feeling spiritually refreshed. It was certainly a good morning.

We bee-lined directly from church to a BW3 lunch outing with the Pages, Babots, Prescotts, Woods, Jason, and Jarod to celebrate Alex's birthday. Being the food-loving folks that we are, it was an excellent intro to the afternoon, complete with a Rudolph-iced cookie pizza. Alex claims that was Landon's doing, but we still say, hmmm.... :) Joking.

vetta sports | easton's birthday party

happy birthday, easton!

When the bellies were full and the bill was paid, we made a quick pitstop at home to change clothes and head back out to Vetta for little Easton's big 2nd birthday blowout. We spent a few hours there overseeing a hoard of running, screaming, bouncing, kicking children playing to the complete contentment of their little hearts. We settled down for about 45 minutes while everyone ate and Easton dug into his presents, and then made another stop at home to change, yet again, for the evening church service.



towerview children's play
jarod as Jesus

The regular church service was replaced tonight by the children's play. Major kudos to all the hands that were tasked with coordination and execution of the play; it went off without a hitch and we spent the evening awwing over adorable children prancing about dressed as angels and wisemen.

That, my friends, is how you cram a Sunday from top to bottom.

4 destination events 

3 wardrobe changes

2 birthday celebrations

1 children's play

0 downtime :)

Gooooodnight, kiddies. 

xo | cmd

Ode to the Sandwich: Blues City Deli

Hello, adorable new discovery!

blues city deli | st. louis, mo



sandwiches, galore!

A close friend of the Babots is in town for a weekend visit, so Alex and Joe coordinated for us all a little lunch outing across the river. We opted to travel off the grid of mainstream eateries and into what is for us an uncharted portion of St. Louis, and found ourselves at the Blues City Deli. It's a cute flapper-esque corner dive neatly situated into a neighborhood of quaint little brick townhouse apartments. It came as a recommendation from Alex, so we trusted his judgment on the menu, and I'm glad we did. I can't even now remember what it was that I ordered, but I do know that it was a sandwich, it was positively delicious, and if I have the opportunity to re-visit the experience in the near future, I will. Lest I forget to include that Landon and Sydni had quite the giggly time challenging the shadows of themselves on the wall, it did add to the lunch-hour entertainment.

Aside from our over-the-river-and-through-the-traffic mini excursion, it was a fairly average Saturday. Tomorrow's going to be one of those nonstop Sundays: church, Alex's birthday lunch, Easton's birthday party, and the children's play at church.

I suppose we'll call it an early night, then!

xo | cmd

Front Page Fame?

And the Dills name goes live worldwide in 3...2...1 :
The first challenge Joe gave me when he came home from work this morning was,

Guess who was on the front page of Yahoo! last night.

-- No idea?

A short blurb of background info for you:

<< This is Joe's cousin. She's a model, semi-famous at that. This is who was on the front page of Yahoo! last night. As the every-day folk that we are, it's a little surreal to see someone we know, let alone a relative posted up on the front page of article highlights. 

I realize that little article there is pretty dinky, but if you follow the Yahoo! newsfeeds, you've already seen it. I personally, was amused if nothing else. We'll leave it at that; interpret how you will... :)

Oh, and on an unrelated sidenote, here's another gem of comparable interest we saw today:



chevy lincolns - rare breed.



Yeahhhh.



It's clearly been a uniquely *classy* day.

"Nite." 

xo | cmd

Mama's Little Seamstress



freely adapted version of helping
by sydni :)

One of the fascinating things about attempting to stay crafty is the mass of random nic-nacs that seem to accumulate into a collection over time. Over the past few years, I've definitely seen a noticeable increase in my arsenal of tools, material, and other various odds and ends. My goal is to keep them in use on a consistent basis, and, if I'm lucky, pass the tradition down to Sydni.

Depending on how you see it, we could be off to a good start. She's taken up interest in one of my tape measurers; as a sidenote, this is solid testament as to why not to buy expensive toys for toddlers. She totes this thing all over the place, and will request it in detail - "A baloo tep messie" - everytime she can't locate.. the *blue tape measurer*.

Tonight I did some touch up work on a few random things I had lying around, and sure enough, there was my little helper, ready if nothing else to entertain me with her silly antics.

It's almost Friday! :)

xo | cmd

"MY BED!"

This is what happens when you have a toddler who believes that every square inch of the house belongs specifically and entirely, to her.

Today started off with a fixed bed and a tidy room. It ended with Joe and I taking care of some other things before calling it a night. We attempted to settle into our bed, but were both quickly dismissed by little miss this-is-my-bed-and-you'll-touch-it-when-I-say-so. I couldn't resist capturing the moment of her relaxing after she'd first brought in her clothes and scattered them on the bed, climbed up and jumped on it for a few minutes, then rolled around in all the blankets until they were in a satisfactory state of disarray. She finally parked herself right smack in the middle and dedicated her focus to the tail end of a Phineas and Ferb episode.

* I will miss these moments, I know. *

For now, I love them. ♥

xo | cmd

Can We Please Call it CHRISTMAS?

RE: Christmas vs. State.

Christmas lights. Not holiday lights.

I've got a bone to pick. I know I'm not alone in my thinking, but I also know there are just as many people who would prefer that thinkers like me just sit down and hush. Well I say, no, thanks.

Here's why.

