On the last day of 2010

Bedtime on New Year's Eve
How blessed I've been by these five little faces!


Happy New Year Friends!
I'll see you in 2011!

Reading Goals Recap

I thought it was time to check my 2010 reading list to see where I am.  Over the past year, I've been listing the titles of the books I've read on my sidebar and Goodreads. I just counted and it looks like I hit 45.  I may finish up one more by the end of the year, but I still won't hit my goal, but I guess I need to cut myself some slack.  I spent most of 2010 pregnant with the twins and I've been operating on very little sleep since they arrived.  I'm bummed not to meet my goal, but 2011 is a new year and I expect to have WAY more energy this year!  Here's to a new year of reading adventures!!!

By the way, I got a Kindle for Christmas and it's AWESOME!  It will never replace the feel of a real book, but it's the thing for the bibliophile!

Tea and crumpets anyone?

Little Chef serving up smiles and baked goods

Little Star

We read lots of Christmas picture books each year.  I love sitting down with the kids with a small stack of holiday books.  Over the past few years, I've collected some favorites that I pull out and read only during Advent and Christmas.  We've got books about Winter, The Nativity and some holiday fantasies like The Nutcracker and The Polar Express.  This Year, my oldest son checked out at least six different versions of  the famous poem, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  He wanted to compare all the art work of each version.  So, yes, we truly enjoy Christmas picture books around here.  In fact, I hope to collect a few more treasures this year in addition to Anthony DeStefano's Little Star. 
I sat down to read this book to my two older sons a couple of weeks ago and I've been meaing to post about it since, but life with infant twin boys has made me a little slow about reviewing Little Star. 
Little Star is delightful.  It tells The Christmas Story from the perspective of a tiny ignored star (kind of reminded me of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer a little bit- read it and you'll see why). This humble little star is the only star who understands that the baby Jesus is a king and that he's just little. Little Star  "gets it" because he's also little.  The tiny little star wants so badly to touch the baby and warm him that he uses all of his strength to reach out with his light to the earth.  He burns brighter and brighter with love for the baby King and he ultimately burns himself out.  With so much love, Little Star sacrifices himself for the cold baby.  The star reminds us that Jesus is the light of the world and Little Star's sacrifice points us to the ultimate destiny of that tiny baby as well.  It's a keeper.  DeStefano's Little Star keeps the Christmas story fresh with some vivid artwork even if the stars look a little cartoon-ish.  This little story not only tells the story of the birth of Jesus, but reminds us that true love is sacrifice..

Merry Christmas friends!

Friday poem

His name is Liam.
Oh, can you see him?


It's Friday and I'm feeling both sleep-deprived and a little punchy.

Weekly Yarn Along

Last night, I was teaching a beginning knitting class at my local
knitting shop, the Knit Knook and I cast on for another Hermione hat in this bright
pink in Cascade 220 Superwash.  I can't remember what
color this since I sometimes don't keep the labels and clearly didn't  in
this case.  I'm making this hat for a friend's little girl.  I love this pattern!
I can't tell  you how many of this fun cabled hat I've made.  I perused
several patterns at Ravelry, but I kept coming back to the Hermione hat.
It's a fun project without being too difficult or too boring.  As for
reading this week, I just got Cooking for Isaiah yesterday as
I really need to get more proficient at gluten-free baking for myself and
especially for my husband who has a gluten intolerance. I always enjoy
reading cook books!  I always pull
 out Christmas 101 at this time of year for inspiration and I'm still reading
Beauty which is a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast.  Since I'm up nursing the
twins a lot at night, I actually have time to read, but sometimes I listen to
books on my MP3 player as well.  Last night, instead of reading Beauty, I
listened to Only the Good Spy Young (the 4th installment of the Gallagher Girls
series).  Don't you just love that title??  Yes, I do enjoy YA novels from
time to time and this series is just fun.  It's like Alias for the high school set.

 It's really hard to capture the color changes in this yarn.  The colors remind me of Fall leaves after they have already fallen and gotten dry and crunchy.  

I had to include pictures of these arm warmers that I finished last
night before I cast on the Hermione hat.  I made these for my sister as an
early Christmas gift. I think she would have liked the thumb holes,
but I just liked the simplicity of the arm warmer and honestly, I didn't feel
like picking up stitches for the thumbs! 
This is another pattern I found at Ravelry.  It's called Toasty and
it's super quick and super easy.  Boy, are they warm!
I'm trying to get better at photographing my work.  I think this weekly exercise
in showcasing both my knitting and reading should help me improve my camera skills.

Thanks Ginny for hosting the weekly Yarn Along!



Look who's 2!

Oh my darling girl, please don't grow up so fast!

My first yarn along

Over at Small Things, Ginny has been hosting a weeklyYarn Along.  I've been wanting to participate and this is the first week I've gotten out the camera to take pictures of what I'm knitting and reading.  Like Ginny, knitting and reading are two of my favorite hobbies and so this week, I'm sharing my in-progress hat.  It's the Thorpe pattern on Ravelry.  It's the first top-down hat that I've knit and I have to say that it's a little tricky to get started with so few stitches on double points, but I persevered and I'm almost done.  I'm making this for my oldest son, Luke who requested a new super-warm hat. I'm happy to indulge him in handknits!  He really wants the earflaps to keep his ears warm.  This week I'm reading Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast by Robin McKinley.