I was dreaming of a .... brown... Christmas?

Well, not really, but that's what we got. Not such a travesty for me, but I know Richard was really looking forward to a bit of snow and so far this year has been fairly snow free. I do admit though that Christmas just doesn't seem as, well, Christmasy without a bit of snow on the ground.

Christmas eve was nice.... we didn't do anything special, but Richard ended up working just half his shift before he was sent home because there just wasn't enough tech support calls coming in to support a full crew. We watched "Holiday Inn" and "Muppet Christmas Carol" and went to bed at a decent time. Woke up at 6:30 on Christmas and since neither of us can really get back to sleep once we're up we decided to stay up and just start the day.... so much for sleeping in!

Presents were passed out, and I think we were both pleasantly surprised... we especially loved the family gift exchange presents we received from Miya and Roy. We ended up taking a brief nap that afternoon and then started cleaning up because we had friends coming over for dinner. I did kick myself a bit though since I had plans to make a batch of root beer float fudge (well, try it anyway) along with a normal batch of fudge and homemade caramels to give away.... and didn't make any of them! Bad me... especially since I bought cream and stuff to make them with!!!!

It was nice being able to visit with my old roommate and her son and daughter-in-law, and dinner was pretty good as well, though my candied yams failed miserably.... I apparently ran out of brown sugar without realizing it and decided to try using maple syrup (not pure maple syrup but the cheap crap and you could tell). Luckily the ham and everything else turned out lovely, because Richard and I will be eating leftovers for the next few days! So in about half an hour I need to zip into the kitchen and start making a homemade au gratin potatoes and ham casserole for when Richard comes home.

Today I had plans to do a bit of stitching... I made and gave away a wedding sampler for Christmas that I am just in love with and want to make for our home as well. It was lovely being able to wind down my evenings with needlework every evening. Silly me failed to take a picture of it before I wrapped and sent it off though! I have a couple of designs I have drawn up and, now that I am not under a time constraint, I want to try stitching them. I have about half of the office/craft room unpacked and have found a bunch of my embroidery floss (plus, Richard bought me a 150 skein pack of floss for my stocking!) and I have a bunch of Aida cloth that came from my stepmother's old stash so I certainly have some great supplies to play with. I will have to run to the fabric store in the next couple of days and buy more linen... the wedding sampler was my first piece stitched on linen and I don't think I want to ever go back to Aida cloth again (its okay if you didn't understand that) Aida has its place, but I really did fall in love with the look of a piece stitched on linen.

Whoa.... this suddenly turned into a crafting post!

So today has just been a nice day to unwind for me... cleaned the kitchen up from yesterday but that's about it (since we gave the apartment a great clean yesterday). I played a few things on Netflix ("The Girl Who Played With Fire"/"The Girl Who Kicked A Hornets Nest" and a few episodes of "Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares") while I read a book I got for Christmas about selling crafts online with a cat passed out on my lap. The book has some great ideas for your own site as well as on Etsy, and, first step, my shop name has changed from fiftytwo to FiftyTwoPhotography.... since its a photography shop then the author suggests that, hey, I mention what it is that I sell there! We'll see how it goes. It would be nice to finally make a sale on that site.... goodness knows my prices are beyond reasonable and I wouldn't even make anything really from it (given I've been paying listing fees for over a year now). Still considering giving up the photography site because I don't think people are buying much in the way of photographs right now. I will be starting a new Etsy site for crafts in the year to come.... fingers crossed!

Tonight will probably be an early bedtime for me, since I was up at 4:30 this morning... I go back to work in the morning, so I will definitely need to get some sleep! I think Richard is planning to watch some episodes of "Smallville" when he gets home (I got him hooked on the show.... we're now midway through season two). Otherwise it will be a nice and quiet evening (which I love).

The forecast for the next 10 days is in the low 40s and no snow.... poor Richard! It looks as if his New Year is also going to start off brown. We're planning to stay home anyway and have a bit of a Doctor Who marathon for the weekend, but it would be nice to see a bit of snow anyway. I may have to drive Richard up to Sundance so he can play in it a bit... our one evening of snow just got him excited to see more of the white stuff.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that the New Year to come will be full of joy and wonder....

All my love....

Shawna