I got Yarn... and a Sheep?!?

Another awesome present I got this year was this: more yarn. 

I love crocheting, so more yarn is always a good gift idea. These are just the right size, too! They're called Bon Bons, and I'd been eyeing them at the store for months - it was so fun to get them as a present!

Yep, our Christmas Tree is still up. We celebrate Christmas until January 7th. There's so much to do before Christmas, so we like enjoying it (and our presents) for a while afterwards. We'll be saying goodbye until next year tomorrow night, I think. 

Lion Brand makes the yarn. I got the sparkly ones, but there were lots of different kinds and colors.

Anyway, I got some other awesome presents that kind of go with my yarn, too.

I got a SHEEP!

Ok, it's not really my sheep to keep. I've always wanted one, but it would be hard to keep a sheep here in the city! The sheep ornament is for me, and the real sheep is going to go help other people. Then they'll be able to use the sheep's wool to make their own yarn, year after year.

I love that my family thought of things I like to do, and gave me cool presents that would help share that with other people, too!

 I also got a goat, which is cool because I love goat cheese. My cousin has a REAL goat, and I've always been jealous. My family also thought it was funny when I wanted to learn to make cheese myself. It uses just cow's milk and lemon juice (and a stove, so little kids should have help!), and it's almost like magic watching the cheese form! 

Plus, I got a ANOTHER one that is a donation to help kids who are in the hospital. 

The ornaments are fun to get, and I love that they also help other people, too!

I wonder if I'll get another animal next year.

New Year's at the Mummers' Parade

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Yesterday, I rang in 2014 the Philly way. 

Well, first, right at Midnight, I went outside with my trumpet to play Auld Lang Syne. Our house had 2 trumpet players, and friends with tin whistles. Other neighbors set off fireworks. It's always very noisy.

In Philly, the real party is on New Year's Day!

I go every year I can, so you probably saw my post about the Mummers last year, too: http://cassiesalmanac.blogspot.com/2013/01/mummers-parade.html

This year, we made it the parade route just in time to see my favorite Wench brigade, Froggy Carr. 

That is a sea of people dressed in orange, green, frog umbrellas, fish hats, shiny gold shoes, Phillies and Flyers gear, beads, and just plain awesome craziness.

I even got a picture with two Frogs after their turn in the parade!

(One is a kid I don't know, so I blocked his face out so I could share this picture. If you think that's the silliest part of this photo.. well... that's on you.)

I wanted to take a break from the cold to go back to Macy's to see the Dickens Village and the Light Show - but they stopped them early this year! It was disappointing, because I wanted to show my friends who came to visit just for the parade. They're getting an indignant letter from me!

Ok, now back to the Mummers!

After the Wench brigades, there are the Fancies. Because, their costumes are fancy!

This makes me want to wear my fairy wings and vinok (flower headpiece) to the parade next year:

Would you believe that guy has to be able to pull that big float for the whole parade?

One of my favorite Fancy costumes this year. A bumblebee and beehive, part of a Fancy Trio.

A giant butterfly.

Even the advertisements got dressed up.

Here's the cow from one of my favorite ice cream brands, dressed up like a Mummer!

Finally, it was the string bands.

Some awesome costumes were: 

The Yeti from Polish American String Band

And their banjo penguins.

And this group that had a Viking ship!

Complete with very sparkly Vikings.

I usually like to see Fralinger, especially since they practice at my church hall. But, their circus clowns were creepy. I still love the Zombie Scotsmen they did a couple years ago.

Avalon's was really cool, too. They did a farm theme. Their cheerful yellow sunflowers reminded me of when I used to live in Central PA. There was even a moving combine, and an ENORMOUS moving blackbird "flew" in for their finale. 

I got to watch the parade near some family members of a member of the band. They were so proud!

I'd link to all the awesome string bands if I could. But, here's Avalon's show:

Then, to get warm again, we went to the Visitors' Center. They had some Mummers' costumes on display.

If you like costuming like I do, you should take a look at these.

I don't think you'll ever see anything else like them - they're so over the top sparkly and HUGE.

Can you imagine how long it would take to make these?

Especially to add all the sparkles and feathers?

