The Tiny Tale of Prince Dawson

There once lived a tiny prince name Dawson

He wore a royal robe of blue

His crown was made only of plastic

But his toy was a toot-a-too-roo

Oh Christmas D, Oh Christmas D!

I did it again! I forced Dawson to sit through at least 20 minutes of photo manipulation. All in the name of Christmas. Last year, Jason was there to help, and actually he took the photos. This year, Jason wasn't home but Gloria was with us so she came up with all kinds of shenanigans to encourage Dawson to look at the camera.

Toward the end of the photo taking process, I did resort to bribery...

 Before she left, Gloria ordered a train activity table for Dawson. It came a week later and when it arrived Dawson played and played -he loves it.

 That being said, after he played a while, Jason and I wanted to go to the Y to workout. I have noticed lately that each month my pants keep shrinking in the dryer so my butt doesn't quite fit in them. I tried sticking my butt in the dryer to see if it would have the same effect as on my jeans.. it doesn't. Save yourself some time. We grabbed Dawson to get his coat on and immediately he acted like a rejected spoiled kid in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Screaming and crying and carrying on. So we got him in the car and gave him a snack. Silence in a bag I tell you. If your child ever gets an activity table and you need to go to the gym to shrink your butt, give your kid a snack. The end.

Share and Share Alike

I’ve had several people ask me about my buckeye recipe. Okay, so it’s been a total of 2. But I come from a long line of exaggerators/embellishers. So I try to keep up the good work.

Here is the recipe for making a good buckeye.

Ingredients:

·         1 16-18 oz jar of peanut butter

·         4 cups of powdered sugar

·         1 12 oz bag of chocolate chips

·         2 sticks of butter, softened
·         ½ cake of paraffin wax

Mix the peanut butter, powdered sugar and butter together. Then refrigerate. In the meantime, melt chocolate chips in a double broiler with the paraffin wax. Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, get your peanut butter mixture out of the refrigerator. Make your little balls of peanut butter and then use a toothpick to poke down through the center of them and dip them in the chocolate. You want to get most of the peanut butter dipped except for a small portion at the top. That’s the eye of the buck. Or the buck of the eye? Let them sit long enough for the chocolate to set and…

Then you eat them!

Buckeyes and quilts and crochet problems.

Twice a year my mom’s family sets aside a day to celebrate the culinary arts. Particularly candy and cookies. We had our annual cookie day a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t get any pictures of  the cookies I made. I just made peanut butter blossoms. The cookie part was Pillsbury and the blossom part was Hershey kisses, but let me tell ya, I  worked getting the wrappers off those kisses! My favorite cookie of all that is brought to cookie day is the one kindy my Aunt DeDe makes. They are german and made with black walnuts. Springerlies, or something like that, and they’re cut into the shape of stars. I take as many of those as I can without getting into trouble by my other aunts. And speaking of my aunt DeDe, this year my sister’s and I got a special present from her on cookie day. She made us each a quilt. Each quilt she made had a story attached to it of when she made it or where she got the material.

 My sister Karen and I are currently fighting over one. My sister won… for now… (evil laugh). My aunt DeDe laughs about it because she heard the story. –In the picture you will see the quilt on the end (to the right). It’s border is yellow. Well, that’s the one Karen and I both wanted but Karen claimed it first. So after we left that day, I called Karen’s cell phone and in a demon voice I said “I want that QUILTttttt….” And Karen busted up laughing so we were both laughing and having a good time with it and the story got around to my mom’s family who all come up to me telling me in a demon voice that they want a quilt.

Below are some pictures of my mom’s sisters who were there that day. And other pictures of cookie day.

 Now. Candy day is coming up this Sunday, the 9^th. I decided to make Buckeyes. I’ve never made them before. I called my mom the other night because the recipe called for paraffin wax. After hours of searching in WalMart I found some. But the box said it was household paraffin wax. One of the uses was to make candles. This is where my mom comes in. I called mom all panicked. Mom! My recipe calls for me to melt paraffin wax in my chocolate! I don’t want to make chocolate candles!! But she reassured me that paraffin wax would be fine for this recipe. So I did use it and my buckeyes look as though they are freshly dipped! They’re so shiny! Hopefully they won’t taste like wax buckeyes. Jason has eaten most of them now and he says they’re good. So I guess I have to make more. Actually, HE has to make more. Ha ha honey!

 Now onto my latest hobby. Crocheting. A hobby I will most likely give up soon enough. Let’s have a look at the different stages of my crocheting skills as they have progressed.

First, there is the chain. This chain is learning disabled.

 Second there is the granny square. That’s the phase  I’m working on right now. I can barely get a chain let alone a square. This one more resembles… a baby whale.

 It was right after this that I was getting frustrated with my yarn. Surely I could crochet! It’s the YARN’S fault that it’s not working right for me. And this is what I was able to do with the new yarn.

 Hmmm…Not a square. Maybe a tapeworm? But I felt more confident because I found better directions online. So I switched back to my old yarn. And this is the one I’m working on as we speak.

 Not bad! It took me about an hour and half to get that tiny thing crotcheted! And it looks too tight. This is a scarf for my pinky finger. I can’t seem to figure out where to go from here. Do I turn it? If I turn it where do I put the hook? *sigh.

Confused Crocheter.