At right about the time July 4th passes us by, the gears start shifting into holiday mode. First it's Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. That's fine. Most of us know by now that Christmas is usually [and I sport that term loosely] considered the highest rank of the three in terms of consumerism, travel, and top-to-bottom festive decorating. By the end of Thanksgiving day, retailers are halfway done lugging out the displays for Black Friday. The scene for Christmas shopping hits the ground running at that time, and carries  the mass of obsesssed shoppers all the way through the big day. While that's all fine and dandy, here's my hangup:



 Now, I'll lead with stating that I am very familiar with the relevence of culturally-recognized celebrations, and if that's your calling, then I fully respect that. However, as it pertains to Christmas specifically, my qualm lies in that, collectively speaking, we have generalized Christmas down to calling it just a holiday. While I'm certainly in agreement that it is a holiday, worth every ounce of celebration; I completely disagree with refusing to address it as Christmas. I don't mind when people tell me, Happy Holidays; it's a cordial gesture, but what I do mind is when I reply with, Merry Christmas, and am corrected in regards to my blatant disregard of being politically correct.

Let's think about this logically.

1. I didn't make it up that Jesus Christ was born into the world. I personally am not the first person to celebrate His birth and purpose with a denoted holiday. Christmas. We even named the day after Him. Did you really think Santa created the day? What in the world is Santamas? The classic Christmas story didn't start with a cute poetic reference to a panel of politicians voting on the best day to schedule a vacation or a shopping spree. [[P.S. - The government didn't create Christmas, so excuse me for dismissing their loftly opinions.]] Oh, and if you're one of those folks that likes to separate syllables into separate words, try this one on: Christmas = Christ. Mas. Mas Christ. Translation: More Christ.

2. Regarding the preparation for Christmas: Who puts up a holiday tree? Who comments on your beautifully adorned holiday lights? Does anyone out there call Jingle Bells a holiday Carol?  I've yet to hear someone tell me they're scrambling to get their last minute holiday shopping done. I've yet to meet parents who greet their children on Christmas Day with, "Happy Holidays, kids! Open your Holiday presents!" How many people have you ever heard the following week saying, "Hey, what'd (fill in the blank) get you for the holiday?" It's Christmas, kiddos.

3. I believe whole-heartedly in an occasional reprieve from our jobs, but I also tend to lean on the idea that if I were to get so bent out of shape about celebrating Christmas, then I shouldn't bother taking a Christmas vacation or break. For those of us who've forgotten, the great nation in which we live was founded, in all its beauty, on Christian principles. I happen to embrace our beautiful country and the liberties we are afforded within it; Oh, how I would hate to think that its establishment actually need re-arrangemed because a handful of people actually think it was ill-founded. Just sayin'.

4. Merry Christmas. :)

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some Christmas shopping needing some [overdue] attention. ;)

xo | cmd

I Haven't Forgotten....

It dawned on me today that in the midst of my newly-fashioned obsession with knitting, I've let my beadwork fall to the wayside. How rude of me. I made a resolution today to fish the bins of un-assigned beads, wire, fastenings, and other random trinkets out from hiding and give them some long-absent attention.



current knitting endeavor

 With Christmas just around the corner, I tend to be a little more bold in color selections and textures, simply because I feel like this is a brilliant time to celebrate boldness and color. Don't ask me how I arrived at that particular correlation, but I felt the distinct need to hone in on the array of ceramics over which I've always debated in adding to pieces. Why? Well, for starters, they're not cheap, and once I've incorporated them into a necklace or other piece, they are then no longer available for anything else. It's a ridiculous battle I'm constantly perpetuating in my own head, which could easily be remedied if I weren't so stinkin' fickle.

Whatev'.


ceramics: o, how i love you.

 Either way, I sorted out some ceramics today that, along the way, became part of a collection instead of a wearable item. I wound up losing focus on beads and leaning back on knitting when I realized that I should be crafting jewelry to match knitting projects, and vice versa. Hello, genius. Wake up.

That being said, I'll be taking Christmas gifts to a whole new level this week. Haha.
I'll keep you posted.

xo | cmd

Pancakes, by Pogi

Who are you, and where is my husband?!



he looks good in the kitchen, yeah?



I'm just joking. What a lot of folks wouldn't guess is that my dear husband is actually a decent cook when he wants to be. He shares the boat with a large chunk of guys everywhere in that the menu of his cooking abilities may be limited, but what he does conjure up in the kitchen is certainly worth commending.

Today was a classic example of him defying my assumptions regarding his chef skills. He really threw me for a loop today when I turned the corner and found him parked at the counter, whisk in hand, stirring away at a bowl of pancake mix. I was so proud! Fast forward to the finished product, a waffle [mixin' it up even more, yeah?], which didn't taste abnormal in the slightest, and was quite delicious.

High five, husband!

Today, pancakes and waffles.
Tomorrow, the next big baking sensation.
He'll make a sous chef out of himself, yet. Haha. :)

Love, love, love!

xo | cmd

Toddler-sitting!

Today was an exciting day for Sydni. It's not unusual for her to hang out with other kiddies on the weekends, especially Sundays due to church and post-church play dates. Today was special because Amy & Kyle asked us to watch Tessa for the afternoon while they got some Christmas shopping under control. I told Sydni about it Thursday after I'd originally confirmed with Amy, and she's been babbling about it since.



little buddies :)

 I was quickly educated on what it would be like if I had been graced with twins. It was funny watching two little girls being two little girls and all the wonder that comes along with that. They were more than content to play Barbies in the doll house, push baby dolls around in the stroller, and marvel over newly-painted fingernails [I lended some aid in that one]. After hours of squealing, chasing, playing, and the inevitable increments of innate toddler territorial disagreements, they settled into the big bean bag chair and peacefully remained there for nearly the entire duration of Finding Nemo.

All in all, a pretty fun day here at the Dills residence. Joe slept through the majority of the day since he'd worked last night, but he was awake when Kyle & Amy showed up later in the evening. He works again this evening, so I'll leave it at that and get back to the rest of our evening here.

Ciao!

xo | cmd