Knitting and Puzzles

I've spent a lot of the last week knitting. I knit Ben two hats, Alek one hat, and a new felted bag for me. Now I'm working on a scarf. Here are pictures of the bag, before it was felted. The blue and yellow yarns came from Purl in NYC, from a couple years ago when my sister and I took our parents there for a long weekend vacation. The pink and yellow fizz came from Shuttles, Needles and Hooks, the yarn store in Cary. The picture below shows the whole bag, with handles after it was stitched and ready to felt.The picture below is a close up of the side seam, which was to be lined in the hot pink yarn. The blues felted so well, the pink dissappeared after felting. Ah, well. This is a close up of the fizz topping and the handles.

Alek build a marble run on the kitchen table yesterday ... lots of fun!

Here's the whole run ...

We tore it down this morning and we'll build another one later today. Below is our first Christmas puzzle, only 500 pieces, that we built a couple weeks ago:

Holiday Week

Last week was full of Recorder club concerts for Ben. He played at the Retirement Home next to the school, the Capitol Building, Tir Na Nog in Raleigh (for the Tone Zone Jam, not recorder club), and a parent's concert at school Tuesday night. We loved listening to him play. His video at Tir Na Nog is on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWbTsO0c0co. I've had a lot of trouble uploading to blogspot. Above, at the Capital Building, in the Rotunda - the echo sounded really nice.

Up close with his friend Evan.

Alek waiting in line to perform at Tir Na Nog during the December Tone Zone Jam!

On the stool - ready to play for the enthusiastic crowd! Alek playing can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGz31ZrkmHA

We finished our first 1000 piece puzzle this week.

Ben, relaxing at home after school is out for the year.

I made mini ham-and-spinach quiches for breakfast Sunday morning - homemade crust and everything. They were very yummy!

Getting in the Holiday Spirit

Had a fantastic afternoon with Ben, making Christmas cookies at Dinner Savvy. We now have 10 different kinds in the freezer ready for Christmas!

Joy to the World

The Advanced Recorder club played it's first concert today at the retirement center next door to the school. Ben played his flute, but was in the very back, so I had to record him from behind to see him play.

He played a solo at the end, but my video camera ran out of power and didn't record it!! Auggh!!

Rise Up Bouldering Competition - Lynchburg, Va

Here's video of the Triangle Rock Club's Climbing Crew at the bouldering competition last weekend. Ben is wearing a white shirt and he's got red hair. You'll see him at about 1:58, and at the end getting his 1st place ribbon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ePxmdu0k8

Thanksgiving Fun

Mema and Papa came to visit for Thanksgiving and here are some fun things we did! Ben and Mema work on a Christmas puzzle - only 500 pieces and we all finished it.

Gary snuggling with the dogs!

OK, I snuggled with the dogs too.

Gary and Papa working on the next puzzle - another 500 piece Christmas puzzle.

Alek and Mema making snowflake ornaments.

The snowflake ornaments turned out SO pretty.

So I hung them all on our kitchen light.

Mema on Thanksgiving Day, wth her turkey pin.

Me making homemade noodles for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Yummy Thanksgiving Dinner - yes, I have turkey plates!

Ben's cranberry turkey jello. The top layer is cranberry jello, and the bottom layer is lime. It was good. The turkey mold worked pretty well.

Mema and I at Thanksgiving Dinner.

Papa and Ben at Thanksgiving Dinner.

The morning after, we made Julia Child's REAL Hollandaise sauce over poached eggs and ham with english muffins - yummy egg benedict.