hallo.

Hallo is my new way of saying hello. It's an Irish thing. I got it from my new favorite book, Tara Road. And that book, by the way, is written by the same author who wrote Circle of Friends. Remember that movie? It was so good, I had to read the book. But it was a loong book. As was Tara Road. Back then, I wasn't into BIg books, but now I am. So, hmm, there's a tid bit about me I bet you didn't know;)

Anyhoo, how was your Christmas? In my house, we say, "Christmukkah." This year, Hanukkah was on the 21st. Usually, I wait to put up the Christmas tree until after Hanukkah, but this year there was no way, no how I was gonna wait THAT long! So, poor Hanukkah got a back seat to Christmas this year. My husband did make some Kugel and latkes though. If you ever want a good latke, you should come to my house on the first eve of Hanukkah. My husband makes a mean latke. Totes!

And this year, we did things a bit different. First of all, we had a Christmas eve party at my older brother's house. He was a bit tipsy (in Ireland, they say pissed up. I've always thought that was funny!) and fun! We had my mother on the skype. And we had a dance party in the cleared out dining room. Then, we had performances by almost everyone. I did a magic trick. (I do have one magic trick I've always kept up my sleeve for when I work with kids. I can turn one penny into TWO. Really!) My son played violin and my daughter sang. 'Twas a very good evening! Here's a little collage of the evening: (note the last picture - that's all the garbage from opening presents!)



This year, I decided to do presents differently, too. Instead of buying the kids a BUNCH of presents that just end up at goodwill after a month, we bought the kiddos one big (expensive) present each and one small gift from Santa (and stocking stuffers). I spent about what I normally would, but the reactions were the pleasantest of all the years so far.



For my birthday (which was this month) I got photoshop from my husband. I have no clue how to use it. I've been using Picnik.com (love, love, love picnik!) so switching to photoshop has been really confusing for me. It took me about 8 hours to figure out how to add actions (presets). So, after I figured that out, I started practicing with my knitting photos. And then I finally listed a few items in my etsy store. whew. I have sooo much to learn. So, if you have any tips, let me know!



In the mean time, I have two random funnies:

1. My daughter calls chess CHEST. And that makes me giggle!
2. Here's a cute knitting cartoon that I passed around on facebook. I hope you like it as much as I do: