Went to our city's light parade, and the lighting of our Tumbleweed Tree (yep, a Christmas tree made of Arizona desert tumbleweeds). Wey hey, Father Christmas rode the fire engine!
Loaded up the car with duvets, Christmas music (sang along to this badly not knowing half the words, but half the fun is annoying Goth Child (who always knows all the words) in this way), snacks, hot chocolates and Christmas Lights Bingo cards and went on our annual Christmas lights safari.
Decorated our main tree with help from my 'best' helper Luca Brasi.
I have 8 trees around the house now of varying sizes...one 9', one white 7', 3 green 6', 1 green 3', 1 green 1' and Goth Child has a Charlie Brown 'twig' tree complete with red bauble.....one day I plan to have a Christmas tree in every room.....on the look out for inflatable trees for bathrooms for next year.
Every year the kids choose a new special tree ornament for our main tree....this year, Goth Child got a steampunk reindeer and Melchett got a Power Ranger (well all of them assembled actually). This tells you everything you need to know about my kids.
We did our Christmas jigsaw as per usual. Father Christmas can't come until it's done. We cut it fine this year finishing on Christmas Eve....but we had furry help.
We tracked Father Christmas's progress on Christmas Eve (with a little help from NORAD Santa Tracking apps).
We made more snowflakes, assembled terrible looking IKEA gingerbread houses (our fault not theirs.....our gingerbread houses used to look so pretty when I did them for the 3-4-5 year old Goth Child ;) still it's the making not the end result that's important on these things), played darts, danced the polka to Bob Dylan's Must Be Santa (yes, I have a leopard print onesie), put up our Father Christmas mantlepiece display....
Did our traditional opening of Christmas stocking on Christmas Day (the small gifts Father Christmas leaves during the night), pulled Goth Child off the computer from checking her replies on Deviant Art and as per usual went in pyjamas to the drive-through for coffee/hot chocolates.
Opened main presents after breakfast....can you tell Father Christmas brought what Goth Child and Melchett asked for?
Had a slap up Christmas dinner (turkey for the meat eaters, chestnut bourguignon pie for me, with yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, roast parsnips, carrots, peas, paxo stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce).
Played board games, watched Morecambe & Wise, and Porridge, Dad's Army, The Great Escape, The Sound of Music and lots of other very British things.....slept......and all fought off horrid colds.
So those of you who know me well actually realise I don't finish Christmas until January 6th.....Epiphany...Twelfth Night.....you know, when the Wise Men came to visit the baby Jesus.....except it wasn't then, it was months later. Hang on, I'm arguing with myself now.
(As we have a large Hispanic community here, lots of displays are popping up in shops eager to sell even more toys for Three Kings Day (Jan 6th). I've always thought it must be hard for these kids to wait this extra time to get their presents when they see others all around them getting gifts on Dec 25th).
I still carry on Brit end-of-Christmas traditions: decorations have to be taken down on January 4th and 5th (traditionally because it's seen as unlucky to still have them up at Epiphany, though my sister-in-law maintains provided you take down the angel or star on top of the Christmas tree by Jan 6th you're covered).
I also have to have one last mega blow Christmas baking session on Jan 5th, my equivalent of the traditional heavily spiced fruitcake for Epiphany....but for me, I make my last batch of indulgent mince (pie) stars (with my remaining jars of Robertsons mincemeat and added dark chocolate chips, brandy, orange zest, vanilla essence and glazed with maple syrup). Yum. Above is last year's batch....before I learnt about taking better food photos ;)
Christmas in the UK tends to start gradually from December 1st onwards, aided and abetted by the children's advent calendars, but decorations etc don't tend to be put up until mid December (for years our tree went up ONLY on Sports Personality of the Year night). Christmas therefore only feels 3 weeks long. I should be translating for the Americans here: I mean 'the Holidays'.
Since we've lived in America, this has changed. Christmas starts waaaaaaay earlier.
It starts when Father Christmas (of course they call him Santa here) arrives at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Here Christmas decorations start appearing in front gardens (yards) the day after, on Black Friday. So this year, that was November 22nd.
This was our Thanksgiving Day 2012 - watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade....including a very strange day routine by the Power Rangers which I obviously enjoyed because it was so surreal, and donning the car with Rudolph's nose and antlers before heading off to a friend's house where we took along cheese & bacon twists as starters (appetizers).
So when Christmas starts on November 22nd (and I've totally taken this Americanism on board, our garden decs start going up on Black Friday)....you can understand why most Americans like to have the festivities over by New Year's Day.
Do you get that feeling once New Year arrives that all those sparkly things around the house suddenly feel like clutter? I do. New Year always brings an overwhelming urge to me to get organised.
So I'm gradually putting stuff away this year instead of waiting for (an) Epiphany. And I'm making it feel less painful by persuading myself I'm being clever - light sets are being tested before putting away in storage boxes and dead bulbs being replaced....I'm gradually moving over to colour-coded storage boxes, purchasing a couple of red and green ones each year (Halloween decs are slowly moving into orange boxes)....and I'm boxing things up room by room, each with their own box and a list of what decs I put up where. I'm also rewarding myself with the last few mince pies and peppermint mocha coffee dregs on finishing a room.
I'll be back tomorrow to show you a final round-up of Christmas photos. I'm also itching to get this all done and dusted so I can get back to sewing......and playing with my new serger/overlocker. Squee.
Obviously this post was originally written and post in the week of the Newtown shootings. Check out the bottom of this post for something I'm joining in on to help the kids at the school get back to 'normality' in January, and you might want to join in too....
Fabric: 0.25 yd Alexander Henry La Paloma Dove Black & White scrap from stash, pair of black linen curtains from stash $0 (£0) Pattern:McCall’s 6324. Year: Contemporary. Notions: zip $0.99 (£0.61), thread. Time to complete: 12 hours. First worn: 16th December 2012.
