Happy New Year, y'all!!!

I know, I know ... I have been Blog Post Challenged lately ... what with all the holiday festivities and travel and all.

So here's a quick update of all that has gone on lately to bring you up-to-date.

First off ... Christmas in Laughlin again.

All of my time was spent with the family so I don't have any racy tales for you (not that there were any before ..... but there COULD have been .... just sayin'! ;))

We made some cookies:

The snowman's hat looks suspiciously like the Sheep Shit Hat, non??

The kids put theirs out for Santa:

And freaked when Santa left each a thank you note....

I'm fairly certain that the similarity between Santa's handwriting and my mom's handwriting is simply coincidental. :)

Y'all ... dealing with the kids was just a HOOT with regard to this Santa thing. Granted, my nephew is getting fairly skeptical of it but my niece was completely into it. She kept making me check Norad's Santa Tracking Site for the latest updates and once it reported that Santa had made it to Florida she was off to bed like a shot so she could be certain to be asleep before he got to Laughlin! HAHA! Too cute!

(Speaking of "too cute" ... I was walking through the Vegas airport and spotted a poster for the Chippendale dancers. A little girl must have spotted it at the same time because I heard her query her mom, " Mom, I thought the Chippendales were squirrels!". HAHAHAHAHA! I was silently laughing so hard I couldn't focus on her mom's reply. Kids. :))

Another crafty creation on this trip was a whole family of the Rudolph Cocoa Reindeer. Created by my mom ... very cute.

And since there was also a trip to Kingman for some yarn....

... there was also a scarf! Whoohoo! I love it!

Also on the trip to Kingman we found this rock formation ... which has been nicknamed "The Finger":

"I flip you off, you mobile beings you"

And Route 66:

And my first foray into the restaurant The Cracker Barrel:

That's some good "stick-to-yer-ribs Southern cookin'" is what that is. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm.

Let's see ... what else about the Laughlin trip? Oh, check this out:

I found that sign in Portland Airport's restroom. Isn't that quirky? I find it simply hysterical that they actually used the reference of "#1" and "#2" ... ya know, for "liquid waste" and for "solid waste". HAHAHA! Just how many meetings do you think they had to have with regard to that before they allowed that through. You know management probably wanted to veto that.

Oh, and last but not least on the trip, I thought you'd all enjoy seeing Pom Pom all grown'd up!

That's about it for the trip. Oh, here's the pictures I can finally post of the Christmas knitting.

I made this fun pink scarf for my friend T2:

And I made a version of the purl scarf in grey and black for my work buddy ... though apparently I didn't first take a picture of it. Hmmm.

And then for my family's "homemade" gifts ... I cheated.

Well, that's not entirely true ... I prefer to think that I found a loophole! ;)!

I made them these quick and easy drawstring pouches and then put something inside them as an example of what they could use them for. In this case, I put in gift cards. But the gift cards weren't the gift ... no,no ... the pouch was. HA! :)

Even though they were simple, I was pretty damn proud of them because I just made up the pattern. I decided to use the beginning of the baby bootie pattern found in Last Minute Knitted Gifts and then just improvised with some decreases and a yarn change to finish the pouch. The drawstring was inspired by the shaping of the neck from the stuffed bunny pattern also found in Last Minute Knitted Gifts (have I mentioned how much I love that book??). And voila ... cute little drawstring pouch!

I also made some homemade limoncello for my mom and for Buck. I'm not sure that "homemade" gift was quite the hit I was going for. Perhaps due to it looking a tad too much like urine. With little bits of lemon pulp floating around in it. Ah well ... it's the thought that counts, right?? :)

Since I've been back, I've been trying to get organized. I did manage to paint my office this weekend. Though I was very sick all weekend (yep, Happy New Year to me!!) so what should have taken me 4 hours took 2 days! Crazy! I had to keep stopping because of lightheadness and feverish and low energy. But I did it! So now I can actually unpack the office stuff and get organized! Whoo hooo!

And I've also been working on setting up a blog for my family. My mom convinced us daughters to do a weightloss challenge with her starting yesterday! BAH! So we are all competing to see who can lose the highest percentage of fat in the next 12 weeks. Wish me luck... it's only Day 2 and I'm already gnawing on my desk! ;)

Okay, I think that gets you all caught up! I hope y'all had a fantabulous New Years and I wish you the best for 2007!!!

[update 1/3 11:50 am: per Buck's request ... the pictures of the Lucky-meister.

I didn't originally post because this first one just doesn't do Lucky justice.

And these two, though cracking me up, kinda leave other folks just scratching their heads as to what they are seeing (hint: Lucky and I are wrestling around. Sadly, even though I outweigh Lucky by ... errrr .... a lot (ahem) .... Lucky is winning! :))]