Would you believe this is a hat?!? 

Look how TALL it is!

If I could join the Mummers, I'd be in Froggy's brass band, or in a string band.

If I could make my own costume, it would be either lots of shades of purple, or blues and greens. 

I think I'd want to do an ocean-themed show. There would be lots of fish, including some that were sparkly blues and greens, all at a pretty orange coral reef. And then giant-person-octopus-sea-monster Cthulu would attack. Because nobody would expect Cthulu. I don't know what would happen next, but I can come up with that later. 

I'd have the band play fun songs like "Under the Sea," something silly like "Row, Row, Row your Boat," and use the scary monster song from Fantasia - "Night on Bald Mountain" - for Cthulu. It would be AWESOME.

If you could make up your own crazy awesome, sparkly, Mummers' show, what would you come up with?

We went home and watched some of the Fancy Brigades on TV this year.

I love seeing what they come up with. I think South Philly Vikings are one of my favorites (last year I got to see their AMAZING Jumanji show live!)

This year, they did STEAMPUNK!!!
You've gotta see it!

You can find links to other performances here:

http://phl17.com/mummers/#axzz2pJ6TDVWy

and maybe here: http://video.phl17.com/

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Game Reviews

Remember how I told you that the whole family gets together to play board games after Christmas?

What I didn't tell you is that there's a relative who gets new board games every year. It's always really fun to see which ones they've brought.

This year, there were: 

Seven Wonders

Ticket to Ride:Asia

and

King of Tokyo

We loved all 3 of the new games.

My favorites were Seven Wonders and Ticket to Ride: Asia.
Well, neither of these games are brand new, but they're new to me!

Here I am at the end of Ticket to Ride:Asia

(I'll add my actual reviews in a bit!)

Ok. So, what did I like about each of these games?

I liked Seven Wonders because:

 I like history, and each player plays as one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. You can play with a lot of people, or just a few - it's 2-7 players. So, you can play with family, or at home with just a friend (or sister!).

The game is for 10 and up, and is also really easy to learn. On each turn, you pick cards to get goods, armies, science, and buildings. And, you can decide to build your "Wonder."  At the end of the game, which is played in 3 ages, you see who has the most points.  It's especially fun because it's always possible to do *something* on each turn, so everyone gets to play during the whole game. 

(find out more here: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders)

The other new game I really liked this weekend was Ticket to Ride: Asia.

The game is played like original Ticket to Ride. You get tickets that challenge you to build trains between cities all across the map. You get points for building more trains and finishing more tickets. Whoever has the most points at the end wins. But you can play this version in teams!

I thought it was going to be fun to have a partner to play with, and then I learned about the twist in the rules. You can't actually talk to your partner about the game, and you only get to show your partner one of your tickets. So, you're working together, but you don't know where your teammate is trying to go!

It feels really crazy to see your partner put a train on the opposite side of the board from where you want to be - but I still had a lot of fun playing this game!

This game was also super tough because I didn't know a lot of the names of the cities in Asia. Well, I do now. But, I had to work pretty hard to find them on the map!

I think I want to play the Europe version next!

(more: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/106637/ticket-to-ride-map-collection-volume-1-team-asia)

Game Day!

Christmas Day was a lot of fun. I got the copy of Anne of Green Gables I've been drooling over at the bookstore! But, we're still celebrating. I'll be sure to share with you everything I got soon, though. Today, I'm going to see more relatives. And, because there'll be lots of cousins, it's one of my favorite days of the holidays - it's GAME DAY!!!!

I'm taking my copies of Carcassonne and Dominion to share.

I hope they brought Settlers of Cataan this time!

Besides sharing presents, what are your favorite things to do with family during the holidays?

Pictures later... and, again, Merry Christmas, everyone!

And happy Boxing Day... and, just have a great weekend!

Cookies on the Counter and Presents Under the Tree

After we were done baking, we traveled to visit family for Christmas Eve dinner and church. Christmas Eve dinner is one of my favorites. We eat special traditional foods... but we'll celebrate that again for everybody at church at the beginning of January, so I'll tell you more then.

We took our cookies with us. Look how they turned out! 

