it’s not quite over yet, because i haven’t posted my millions of photos here.

(this is chocolate-covered bacon, courtesy of aunt kim.)

during the actual christmas weekend, jason and i went to south dakota to celebrate with my family. we hung out with a bunch of my hometown friends on friday night (and mostly had the karaoke stage to ourselves), celebrated with my mom’s family on saturday (christmas eve), and celebrated with my dad’s family on sunday (christmas day).

other long-overdue posts on the way: the monday after christmas was for celebrating bertine and zach’s wedding. last weekend, we drove down to des moines to celebrate christmas (and nephew jaxon’s second birthday) with jason’s family.

that’s a lot of celebrating!

this is the face that hannie makes when she is excited but shy. she’s a pretty adorable kid!

have i mentioned the four shih tzus that accompany my mom’s side of the family?

we have been doing a white elephant-style gift exchange for quite a few years now. the premise is that you roll the dice and if you get a pair (or two pair), you can pick a gift (or two gifts) from either the pile in the middle or you can steal from someone who has two or more gifts. this year, dad tried to steal a gift from hannie and you know what she did?

she cried. of course. don’t steal gifts from the baby of the family!

jeremy got a jar of preserved lemons. what would you do with that?

pretty much all of jason’s gifts were for me (zebra-print snuggie, bubble bath, fondue set for two — i suppose maybe i’ll share that one with him).

i like this sequence of photos. dog in box — kid petting dog in box — kid in box.

these desserts may look the same but one was pistachio and the other was chocolate. i tried both, both were awesome.

later on christmas eve, after returning to my parents’ house, we had our own little christmas. hannie is very good at opening presents!

i gave bryan coffee and sausage for christmas. he claimed it was exactly what he wanted.

dad got a giant box of chocolate and a donut maker.

jason got a domo calendar and many home depot gift cards (and we got a joint home depot gift card) — time to get crackin’ on those home projects!

this face is for ryan, the sender of the “unicorn meat” for bryan.

actual bits of “meat” inside! too funny.

a couple of my christmas gifts. (have i mentioned i’m in love with my iphone? last night it kept me up 30 minutes after i meant to go to bed — this happens too often now.)

hannie would later tell me not to mess up her piggies.

can you guess what this gift from pop-pop is?

hannie’s first fishing pole! we all had to make sure she didn’t swing it into our heads for the rest of the night. and the next morning.

(playing with the bokeh kit, which has all kinds of fun shapes.)

i wish i looked less tired in this photo, but as joyful and exciting as it had been, it had also been a long christmas eve day.

bryan and jason helped mom frost christmas cookies before we all wound down and went to bed. (visions of sugar-plums dancing in our heads…)

we went to grandma d’s house for christmas day. bryan and dad made homemade ice cream, yum!

three kinds of soup for lunch: zuppe toscana, chili, and chicken noodle.

homemade vanilla ice cream and jason’s egg nog cookies for dessert. yum x 2!

we all watched with excitement as hannie opened her gifts from “owl grandma.”

this is the view from grandma’s house, so we also watched the sheep graze all day.

hannie and i played with my iphone. she wanted me to try on aunt deb’s glasses, too.

jason and i drove home to minneapolis from grandma d’s house. on the way, i introduced him to the jolly green giant in blue earth, minnesota.

and when we got home, the kitties got to enjoy their christmas gift from hannie:

i’m finding that my iphone isn’t quick enough to properly capture playful cats!

First things first: let’s pour some motivational coffee.

Then ask Google for some measurement conversions.

Okay, get mixing!

Turkey Brine from Anne Burrell:
¾ cup kosher salt
⅓ cup sugar
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic, smashed
3 bay leaves
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 onion, diced
One 12- to 14-pound turkey

Combine 8 quarts cold water, the salt, sugar, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, garlic, bay leaves, carrots, celery and onions in a large container. Immerse the turkey in the brine and refrigerate for 2 to 3 days.

(This salt was a housewarming gift from my good friends, Bridget and Lindy — they also brought a loaf of bread.)

