We love Texas...

...because of days like today. Evelyn has been vocally disgruntled at the fact that it is highly unlikely we will have a white Christmas (although we did a couple of years ago, but I think it is extremely rare). Well, I pointed out to her that while we won't have a white Christmas, we did have a day shortly before Christmas with wonderful weather. The kids and I were able to have a picnic lunch in the backyard, and in the afternoon we spent an hour or more playing at the park. It was a lot of fun. And while there are wonderful things about playing in the snow, for today I'll take Texas winter weather over true "wintry" weather.

I did it!

Last night I finished sewing a bathrobe for David!! When he modeled it for the kids, who were excited to see it, Evelyn said, "There's no way you made that, Mom." I'll take that as a great compliment. :)

The saga of the bathrobe started in October 2010, when David went on a business trip to Colorado and stayed in a really nice hotel. They had nice bathrobes, which he enjoyed using, so I thought his own robe would be the perfect thing to get for his birthday in November. Well, on our limited gift budget, I couldn't find a decent robe, so I got the brilliant idea that I could sew one, and it would end up being a combination birthday/Christmas present. My sewing skills are still at a beginner level, although I am excited to be learning! Well, I got a pattern and then bought the material with my mom while we were visiting them in Utah last Christmas. The plan was to make it while we were there, so that Mom could help me with it. Well, as you can imagine, we could never find much time to work on it, so Mom just talked me through the pattern, which I found was not enough for my abilities once I was on my own back home. I got stuck at one point, and with the craziness of buying a house and moving (or at least they're my excuses) I gave up temporarily and stopped working on it for a long time. Then a couple of months ago I mustered up some courage and "hired" a friend who teaches sewing lessons to help me figure it out, and we made really good progress. Well, to complete the story, I finished the robe last night! I was so excited, and David was looking forward to wearing it for the first time. He likes it, which is mostly what matters, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment now that I've finished it. Now onto the pajama pants I'm trying to make for all of the family members for Christmas...