Category: holiday cheer

holiday cheer

Good Riddence, 2009

Jen4 Comments

The tradition here at Chez Interrupted has always been to ring in the New Year with a bit of reflection and a few “resolutions” (as the kids are calling them these days). But it turns out that this year was full of suck and, on more than one occasion, I had the sensation of being on a crazy carnival ride with no seat belts and only the sheer force of my will keeping me in the seat. In lieu of resolutions, I’m just going to accept that most of the time I’m just hanging on for dear life and doing the best I can. I am no longer going to feel like a failure for not doing yoga or sticking to my self-proscribed reading list.

2009 was the year of going gluten-free/dairy-free and the year of the Poached Egg Project. It was the year of finding old friends on Facebook and it was the year of feeling poor and stressed a lot of the time. It was the year of Lolly. In 2009, I rediscovered the joy of knitting dish cloths and hats, but knitted fewer pairs of socks. I found spinning and learned that crochet can be fun too. And this may come as shocking news, but 2009 is the year I gave up on the Master Knitter 1 project. (I just cannot bring myself to get through that damn hat, and I haven’t been able to get excited about the essay, even though I learned a very hard lesson about the care of hand knits this year.)

This has been a year full of challenges, with moments of both quiet joy and abject dysphoria, but I know that, ultimately, my life is full of blessings. Tonight we close the book on the year 2009 (and the aughties) and open the door to a (hopefully) brighter new year and exciting new decade. Dear Reader, may your 2010 be abundant with Peace, Love, and Friendship. Happy New Year.

holiday cheer · Knitting

2009: A Knitting Retrospective

Jen7 Comments

2009 was an incredibly busy and productive knitting year for me.

What did your 2009 look like? Make your mosaic at Big Huge Labs and post a link to it in the comments on this post. Happy New Year!

holiday cheer

Light a Candle for Midwinter

Jen1 Comment

Happy Solstice, everyone.

holiday cheer · Knitting

Plum Pudding!

Jen2 Comments

Back when the Faery Knitting podcast was still active, she mentioned that she had made a cute Christmas Pudding amigurumi. Later that year, I learned that my husband’s Aunt Mary has a food themed tree in her kitchen. Was it destiny?

[ravelry]

I think so.

food · holiday cheer · Knitting

Time Flies

Jen5 Comments

There are only nine days left until Christmas. Really! Today I mailed my Christmas cards, along with a package each for my parents and in-laws. Santa has been duly stocked with the presents for under our tree. We’ve watched Elf (more than once), White Christmas, The Santa Clause, The Muppet Christmas Carol, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and A Christmas Story (several times) and more holiday movies are still on deck. My iPod is loaded with a plethora of Christmas tunes (and has been since Thanksgiving) and the crafty projects have been flying to completion.

[ravelry]

All finished since the last time I blogged. A full quota of holiday spirit has been achieved. Also, latkes!

This is the best time of year. I love the short days and the long nights, the cold weather, the hustle-bustle, the gift giving, the believing in Santa, the anticipation, the corny holiday movies, the lavishly religious music. The latkes. I love all of it. This year, I offer as a special gift for the readers of Knitting Interrupted, a compilation of all the recipes I’ve posted here (I’m surprised there weren’t more, actually). So whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Yule, or any of the other culturally significant (or otherwise) winter festivals, Happy Holidays!

holiday cheer

A Sinister Marketing Ploy or WORSE? Dun dun duunnnnn….

Jen6 Comments

I was goofing around the other day with the holiday specs that have been hanging around since our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. Interrupted (maybe even before that). I was snapping pictures of our nifty new Phillips LED lights that I picked up at Target at the end of the season last year,

when I noticed something odd.

How about a closer look?

And here’s one up by the ceiling:

I don’t know about you, but to me it appears that the letter “P” is being projected onto the wall by the green LED bulbs of my Christmas lights! None of the other lights seem to project a letter P (or any other shape for that matter), so what the hell? Is it some sort of subversive marketing campaign? If so, WHY? I ALREADY PURCHASED YOUR LIGHTS, PHILLIPS. Or maybe it’s that you are attempting to subtly infiltrate my Christmas pictures as a sort of subliminal advertising message for my relatives? Well FUCK YOU if that’s the case Phillips. I’m cropping your crappy-ass “P” out!

Or perhaps am I just crazy?

holiday cheer · Knitting · random

Friday Update or, Life Without NaNoWriMo

Jen1 Comment

1. We put up our tree on November 28th.

Now to just get my Christmas shopping started finished. And the rest of my Christmas knitting done. And the pictures for the Christmas cards printed. And to put together a _____ for the grandmamas and — and —

2. I downloaded the new Sting album. Some thoughts: It is okay. Generally I do not care for Christmas albums that feature the “vocal stylings” of the artist; I much prefer an album with which I can sing along. Also, Sting should not make attempts to sing at the very very very bottom of his range. If I could get my money back, I totally would.

3. I started a Jayne hat for Mr. Interrupted.

It is stalled out because the red color I chose wasn’t cunning enough, evidently.

food · holiday cheer

Our First Gluten Free Thanksgiving

Jen3 Comments

This is the first Thanksgiving since going gluten-free/dairy free/soy free, so planning the menu required a bit of research and creativity. Here are some post-Thanksgiving thoughts and notes for posterity. Sadly there are no pictures. The entire meal was devoured before the thought of taking out my camera even occurred to me.

  • The Turkey: This year, as last year, featured turkey from Trader Joe’s and gluten-free (at least according to their customer service) and delicious.
  • The Stuffing: Not technically “stuffing” since I didn’t cook it in the bird. I followed this recipe from Crockpot365. I will definitely do this recipe next year, but I think I’ll do all corn bread instead of a mix of corn bread and rice bread. I might also add some pecans and a couple of boiled eggs and possibly an apple.
  • The Potato Mash: Yukon Gold Potatoes + Hemp milk + Earth Balance (soy free) = delectable.
  • The Gravy: I followed these directions on Gluten Free Girl only instead of using the Earth Balance (soy free) like I should have, I used palm shortening. FYI: Do not, ever, use shortening (of any sort) for gravy. The flavor was okay, but the mouth feel was … odd.
  • The Cranberry Sauce: Since we are trying to avoid cane sugar, maple sugar, and molasses (on top of everything else), I tried this recipe, sweetening the berries with honey. Next year I will use more honey. Probably a lot more honey. My sauce was extremely sour.
  • The Pie: This one from eHow, only I used agave nectar in place of the sugar. It was just like a “regular” pumpkin pie, seriously. There was no difference in taste or mouth feel. It was absolutely wonderful. No whipped cream for us though. Luckily we didn’t need it.

All in all, it was a mostly successful dinner. Maybe next year I will remember that, even though the package says “never frozen”, there will still be a huge chunk of ice in the center of the bird which prevents the breast and everything below (and including) the wings from getting up to temperature at the same time. *sigh*

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, everyone! Now, I’m off to finish my NaNo. Only 4200 more words to go!

cute kids · holiday cheer

Happy Halloween!

Jen4 Comments

I hope you and your little monsters have a perfectly gruesome Halloween!

holiday cheer

A Memorial Day Rant.

Jen1 Comment

Next year, when you go to your town’s Memorial Day parade, for the love of God people, please please please make some noise when your veterans go by. Clap, cheer, wave, shout thank you. Parades are not television! Those are REAL people in the parade and they need and enjoy your support.

Also, if your job as the lady cop who makes sure all the parade entrants step-off in an orderly manner, is to salute every US Flag that is being formally carried by an honor guard, could you at least spit out your fucking gum?! I mean, honestly.