Wear again? Absolutely.
Total Cost: $0.99 (£0.61)
The challenge: “Favourite (remake pattern that was fave of the year)”.
Another Sew Weekly challenge and another week that I just don’t want to be sitting here writing this, or smiling at a camera. For the third time my heart is elsewhere with the families and friends of the victims of a mass shooting in America. I found it hard to go on with the Reality Check challenge after the Aurora cinema shootings. I found it impossible to smile or even look at a camera for the yellow challenge when innocent Sikhs were murdered during their worship in Wisconsin. And after Friday……what can words say that come close to having any meaning. And there have actually been 16 mass shootings in the USA this year. It’s beyond words and makes sewing a frock and writing about its making seem a silly nothingness. I know my condition often makes it hard to have a ‘normal’ person’s perspective but knowing that doesn’t stop the sadness.
I took my 4th grader to school this morning. In the playground was an armed policeman. There for the safety of the kids. There for the safety of the teachers and the school staff. I’ve just received an email to all parents in the school district informing us about existing and planned security measures, including armed responses. We don’t see guns in the UK. One of the biggest cultural differences I’ve had to come to terms with is that guns are totally ingrained in American life. Seeing people walking around with them or wearing them in coffee shops and restaurants is so foreign to me. It makes me impossibly sad. The shootings at Dunblane had such an incredible effect on us in the UK. But here it just happens again and again and again and no-one thinks it can be changed (and there are those who are seriously advocating MORE guns….beyond belief).
I’m sorry. I tried to carry on as usual, especially as no-one’s clear or not if this is the last week of Sew Weekly 2012 and I wanted to finish my posts here on a high (I’ve got 2 more dresses to make that I’ll post on my blog fanbloomingtastic (and here if we can) so that I complete a whole year of weekly sews). But I can’t go on as normal today. Everything is too raw. I’m trying to get back to normal as quickly as possible. Who knows how much time we have with each other, so we need to make this brief time special and filled with love. I have almost no memory of Christmas’s as a child so I’ve always been a huge creator of happy memories for my children….I need to get back to ‘normal’ to make sure that 2012 still has these. Sorry. Anyway, here’s some pics of this week’s make.
I decided to make some ‘winter’ versions. This black and white version is the one I finished before the news of the Newtown shootings was released. I’d never done a version with a print yoke and plain bottom half, so I used some Alexander Henry La Paloma (the bird of peace) scraps I haven’t been able to find a use for before and a pair of black linen curtains from my stash. I’m making this green tartan version too, but I can’t right now….so if you want to see it finished you’ll need to check it out on my blog next year.
And at some point next Spring, I’m making a pinky purple version from all those odd bits of fabric I’ve got in my stash that I never knew what to do with:
If this is the last post on Sew Weekly this year I want to thank you all for an incredible adventure. You’ve all been amazing. You’ve inspired and encouraged me, you supported me when I thought I couldn’t go on. You helped me stretch myself to do things that were way beyond anything I could imagine at the start of 2012. Thank you Mena for giving us this outlet and opportunity to learn and create. It’s been amazing.
If this isn’t the last post and you get to see my two final dresses of the year, a leopard print one for Christmas and a red & black flocked satin evening dress for New Year’s Eve….then ignore I just said that because I’ll be saying it again, hopefully more eloquently when I’m not so sad in which ever one is the final post.
Be excellent to each other. Love one another. No matter what.
We actually did two photo shoots for this dress.....I fancied doing some outside with some Christmas lights seeing as in Arizona I can still walk about without a coat on in the evenings.....what am I talking about, I'm from the North, I used to go to the disco in Newcastle without a coat on. Hard as nails me. But as you can see they didn't quite work....we should have taken the tripod to cope with wobble on the longer exposure. But this gives you a feel for the dress without a top under it:
The National PTA is collecting hundreds of thousands of snowflakes and will completely decorate Sandy Hook Elementary, transforming it into a Winter Wonderland before the kids come back to school in January. Make some and send them off to help create a winter wonderland for the sweet children who have been through a lot.
They'd like you to make some, remembering that no two snowflakes are alike and to send them by January 12, 2013 (I suspect the sooner the better though) to
Connecticut PTSA 60 Connolly Parkway Building 12, Suite 103 Hamden, CT 06514
I'm thinking about donating my snowflakes hanging beside me in my office, I can always make more, and just remember how magical Gimbels looks when Buddy the Elf has been decorating it overnight in Elf.....isn't this a lovely way to show our support for the people and children of Newtown?
An annual tradition, for our 6th year running now, that unfortunately Oddcast (though it used be JibJab) delete in January so we can't look back on them, how we've changed and how our dancing's improved ;)
So 'enjoy' this whilst you can... Me, Mr D, Goth Child, Melchett and a very strange looking Luca and our 2012 Elf Yourself Hip Hop dance routine:
The first try blooper (when Melchett forgets her one line/action and unfortunately my acting was slightly better, on the 2nd take above I was stifling giggles):
The grumpy teenager remix (it had to be done, Melchett's face at the end is priceless in response to Scrronge McDuck.....I mean Goth Child):
If you use social media to chat about your sewing, you're probably a #sewcialist. Sewing + Social = Sewcialist. Find out more at sewcialists.org
Here's a list of sewing challenges, sew alongs & meet-ups around the world, in monthly order, on Kat's Modern Vintage Cupcakes blog:
Want to learn to sew? Here's Tilly & the Buttons (of Great British Sewing Bee fame) Learn to Sew online lessons:
Want to find sewists and sewcialists near you? Or to put yourself on the map? Click below for a set of maps of sewists & sewcialists around the world, organised by Vicki Muise of
Another Sewing Scientist:
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