Christmas Catch Up

I have not posted in a little bit, but we have been very, very busy with visitors, projects, food, turning doughnuts in the snow in the back field, staying up too late and sleeping too late, enjoying each other's company, and just chilling. You know, the same stuff I hope everyone else has had at least a little time for this holiday season.
It has been a little while since I last posted, and it seems to me that many, if not most of my more recent posts have been sewing related. Well, that is what I am into, so there is a good deal of that going on, but there is other stuff going on around here as well...mostly food related, which my waistline will attest. Some highlights follow:

My MIL and I made pierogis for Christmas Eve. Nearly 100 of them. Yum.

My daughter has started waving "hello" and "bye bye." It is amazing how the most commonplace things can mean all the world. 

We had a fabulous white Christmas with an 8"-10" dump of beautiful, powdery snow. 

My too-cool-for-words husband surfed a huge sled hill (on his tummy) while wearing a formal-ish London Fog overcoat. He really blew some tender country minds and got a lot of laughs. He has a great time, and doesn't care what anyone thinks about it, and that is why we love him.

We became the mountain shuttle service, as are the only ones among our visiting friends and family with an Awd Subaru. We love this car for it's dependability and hope it keeps up! She is 10 years old!

While we were snowed in I began sewing a dress from a 60s pattern using fabric my MIL sent me from Grandma's stash. I made a successful muslin from some old green curtain fabric, and I have since completed most of the bodice. I had intended to finish for Christmas, and then set my sights on New Year's Day, but maybe I should try for Valentine's Day. I can't rush the quality and care I am trying to put into my sewing, and I am still learning with every project. 

Here is a sneak peek at the pattern to give an idea of what I am attempting to sew. 

I am sewing the sleeveless version-2

Some excellent gifts were exchanged. Among them were a tea travel set that I positively love that my husband and I received from his mom and stepdad. I hope it will help me hydrate in style.

Other highlights were the pizza stone, skin, and screens we got my husband (more yum!), the toy singer sewing machine the baby got from her grandma, and the new Toshiba Portege laptop my loving husband got me. Yeah, he rocks. Yeah, I'm a little spoiled. I hope this will help me maintain my blog better, and I hope to beef up my Etsy shop and eBay selling. So, that's it for now- I have downloaded 2500 farm shots to this computer off of my iPhone, so I will be doing some catch up posting in the days to come. I'm going to try for at least twice a week in the new year. Yeah...it's almost 20-freaking-11! Why does that sound like sci-fi to me?