The cranberry cookies always have spots of the best color red. They taste AND look like Christmas, to me!

Here's my plate to leave out tonight.

Look how pretty the flowers and Christmas trees turned out!

Everybody puts each other's presents out on Christmas Eve, if we've gotten them wrapped yet. So, we also added more presents to the pile under the tree.

Look at all of this! It's a lot, but it's also for 11 people (and dolls!).

I love the penguin bag I found for Anna's present.

I admit that Anna and I snooped around a bit. I guessed that I'm definitely getting a book. I hope it's the pretty Anne of Green Gables I saw at the bookstore! There was also something super heavy, and I have no idea what it is, at all!

And, definitely, time to sleep.

Good night!

and

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cookies!

Today is Christmas Eve! I finally got to start making our Christmas cookies. 

I made chocolate chips, brown sugar stars, cranberry cookies, and spritz.

The spritz are a lot of fun! We don't get to eat food coloring a lot, but we're allowed to color the dough for these. Anna picked green, and I think it looks like Play Doh.

Spritz cookies are fun because you can make fancy designs pretty easily. You fill this tool - it's called a cookie press - with the dough.

You put a cover on the end, and that's the design it will be. I made red flowers, Anna made green Christmas trees.

You squeeze the handle of the cookie press, and hold the end with the design down on the cookie sheet. Mine came out in flower shapes!

It takes some practice. Can you guess which cookies I made first?

Then, you can add colored sugar or jimmies. 

You can pour on the decorations however you like.

I also made chocolate chip cookies with super big chunks.

Here the first sheet, ready to go in the oven!

We'll leave some out tonight for Santa... and then we'll get to have some tomorrow.

Well... and we had to sample our work today, too! :P

Merry Christmas!

Making Christmas Goody Bags with AG Crafts Stamps

Yesterday, I gave out Christmas goody bags at Sunday School. I made them last week, during the big ice storm. I was so upset that it wasn't possible to go out and buy decorated Christmas bags and more things to put inside. I thought and thought, and then I remembered my mom using plain brown lunch bags to wrap things in sometimes. I could have bags decorated for Christmas, even if the ice storm kept me inside!

Here's how I made them:

I used plain brown lunch bags.

A Christmas stamp set.

The AG Crafts Gift tag set. This came from Michael's, and I'm not sure if they make it anymore.

Crayola Washable Markers

Crayola Colored Pencils

...And Pipe Cleaners

First, I set up stamps I liked, and picked the color crayons and colored pencils I wanted to use.

I started with the snowman stamp from the Christmas set, with the word "From" on it from the AG set.

It still looked really plain with just those, so I made another stamp with the fancy stars from the AG set.

Before: 

And, with the fancy stars:

I also drew a fancy squiggle under the stamped design, and colored in the snowman and stars.

Then, I got together the treats to give out:

There's stickers, jelly bracelets, pop pencils, candy canes, and Tastycakes.

I couldn't find the bouncy balls I picked out, but I hope everybody likes these things.

I couldn't go out and buy ribbon to tie the bags, either. 

I looked for something else, and found sparkly pipe cleaners in with my craft things. 

To do what I did, you need to fold over the top of the bag and punch two holes near the top. Next, use the pipe cleaners to close the bags like I you're using a twist tie, then curl the ends around a pencil. The ends will look springy like a fancy curled ribbon, but they'll stay that way without getting as tangled!

 I was so excited with how the goody bags sparkle!

So, yesterday I gave out the goody bags, and even got my own! There were two little presents, so I knew I needed to share with my sister, Anna.

 This bag is huge! 

 Anna dove right into the bag, to find the first present.

We got a pink flower... 

 ... and a blue flower!

 Our flowers are solar powered, and dance when they're in sunlight.

We love nature, and this is such a fun way to remind us of the outdoors when it's too cold to grow things!

P.S. I was asked, so I want to mention it... I wasn't given any products for this post. I mentioned things I really use - Crayola products are some of my favorite kids' art supplies. I like using washable markers with stamps because I can change the colors a lot, but washable markers won't work if you think your project will get wet. And, I use that AG Crafts Tag Making kit a lot!