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Here's hoping you had a lovely Christmas and New Year's holiday time.

We had a quiet Christmas here at home:
We went to Christmas Eve services at church;

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then a wonderful Christmas Day and dinner with all three sons and girlfriends.

I then sewed like crazy on my new jacket--because we were going to South Carolina for a few days to meet up with old friends in Charleston, and the weather gurus were predicting freezing weather!

We're back now, and here are some pics of my new red, wool jacket.

I lined it with the purple rayon challis (lovely stuff!),

then my Mother reminded me that's what

the Red Hat ladies wear.

Oh, well, I still like the purple with the red wool!

The cats are thrilled that the staff has returned, BTW.

(I think he's saying, "Don't leave again or you'll get zapped with my laser eyes!" LOL~~~~

Merry Christmas!

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,

who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:11

Christmas Crackers, Continued....

Continuing....I had to quickly pick up and vacuum up all the stray shreds, as well as pause to pull some out of Titus' mouth.  I really didn't want to make an emergency trip to the vet.

Then I got further sidetracked with laundry, went to Christmas Eve services at our church, and made our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of tamales (purchased), rice and refried beans.

So, back to the crackers!

Here they are with name tags:

If I had been thinking more clearly, I would have used golden-color cellophane and gold shreds.  Next time...

Anyhow, here's how I plan to set the table tomorrow:

But right now I'm going to put these crackers away so certain cats (you know who you are) don't eat them overnight!

So, to all a good night!  And Merry Christmas!

Crackers! Finally, Finals are Over!

We had finals THIS WEEK!  Can you believe?  I took a final on Tuesday and was finally DONE for the semester.  Also got the Class Project from the netherworld done and turned in on Monday.



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Caveat: It was actually quite an interesting project.  I just didn't enjoy working on it so LATE in the year when I had better things to do!

Then I cleaned upstairs for two (yes, two! 2!) whole days.  One bedroom, one den and one teensy bathroom.  It's been the dumping ground for son #2 (with a bit of assistance in dumping stuff from son #3) and needed a ton of work.



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So now it's time for Christmas!

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Here's quick last-minute project: Christmas Crackers.



These beautiful crackers are from "Old English Crackers" online store,
where you can buy all sorts of cracker supplies (to make your own)
or ready-made crackers.

Not having enough time to order the "cracker snaps" that go POP when you tug open the cracker, I settled for the basic, non-popping cracker.

BTW, for great instructions on making crackers with the snaps, see "Not Martha"'s post on the subject.

Supplies I used:
Cardboard tubes (I used wrapping-paper tubes--you can use toilet paper tubes also)
Wrapping paper (already purchased)
Cellophane paper $1
Shreds $1
Little tiny gifts/candies/items $5
Jokes (printed out and cut apart)
Ribbon ($1)
Tape
Scissors

I went to the dollar store and purchased my supplies for less than $10!

Here's the little gifts (and sorry for the lousy photos!):

Fake mustaches

Little bubbles (found in wedding stuff)

Party horns (found in the New Year's decorations)

Kisses!

 Remember these?

 Hair clips for the ladies

Dumb jokes....

I cut the cardboard tubes 10" long to accomodate all the "gifts", using a serrated knife so I wouldn't crush the cardboard.

I cut the wrapping paper a couple of inches longer than the tube and wide enough to go around the tube and overlap. Then I cut the cellophane even longer than the wrapping paper.

Stuff the gifts and jokes inside, and then stuff some of the shreds into each end of the tube, letting some of it stick out the ends:

Wrap in cellophane first:

Then in the wrapping paper.  See how I let the shreds show through the cellophane? I gave it a bit of a haircut:

And tie off---I curled the ribbon:

Next...
Oh, no, one of the cats is eating the shreds! 
I'll be back in a minute.......