now it is mostly grown out.

excellent.

I did succeed in eviscerating the turkey one and a half handed.

Thankfully, the cut in on the inside of the nail, so easier to protect.

I'm just paranoid now about keeping it clean/infection free.

My hands are already like sandpaper with the frequent handwashing and winter cold/artificial heat. Doesn't seem to matter what kind of lotion I use.

Le sigh.

Doll! Doll!

Sooo, my big present, from Pete and a bunch of other folks (including some sneaky folks here), is an Evangeline Ghastly doll. I have wanted one of these dolls for a few years now, but could never, EVER justify getting her. [link]

Yes, I am going to go insane with dolly clothes and accessories. The Infamous BlueJay, Queen of Seamstresses, is apparently already plotting matching outfits for me and Evangeline.

Seriously, I started hyperventilating and making noises only dogs could hear when I got her unwrapped.

My hands are already like sandpaper with the frequent handwashing and winter cold/artificial heat. Doesn't seem to matter what kind of lotion I use.

If you can use hydrocortizone cream, I recommend applying some to the fingertips before bed followed by a light coat of olive oil. And then a thicker slathering of cocoa butter thick cream (the cheap Queen Helene jar is perfect for this). Then cover your hands with gloves - I got my "spa gloves" at Walmart. I'm sure a place like Bath & Bodyworks would also have them. If you have some essential oils on hand, or feel like investing in some, I'd go with a few drops each in the olive oil of lavender and rosemary, plus any you might like just for the scent (eucalyptus during a cold is a brilliant idea, or clove for the warming properties).

Jilli, very pretty!

WS, yes I'm ok. I had a kid on my lap who had been playing with her cat earlier and suddenly my chest was tight and I was coughing like crazy. But I had my inhaler and benadryl with me.

I gotta mention that it's not very readable in a huge chunk of text, like paragraphs, so if you're using it for correspondence, you might want to switch to a serif font

Heh - I admire your diplomacy.

Jilli the doll is amazing! And I love Steph's t shirt.

My Christmas was good. We made Paula Dean's Savannah Seafood Gumbo for Christmas Eve dinner and it was a hit so we'll be making it again.

We opened stockings, had breakfast and then introduced CutestNephew Ever to Christmas -- the first thing he went to was the Caterpillar Pedal Front Loader Dad got him, he's a bit too short for it but he's happy just to sit on it and be pushed around. He needs a hard hat. The things I got him went over well. All my presents went over well and I got Dad some photos of old houses, mostly the North Florida area, the kind that are slowly falling apart. I remembered a conversation we had when he said if he won the lottery or had a lot of money he'd buy land and move old houses on the land to save them. The way people collect cars.

I also got a new camera so I have taken tons of pictures of Cutest Nephew Ever. And I got a gift certificate to pay for a series of cooking lessons the kitchen shop my cousin owns is putting on. It's a 5 week series of the basics covering some knife skills, sauces, pastries. Some of it I know but my knife skills could use some work and my sauces don't really turn out right.

Our wedding invitations were set in Papyrus...which, six years ago, I'd only seen once or twice in my life before, and I just really liked the look of it and Hec was amenable so we were off to the races. And then, within maybe three weeks of getting the invites back from the printers, I started seeing it everywhere. It went from obscure to ubiquitous in about a month.

I just swear, on everything I hold sacred, that we really did pick it before it became one of the top three most overused fonts in the history of anything.

ION, Christmas was a thorough and satisfying success, with the exception of Matilda sobbing and breaking all our hearts in EM's apartment complex parking lot last night when it was time to drop Emmett off and head back without him. That part was truly horrible and heartrending (she wept as if he were going out to sea for a year instead of to his mom's apartment for four days). But before that there were toys and treats and pretty lights and the best scalloped potatoes any of us had ever had in our lives (probably 500 calories per bite, but so worth it), and highlights including Emmett showing one of his six-year-old stepcousins how to find the easter eggs in one of his DS games, including the video of "Baby Got Back," explosions of joy and rage when all the boys found out all at once that they all love Nerf weaponry but none of them had their arsenals with them, and my babygoth cousin updating us on her life:

She's now happily settled into a crafty/sewing/comic geek Goth subculture in Sacramento, attends cons in costume, and, when she and her friends need money, they hop a bus to LA and spend the weekend trolling tourists on Hollywood Boulevard in their Villains of Batman ensembles. She made herself an insanely detailed and perfect Harley Quinn outfit complete with "Bang" gun and squeaky hammer, and says "Puddin'" so beautifully it makes you cry, and the tourists just shove money at them. $125-200 a day, with the best day ever clocking in at $400. And she's word-of-mouth sold six copies of Jilli's book, and her mom says the change since she first read it has been like a year of therapy.

Jilli, your new doll is absolutely gorgeous.

sj, I'm glad you were prepared for such instances.

I seem to have used up all of my vanilla syrup on my first coffee of the morning, so now I must venture out of the house (gasp!) for more.

I seem to have used up all of my vanilla syrup on my first coffee of the morning, so now I must venture out of the house (gasp!) for more.

Tragic! You should have a back up bottle.

Right?!? Unfortunately I think this was the back up bottle. The last couple of weeks have been... trying. Between the cat going back and forth to the vet and Mike's car accident*, a trip to the store is sorely needed.

(Apologies to those not on FB, as I think that's where the cat and accident drama have been talked about.)