Full Term

Well, here we are: full term. I would say that now we start waiting...except that we've already been waiting for nine months! So maybe now we start the anxious, "it could happen any day" waiting. I think we're pretty ready. Sure there are more work things to get done, so every extra day/week will get us closer to fulfilling all the teaching/research/preaching obligations we have made for the month of December...but the bulk of everything is done, or at least "done enough," should Pickle decide to arrive ahead of schedule.

The belly this morning: day 1 of week 38. Just think, this could be the last belly photo!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that a Pickle soon would be there...
Here we have our stockings, two of which I knit last year, and Pickle's which I just finished a couple weeks ago. No name yet--we have to wait and see if Pickle is a he or a she!

Christmas Recap

We are getting around to taking our Christmas decorations down this weekend, so I thought I should probably get around to blogging about Christmas, too, before its all a distance memory with the day-to-day stresses of the semester (starting next week).

For us, Christmas Eve and Christmas were a bit different, as its the first year we've been a pastor's family--Andy was quite busy with 4 different Christmas Eve services, followed by Christmas morning, and then due to the timing of Christmas this year, Saturday night & Sunday morning services immediately following Christmas.

While he was busy working Christmas Eve, Simon and I busied ourselves making some sugar cookies! Simon helped with every step, except those involving the hot oven...and he had quite the wonderful time, right up until it was time to put the sprinkles away because we were out of cookies to decorate. Then the mini-tantrum started. But until that part, it was a lovely time :).

Steve, Marilyn, Karlie, & Peter came to stay with us Christmas Eve and through Christmas Day. We went to church, opened presents, slept, opened stockings, went to church, ate, opened presents...hmmm...there was a lot of present opening, wasn't there? We decided to follow a tradition my family had when growing up far from our extended family--on Christmas Eve we got to open the "out of town" gifts. So all those gifts that had been sent by grandparents and others collected under the tree until Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas day more gifts from each other and Santa appeared under the tree.

Mom & Simon, at stocking time

Karlie & Steve...I'm guessing it had been a few years since they had last opened stockings!

Peter modeling one of his Christmas gifts

Simon got a basketball hoop! Here he is helping everyone try it out by passing the ball around so we could each take a shot.

We went to Appleton to see Jess' extended family, as well. While we were there, we went to a great children's museum with Jess' cousins and their kids. One room was full of balls and air-powered tubes for the balls to travel through, with levers and other settings the kids could change to alter the paths the balls took once in the system. Simon mostly liked collecting as many balls as he could hold...but Andy and Jess thought the room itself was pretty awesome.

Simon and Clara playing in the water room.

The motivation for our trip was to attend Jess's cousin, Jim's, wedding reception--here are Erin & David, and Jim & Ally (married abroad over Thanksgiving).

After Appleton it was back to Rochester briefly (with Sarah & Josh in tow), and then on to Red Wing for another Christmas celebration. Here Peter is checking out his gift from cousin Aaron--a HUGE octopus kite from China!

One of the most unusual, and as it turns out, beloved, gifts that Simon received was this huge stuffed fish from Uncle Mark. He loves to cuddle/tackle it! (If you ask what the fish is named, he'll say Dorothy...he hasn't quite gotten the idea of naming stuffed animals yet, but Elmo's fish is named Dorothy, so I think when he was first asked he was a little confused by the question and came up with the only fish name he knows--but it has stuck, and Dorothy now lives on our futon!)

Christmas Knitting

Over Christmas I gots lots of knitting done! First, I finished my Christmas stocking, to match Andy's:


It is made from this pattern, with an over-stitched snowflake adapted from this pattern, rather than the called-for cutsie felt holiday creatures.

So, when buying yarn for the stockings, we actually bought three colors--one green, and two shades of blue for Andy to choose from. As it turned out, one of the blues was really purple (which is what we suspected, but it looked more blue on the website, so we decided to order it anyway)--so Andy opted for the true-blue, and I was left with some worsted-weight purple and extra white and black from the stockings. What to make???

Last year I knit myself (and everyone else, it seems) a hat...but its getting a little ragged and isn't really warm enough for real winter weather (which we might get, someday...). So I decided to find a hat pattern, and knit myself this:


I also found an online tutorial on how to line a knit hat with fleece, which I finally got around to doing last night--so now I have a nice and toasty new purple hat and I made mittens to match (talk about a productive knitting break!). I don't have photos of those yet, though--I just finished them last night. I'm pretty happy with the hat (though it is awfully purple)...but truly excited about the mittens--they were so easy! I don't know why, but I just assumed mittens would be really difficult.

I'll have to post more photos from Christmas soon--but I thought I'd catch all my knitting friends up first :-).

Winter Knitting

Although the cardigan I started for myself almost a year ago hasn't made much progress, I have recently gotten some knitting done. First, there was a finishing touch to add to Pickle's stocking, in order to make it Simon's: his name.

Gubbins' Family stockings

If you recall, I was also working on a hat for Simon. I finished it a couple weeks ago, and am quite happy with how it turned out--and it fits perfectly! For the crafters out there: I used this pattern for "Ian's Chullo," but shortened it by an inch to make it a more snug fitting hat (so you can pull his hood over it for those true Minnesota winter days!) and added ties to the earflaps.

We had quite the little photo shoot:

hey! Mom's making goofy faces at me and I don't really know why :)

I wasn't sure at first about using two accent colors, but I think I like it

a nice view of the top

don't be fooled--this is what Simon really thinks of it!

Christmas Preparations

Well, apparently I lied about the blogging drought that was supposedly going to start a few days ago--because here I am, procrastinating by blogging :). We have a few pre-Christmas photos to share...

We cut our own tree for the first time this year, along with our friends Alex & Erica:







We also drove down last Friday to wish Karlie a happy birthday, and to visit our favorite bell-ringers...they even recruited us to help for a while:




And I know you're all clamoring to hear about my most recent knitting adventures! I was working on a little sweater...but then the Cambodia trip came along and I decided I didn't want to attempt multi-colored knitting on super-tiny needles on the plane. So, I decided to make us Christmas stockings! I finished Andy's while we were there:


Mine, sadly, is quite un-finished, as I had to surrender my knitting needles at the Bangkok airport just before our long 12-hour flight. I am working on it though...or was, until I discovered yesterday that my knitting bag has disappeared! Help! Has anyone seen my knitting bag--a while shoulder bag, with a green & white stocking-in-progress and knitting supplies inside???