random photo dump, 2020 holidays-style

the days leading up to christmas came fast and furious.  even though we'd put up our tree literally the day after halloween in an effort to make our favorite season last as long as possible, it still flew by in a flash.  the old lady and i spent some time out of almost every weekday holed up in the guest room with the multitude of packages that arrived on a daily basis.  unlike previous years, we managed to mostly keep up with wrapping them as they came in.  and in no time, the mountain of presents bordered on obnoxious.  stevie's face here kind of says it all (and will never fail to make me laugh):

brother wan had made a comment months ago that'd had me make a mental note to make him a beanie for christmas.  i found some great yarn in my stash that i thought he'd like, and i followed a free pattern i found online.  i tried it on when it was done, and i wasn't totally satisfied.  it seemed HUGE.

i found another couple of skeins of blue yarn and tried another pattern, and this time it went the other way.

i tried the next size up and it still wasn't quite right.

i made one more beanie in the largest size the pattern offered, and i figured i'd just package them together - one for brother wan, one for mini brother wan and the third for mini brother wan #2 - coming in february.

my streak of fails continued with this sweater i made for stevie.  waaaaay too big.  even too big for teddy, who looked at me with utter disdain when i tried it on him.

i worked on a stack of microfiber towels for a friend who wanted to give them to loyal customers.  luckily, i didn't screw these up.

and for another friend, a batch of snickerdoodle cookies.

the old lady came with me to deliver them, and on our way home we stopped at lavender & honey, a cute little coffee shop in pasadena.

speaking of cookies, i got to make some fun ones for a kindergarten class and for a friend to hand out to co-workers.

the bean made some espresso crinkle cookies and peanut butter blossoms that we packaged up to make a couple of porch drop-offs for her best friends.

she stitched these up as gifts for her friends.  one is a sloth and the other is a character from a book series that they love.

and for their parents, we added some sustenance.

we also put together little gift packages for her teachers, with gift cards to their favorite local places and their favorite candy.  for the one teacher who can't have sugar, i dropped in this reusable cup sleeve.

on her last day of school before the two-week break, she gathered with the rest of the 7th grade class for a zoom party.  they were encouraged to dress up in the most christmas-y gear they had, and this crazy getup won her a target gift card:

and in the midst of the christmas craziness, the old lady's special friend celebrated a milestone birthday.  not one for traditional birthday cake, he requested a coffee cake that i somehow managed to totally screw up.  it tasted good, but it looked a hot mess.  he seemed to appreciate the effort anyway.

and to "wrap" the weighted vest we'd bought him as a gift, i stitched this out onto a blanket for him.

oh - and these served as my breakfast for probably a solid week.  i love homemade gingerbread cookies.

so much randomness, right?  getting ready for the holidays is always such a good time - 2020 or not.