The Phantom Moon

One Million Mice

Merry belated Christmas, everyone!  Sorry for the quietness around these parts lately but the holidays are beating me up, plus I'm battling a nasty little winter cold that doesn't want to quit.  I hope you all had a fantastic holiday and are relaxing in front of a warm fire, enjoying the quiet before New Years.  Now on to the post! ...

Martha Stewart's Candy Cane Mice

Yes, 1,000,000 mice.  That's how many I made for the husband's friend's kids at work.  Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating here a little bit.  I made exactly 24 but it sure felt like 1,000,000 after working on them all day with my 4 year old helper.    I used Martha's template and instructions online and while I loved the colors in the online picture, I chose to use the traditional red and green theme for my mice.

I also used googly eyes and mini black pom pom noses too which the kids loved.  Cute, right?  Sorry for the less than stellar pictures but the two house shots were taken on my cell phone at 2am after a long day and the beginning of a cold that I'm still trying to shake.

I also managed to put up our Christmas tree that same night with BB's help.  She kind of lost interest after we got the ornaments out of the box and preferred to just play with them instead, but that was ok.  It was kind of meditative to just wrap the millions of lights around the tree, mantel and fire place.  Not bad for last minute work considering the tree and mice were completed 5 days before Christmas!  Just a wee bit late I'd say.  

FYI: I have a few shop announcements coming up in a few days, plus I'm going to share my new toy from Christmas that I'm in love with an there is going to be a beginning of the year giveaway celebration!  So stay tuned and enjoy a nice warm mug of cocoa on these (hopefully) slow days before the New Year.

Christmas Village

Last week I met my sister for lunch and shopping at Christmas Village.  This is the 3rd year that Philadelphia has hosted this event and the second my sister and I have attended.  If you recall, last year I purchased a cute little matryoshka doll for BB.  The high was 38 degrees that day so let's just say we didn't stay as long browsing this time as we did last year.  We still had a blast though.

I'm hoping they have the carousel next year as well so BB can hop on for a ride.  She's a little spooked out by stuff like this right now so I have a year to work her up to it, lol.

As you can see it was a bustling day in the city and hopefully most of the vendors enjoyed a successful day.

It's a little hard to read in the above shot but this is the welcoming arch that reads "Christmas Village".  I took this shot especially since there was some controversy surrounding the word "Christmas" and it was originally removed from the sign per the Mayor's request and to be replaced by the word "Holiday".  Silly, I know.  It's a Christmas Village after all!  Luckily he came to his senses (after having his office inundated with calls!) and had the word "Christmas" placed back up.

Isn't my sister so pretty?  She's 7 months pregnant right now, can you believe it?  I had her pose in front of this shot since she's the resident tutu maker in our family and has made more then she can count. 

Here's the beauty again.  We'd originally intended to eat brats together like we had last year but instead tried another delight from Brauhaus Schmitz ... potato pancakes with sour cream and applesauce.  Neither of us had tried this before and we were pleasantly surprised at how delicious they were!  While the sour cream was tasty with the pancake, we both agreed that applesauce accompanying it was our favorite.

Overall we had a delightful time and I'm so happy to spend time like this with my sister.  I smell a tradition in the making!

Christmas Village will be open until Christmas Eve so definitely stop by if you're in Philadelphia.  Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Break

Can I share something with you?  I am waiting with baited breath for the upcoming Thanksgiving break headed my way.  I think I'm just as excited for time off of work as I am for the oodles of turkey I will be consuming that day.  And trust me, we make multiple family visits on holidays so I will most definitely be in a turkey coma by the end of the day.

So in honor of some well deserved R&R I took a trip to the Library today and picked up some treats that I think will keep us entertained (and relaxed) this week and weekend.  Take a peek:

Wow Wow Wubbzy: Go For Gold!

Yo Gabba Gabba!: Birthday Boogie

Hello Kitty & Friends: Fairy Tale Fantasy

Shaun the Sheep: Party Animals

Yes, it's a mod podge of DVD's but I couldn't exactly wrestle the toddler standing next to me for his hand picked Thanksgiving and Christmas DVD's.  Well, I could but then I'd be banned and that's not good.  Either way these are all BB's favorites and that's what counts, right?

I also picked up something else I'd been waiting for ... A Joyous Christmas with Julie Andrews & the London Promenade Orchestra (I didn't include the cover art because quite frankly it sucks).  Julie sings in only about 5 of the 10 tracks but as a Julie Andrews fan that is ok with me (sister, you know what we'll be singing with this weekend!).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  What will you be listening to or watching this holiday weekend?