pony up
It must be December because my crafting level has been set solidly at FREAKING OUT! Nevertheless, I took a week away from my Christmas preparations to make a hanging embroidery for a special little girl who's moving to the UK after New Years.
a bible verse and an unbiblical character
At first I thought i would sew a pony softie, since I have a horse pattern I turned into a Zebra for Zion a few years ago. But that was before I realized I might have a horn and wings to reckon with. I messaged the girl's mother and asked her which was her daughter's favorite pony. "Princess Twilight Sparkle" came back the reply. I googled the phrase and exclaimed "God damn it! She's a mother fucking Alicorn!"
For those of you who don't have a small group filled with little girls:
Alicorns are pony characters in the show who have both a unicorn horn and Pegasus wings.
-source = a wiki devoted entirely to My Little Pony. Bet you didn't know THAT existed.
So instead of spending several hours cursing white felt into a conical shape I decided to make this embroidery. When my photoshop failed Dan took over the layout.
Me: Why are you googling pictures of Princess Twilight Sparkle? Didn't the one I send you work?
Dan: I'm trying to find the exact font associated with this pony.
Me: Be careful with that image search, it's gonna turn into porn in like half a page. You think it's just gonna be purple ponies and then it slowly morphs into purple ponies wearing stocking and showing you their butts.
Dan: I have safe search enabled... I think.
So you see, it was a group effort, and an appropriate sendoff for the only little girl who's let me braid her hair.
I think she'll like it in England. There all the horses are called ponies and some are REAL royalty.
Christmas report... December report
Christmas Eve
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Joyous Solstice! Um, what else did we miss? Yes, December was a whirlwind of adventure at our house, what with holiday preparations for work and home, work excitement and busyness, and various illnesses and the associated marital discord. Also generally having a 9-month-old and two other kids (note that, while the photo above was taken on Christmas Eve, it was the morning of Christmas Eve: still dark when Lijah had us out of bed to play with him). But we made it! And Christmas Day was wonderfully relaxing at the Lexington Archibalds.
boys and new toys
The boys were delighted with their new toys, and even more delighted to play with Grandma and Grandpa after weeks of being ignored by their parents. Said parents were delighted to eat and eat my mom's food, lie around, and try not to fall asleep, following a night where we got maybe five hours of sleep. Leah actually did take a nap for a bit, and I totally support her in that choice.
taking a break from trying to open it
We've never had an old baby at Christmastime before; Harvey was six months and Zion seven, and neither of them moving around very much for their first Christmas. Lijah at nine-and-a-half is delightfully mobile, and even if he isn't old enough to really get into the Christmas spirit he's good at getting into things generally, so close enough. Both older boys got new Legos he had to be kept away from, but there was plenty of room and lots of boxes and wrapping paper to occupy him—and some toys of his own too, I suppose—so he didn't mind too much. All three of them consented to being dragged away from their amusements for a while to be photographed, and they even smiled some, thanks to some expert clowning behind the photographer; we need to get Grandpa to help with all our photo-shoots!
sweater brothers
Besides generally cuteness, the purpose of the Christmas photo-shoot is to show off the new sweaters, Leah's principle creation of the season. I can't come up with anything to top that, but besides the usual jam and candy I made a toy musket for Zion and a tool box for Harvey, as well as a moderate collection of new ornaments. Gift-giving was reasonably moderate this year, which was fine.
Then yesterday we threw a party for 50+ people; getting ready for that meant that the 26th and 27th of December were, again, far from relaxing. But all went well, and now we are officially on vacation! Nothing to do until... the day after tomorrow, when we need to clean the house again to host folks for New Years Day. Hooray for December!
a sad day
It's official: Leah hates Christmas. It was the cards that put her over the edge, the cards that, shamefully, we still haven't managed to send out. They're printed and in our possession now, but the prospect of another late night writing and addressing all of them was too much. And understandably: late nights have been pretty much the rule rather than the exception around here, and we were more than ready to be done by Christmas itself. Especially since even once we do get to bed there's no guarantee of uninterrupted sleep—far from it!
I don't hate Christmas, though, and if you ask me the cards will be worth the wait. I won't say they're our best ever—in past years we've set a pretty high bar—but they are certainly very cute and feature a record-high level of naked baby. I'll post the images here once all the paper versions are safely sent out; if you want a hard copy yourself let us know and we'll add you to the list. And I'll do the writing and addressing.