Just a touch of sugar!

(I’m not yet fancy enough for fresh herbs. Maybe someday.)

My sister shared some veggies from her CSA for Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Since these onions were a bit small, I used two instead of one.

Someone was very excited about both the turkey and the sunshine beaming into the house on this gorgeous Thanksgiving day. Can you believe temps in Minnesota were in the 50s? That is insane.

So, that’s a lot of brine.

The bird and the brine are wedged into a cooler to sit until late tomorrow night, or very early Saturday morning. I haven’t decided when would be the better time to remove the bird from the brine. Our friends are coming over for dinner later on Saturday, so either way I’ll have plenty of time to decide.

Sorry, Ellipses, we’ll have to wait just a couple more days!

Pattern: by Megan Goodacre, available on Ravelry.
Made For: Kelly and Ryan’s twins, due at the end of February.
Needle: US 7/4.5mm
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in blossom, almond, and plum
Completed: January 23, 2011

There are four different stitch patterns in this set, but I only made three: the garter stitch washcloth, the garter stitch stripe washcloth, and the seed stitch washcloth. I also increased the number of stitches I cast on from 24 to 36 and blocked each washcloth to 8″x8″. I knit two at a time on one of the DPNs I had just used for the OpArt Blanket. These were a quick project and I’m super proud that I didn’t mess anything up along the way! No dropped stitches, no ripping back… I feel like I’m becoming a real knitter with all of my projects lately.

Side story: Kelly is a coworker of mine, and her baby shower at work was last Tuesday, the 18th. I knit frantically the entire weekend beforehand (even working on the garter stitch washcloths during the Golden Globes, which I watched with friends — knitting a certain number of rows earned me another cracker with cheese, yum). I was barely a third of the way through the seed stitch washcloths by the end of that Monday. I thought about bringing a few finished washcloths the next day, but ultimately decided to just bring a “teaser” gift and make sure I really finished the washcloths (blocking and all). The next morning, before heading in to work, I stopped at Walgreen’s and picked up bubble bath and what I thought was a bath toy.

Turned out, the “bath toys” were teething rings, so I felt lame when she opened my seemingly weird gift. I really wanted to tell everyone, “no, no! There’s something much cooler that I wanted to bring but couldn’t finish in time!” But I just sat back and rolled my eyes at myself. Note to self: do not buy gifts before the morning caffeine kicks in.

View more details on Ravelry.

Of course, Ellipses was helping me take all of these photos last night. (I’m planning to knit some mouse toys for him next. He’s been dying to get the yarn in his mouth…)

i really just love being at home.

my parents’ house will always be home, of course.

living on polk street (the first time) meant i had to start shoveling snow.

i lived alone for the first time when i moved downtown. it was awesome, but a little lonely, so that’s when ellipses came to stay with me. i loved that apartment ’til the management changed.

when i moved out, i forgot a whole cupboard full of groceries. oops!

living in uptown (the second time) was kind of alright, but i felt crowded. and my studio apartment felt that much smaller when i added ampersand into the mix. i did once get a visit from an owl, though, that was awesome.

and now i live on polk street (again) and it’s really pretty great! big kitchen, nice living room, good neighbors, and my very own room of requirement.

my week day morning routine, since my weekend morning routine is usually just sleeping (if i’m lucky): usually alarm cat™, ellipses, tries to wake me between 5:30-6 a.m. for his breakfast and skritches. sometimes i lock him out instead so i can sleep for just another 10 minutes…

after feeding the cats, i plug in my phone to charge then stumble around in the bathroom for a while. i shower, then usually ampersand is ready for her skritches, then i brush my teeth and comb through my hair. i use at least 3 or 4 aveda products in my hair every morning to make my hair less crazy. (i love aveda.) somewhere between getting dressed and drying my hair, i brew coffee to take on the road to work and chow down some breakfast. lately i’ve got a thing for peanut butter toast.

my last step before heading out the door is usually putting on pants, because i want to spend very little time with the lint/cat hair roller when i get to work. but that’s about it.

i blame my cats for making me late every morning.