I've reached the limit.

I have SO MANY RECIPES TO POST. All holiday treat stuff.

But here's the thing.

According to Blogger, I've reached my maximum bandwidth for hosting photos. And Photobucket + all other img uploaders is being REALLY lame about letting me upload my photos. 

Thus, no new posts.

I am quite sorry. :( And bummed.

But I hope everyone has some happy holidays coming at 'em. :)

Crafting for Christmas

Kyle's family does a Secret Santa every year for Christmas. And it's a lot of fun.

Except that I haven't been in the family for..2? 3 years? I don't know them well enough to really shop for them, and Kyle's just not good at it. I don't know why. He has some good ideas sometimes but..pretty much, it's up to me.

So when his cousin's boyfriend showed up at the Thanksgiving shindig with a bearded beanie, I had an idea.

I've been wanting to try making a dead fish hat for..a long time. Ever since I found the pattern a good 4 years ago. I just never had the perfect time to make it.

The time is NOW.

I honestly don't want to give it up.

If anything, it's a great conversation piece, yes?

His girlfriend says he'll love it, so I'm going off her word.

But if he doesn't love it, I'll gladly take it back and wear it.

Christmas Traditions.

When you meet me, the first thing you'll find out is I'll cook you or bake you just about anything. No matter what.

You sad? Here, have some cookies.

You happy? Here, have some brownies.

You hungry? Here, have a burrito.

I'm good like that.

One thing you'll learn about me is that I love Christmas. I love it. LOVE it. I can't emphasize that point enough. I'm giddy for homemade Christmas tree ornaments. I adore decorating the house. Oh, Christmas movies? Forget about it. Those, I'll watch all year. 

Christmas is my holiday.

Every year, the day after Thanksgiving (as long as I'm not terribly busy) the decorations come up and Christmas throws up its metaphorical goods all over my house while my tv spews "JOY TO THE WORLD" as Clark Griswold lit up his house dedicated to the Griswold Family Christmas.

It's a tradition.

Every family has their own. We're still a rather new family. We're still working on our traditions.

But one tradition I will NOT understand is the whole Elf On The Shelf thing.

That little cartoon elf? The one on the book? That thing's cute, huh? Adorable, even.

The one in the box? Um..yeah. No. Not happening. Someone PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one.

That thing is going to use its magic to kill me off in the middle of the night.

The info on the official Elf on the Shelf website states:

The Elf Tradition

Have you ever wondered how Santa knows who is naughty and who is nice? The Elf on the Shelf®: A Christmas Tradition is the very special tool that helps Santa know who to put on the Naughty and Nice list. This interactive holiday hide-and-seek tradition is perfect for children and families of all ages.

The tradition begins when Santa sends his scout elves out to Elf Adoption Centers. Waiting for their families to bring them home, these patient elves hibernate until their family reads The Elf on the Shelf, gives their elf a very special name, and registers their adoption online. Once named, each scout elf will receive its Christmas magic and become a part of the family’s Christmas each and every year.

Excellent listeners and even better observers, these scout elves are the eyes and ears of Santa Claus. Although they cannot be touched, or else they may lose their magic, the elf will always listen and relay messages back to Santa. Taking in all the day-to-day activities around the house, no good deed goes unnoticed; these scout elves take their job seriously.

Each night, after the family goes to bed, the scout elf uses his magical Christmas powers to fly back to the North Pole. Once there, the elf will make his or her daily report to Santa and visit with elf friends where they will tell stories about their beloved families, play with the reindeer, and of course, sneak some of Mrs. Claus’ cookies!

Before the family awakes each morning, their special scout elf will fly back to their home from the North Pole. However, since these elves like to play games, don’t expect to find them in the same spot!  While some like to hide in the freezer (probably because it reminds them of the North Pole) and others prefer to sit on the fireplace mantle or hang from the chandelier, these elves love to play hide-and-seek with their families.

On Christmas Eve, the scout elf will listen for Santa’s bell and then fly back to the North Pole until the next season, wishing every girl and each boy a Christmas of peace and a year full of joy. Join the tradition and adopt your own Elf on the Shelf now!

Cool story, bro.

So this elf, you buy it, name it, read the book. It watches your kids to report back to the Big Guy on if they've been good or not. The concept alone is great. Good job, creators. 

But then this part about the elf moving? Traveling? Likes playing games? One thing is screaming out to me.

Seriously, this movie gave me nightmares for a solid week.

Now, I'm not going to lie. I've been tempted to get one for one solid reason:

I LOVE seeing the photos of the "mischief" that my friends are posting on Facebook.

Some of their creativity has me rolling. It's excellent. I can imagine the looks on the kids' faces. It would be epic.

But that doll...that..no. It's not a doll. It's a possessed form of plastic, polyester fluffing, and good intention.

It really bums me out, though, because I try to be that mom. You know which one I'm talking about. The one that volunteers for everything school related. The one that goes on 0 hours of sleep a night to make sure everything is just perfect. The one that bakes cookies and goodies from scratch. I try for that. I AIM for that. 

If that elf wasn't so creepy, it'd be in my house.

