Slight Right

Fa

January 3, 2007 by Beth

No Comments

Ahhhhhh…. The deep breath I can finally take during the calm after the storm of the holidays. For many years, I have made homemade gifts for my family members in effort to save money. I have learned that not only does this help my pocketbook, but they also appreciate my homemade gifts more than ones I could just find in a store. I remember a few years ago when I had actually saved enough money to purchase everyone’s gift and they were all disappointed that I hadn’t made them anything. This year, I went for the conglomeration. For my family, everyone received a homemade gift as well as something I picked out for them. Making all those gifts meant I started Christmas gift making before the leaves had even turned colors. Even though I hardly slept the weeks before Christmas, it was totally worth it! I finished 9 cross stitches, a picture frame and a corkboard made out of wine corks just in the nick of time. I’ll put pictures up as soon as I have some free time.

Tom and I decided this year to make our own gifts as well. For him, I made him my own version of “the slanket,” a blanket with sleeves that Tom had somehow found online and wanted. After some confusion about where to position the sleeves on the blanket, I googled for “blanket with sleeves pattern” and miraculously came up with a hit for a pattern called the “snuglet” that could help me out. I made Tom’s slightly longer, but the pattern was a huge help! For anyone into sewing, check out some of the ball gowns this woman has created… they are fantastic! Tom loved his slanket knock-off and it turned out to be a great gift. Now my turn to open gifts!!!!! Tom made me this awesome Warhol-esque picture of us that he framed. It has 9 tiled pictures of us that he altered to mimic the colors in Warhol’s Che Guevara painting. It is so good that his mom has commissioned him to make a similar one for her of his mom and dad. I’ll talk him into putting up a link to the file soon.

We spent Christmas Eve with my mom and Bob this year. My mom was in great spirits (a Christmas miracle!) and made a delicious lasagna dinner. Seriously, though… for anyone who hasn’t experienced “Holiday Debbie,” she is not a treat. I have to give props to my mom as HD didn’t appear and it was a very pleasant evening. She credited it to lots of preparation… I don’t think the bottle of wine she drank hurt, either. Christmas was a relaxing day at Tom’s Aunt Linda and Uncle Joe’s house with more delicious food. We ate a ridiculous amount and crashed on the couch to play some games with Tom’s cousins and grandma.

New Year’s Eve… sucked. I won’t say too much more other than I had to work and all the patrons at the restaurant were jackasses and bad tippers to boot. I made it downtown to Tom’s friend Chris’ condo just in time for a New Year’s kiss from the only one I want to spend this year kissing. (TOM… to those still wondering.) Chris was a great host, but unfortunately the evening was spoiled and we got the hell out of there. At least I got to spend the first day of the new year right and wake up next to Tom.

Tom’s family has a New Year’s Day tradition of having everyone over to his house for more yummy food and good company. Michigan lost, but the day was great other than that. Bonus: Tom’s mom sent me home with the biggest plate of homemade desserts that I think have ever been in my house.

Hoping everyone enjoyed their holiday season and wishing all a happy and healthy 2007.

Leave a Reply