I never got to really celebrate Christmas with the whole "Santa" thing when I was younger. And as I got older, I was kind of bitter about it. It was like I was robbed of something magical as a kid. I never got to experience the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny, either. Oh, sure. I got money for losing teeth. I got gifts on Christmas. I got an Easter basket full of goodies. I didn't miss any of that. But, man, the spirit of it all? I never had it. I WANT my kids to have that. Even if it means eating a dozen cookies and finishing off a glass of milk on Christmas Eve. I DESPERATELY want them to grow with the stories of magic and wonderment and, once they're parents, to be able to enjoy those moments with their kids. 

Screw it. I'm just going to crochet a little toy figurine that was mailed here from Santa. I mean, that's a good compromise, right?

Better than looking into the eyes of that soul-less being thing that's for sale at Target for $30.

Busy, Busy, Dreadfully Busy.

Okay. Not really dreadfully. That's a lie.

Thanksgiving happened. We ended up spending it at my parents' house early, then at Kyle's aunt's house. That's always a fun time, his family getting together.

Then we got home and Christmas sort of exploded in my house.

This is the upstairs tree.

This is the tree in our bedroom. Yes, we have two trees. What can I say? I LOVE CHRISTMAS.

Also, we got this one via FreeCycle. Love that.

This is a sofa table in our living room. Also free, but via Craigslist.

The decorations came from Kyle's Papa, again, free.

This was, again, from Kyle's Papa. Kyle's uncle Paul, the one who cornered me and asked me about my Facebook name upon our first meeting, made this. I love it. His name is Dolph Lundgren.

This ornament tree sits ontop of our DVD rack. We got it from my in-laws 2 years ago for Christmas. I love it.

SPEAKING of our DVD rack. Let me tell you a little story.

We had seasons 1-5 of FRIENDS, which happens to be one of my favorite shows.

Keyword here, HAD.

We were planning on selling them and saving up the rest of the money to get the box set of all the seasons. Good plan, huh?

Well, Selena made these friends on the school bus that lived down the street from us. Their mom came by from time to time, we had polite chit chat, whatever. 

These people screamed white trash, but who am I to judge? I just tried to look past what their outward appearance and actions put off. There's good in all people.

So, one night she comes over. Kyle's at work. I'm home alone with the kids. Before leaving, she asks if we can swap movies for a couple nights. No biggie, they live down the street. She goes home and grabs seasons 1-3 of True Blood. They're mangled.

She grabs all my seasons of FRIENDS. I treated these things like gold.

About a week passes by without any visits from the kids or the parents. I grow concerned, but I figure it'll be okay.

Kyle goes to their house with their True Blood DVDs to swap back.

They've disappeared.

Their landlord is there, and he's mad. The house has been destroyed.

The glass in all the windows has been broken out.

The carpet is ripped up and/or burned.

And the icing on the cake?

These people left their pets, dead, in the basement. In Wal-Mart bags.

What kind of people do things like this?! It's disgusting that people can be like this. Even more horrifying that they have kids. These kids didn't ask for a life like this. They deserve more than that.

Needless to say, I don't have my FRIENDS DVDs anymore. And when I found out, I admittedly about cried. I know, it's so petty and small and easily replaced. It could've been so much worse. The LANDLORD has it far worse than I do. I know.

Now, I'm not so mad. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm upset and hurt and disgusted at these people, but I'm to the point now where I almost feel sorry for them. What kind of life is that, so empty that they act this way? What kind of future is happening for the kids? My heart hurts for them.

I keep telling myself that they need the money they would get selling the DVDs more than I need them for watching. They need good food on their table, or Christmas presents for their kids. I don't know or believe that they would be spending the money on that, but if I think that the money will go towards good things, I'm not so mad anymore. I can handle it. It's not a huge loss.

After that huge blow to my emotional side, I got busy.

I made Riah and Dot Monster some owl hats, which I posted a picture of once before. Here they are again.

After I made them, Riah decided she wanted a pink one instead.

You know kids.

So I made her a pink one. The purple one went to her cousin, along with a matching small purple one for her baby cousin. Then I made a small pink one for their half-sister.

Then, after being told by MANY people MANY times, I posted a photo on a Facebook "garage sale" group with prices, to see what kind of response I'd get.

Well..I'm up to my ears in crochet projects right now.

I was overwhelmed. I'm still overwhelmed, actually. As it stands, I have about 9 owl hats that need to be made, along with a few other hats. I'm getting them done, but with a quantity like that it takes a bit longer.

Plus Gabe's an animal.

So, I may not be blogging so much lately, but I do have a banana bread recipe I want to post because, well, I love me some banana bread.

In parting, here's another photo.

This was a specific order for someone for a pink and grey sock monkey hat. Um. I want one. In my size.

Gifts Galore!

I'm a huge nut for Christmas. And with money stretched tiiiiiiiight, I had to make it work. My solution.

DIY GIFTS BABAYYYYY!

This was originally supposed to say "GRANDKIDS", but you can see..I ran out of room. Totally misjudged the letter size. The letters, by the way, were traced onto scrapbook paper, then cut out, then applied. Well. The "GRAND" was. The "Life is.." is from cardstock stickers. I painted the once blank wood piece, then added the lettering, then mod podged the whole thing.