To all who celebrate, Merry Christmas. I hope this year has been good for you and your families.

The kids had a good Christmas. They were reminded why we celebrate–the birth of Christ–and why we give gifts–the wise men who visited the Christ child. They each received something to help them grow and they enjoyed spending time with family.

I received books–Nora Roberts’ Blue Smoke and Innocent in Death (writing as J.D. Robb) and a book of piano pieces–from family members. Some familiar pieces, a lot of new ones. Del bought me new cartridges for my Xyron 510. I got permanent and repositionable sticker adhesive and double-sided laminate. Yay! He also bought me a new toy for the computer–I got a Bamboo! Now, I can use the pen to draw new graphics and such. I just need to get some practice in with it. It comes with a mouse as well, so the drawing tablet is also the mouse pad. It’s a really cool toy.

Delbert got a motorized Lego set (792 pieces) and I’m taking a break from building the dinosaur. It’s taking a LONG time to put that thing together. Sami got a Smart Cycle so she gets her exercise in when she can’t go outside and play. Tracey got a new game for the Wii (Geometry Wars) and William got an RC dragonfly. (The kids are so rough that the antenna is already broken and one of the wings is bent.)

And of course, there are new DS games and new HP movies. I absolutely LOVE that David Tennant is in HP4…..we’ve already watched it a couple of times just so I can see the yumminess that is DT. The only fiber gifts this year were the ones I gave. I didn’t get any new yarn or patterns. That’s good, though, because I really prefer to pick out my own yarn and patterns.

Can’t forget the pets. The cats got their first collars–purple for Grayson and red for Matthew–and a catnip bed. Matt has already rolled the bed around the floor and gotten silly in the ‘nip. Cassie got a new bed that’s big enough for sami to sleep in. In fact, Sami decided to take her nap in the dog bed this afternoon! Silly girl.

Have a safe holiday season, and if you’re traveling, watch the weather and the roads. God bless.

Last night, I stole a few minutes on Ravelry after the kids were all to bed and while Del took Cassie out for a run. I hadn’t been on more than a couple of minutes (seriously!) when I smelled skunk. Since we live out in the country, it isn’t really that uncommon to smell skunk, sprayed or otherwise, so I passed it off. About a minute later, though, William wanders into the computer room.

William: Momma, do you smell that dead skunk?
Me: I smell skunk, but I don’t know if it’s dead or otherwise. Go back to bed.
William: Okay.

Del comes in and yells from the front door (unusual for him to yell across the house): Melissa!
I’m thinking, uh, oh. He never uses my name; we usually just call each other Hon.
Me: Yeah?
Del: Can you come help me with Cassie?
Me (as I’m closing 10 tabs of Ravelry forums): Okay!

We’re both in the dining room now when Del asks if I think Cassie smells funny.
Me: Well, the skunk smell got stronger when you came in.
Del: I didn’t bring it in.
Me: Wonderful.
Del: Well, we know what we gotta do.

I open the door to the kitchen and nearly retch. I close the door, holding my nose and gagging. The kids are gagging as well, but there’s nothing I can do. I have to retrieve the skunked dog and whatever tomato-y stuff we have in the cupboards to clean her. We didn’t have any tomato juice, soup, or sauce, so I had to settle for three small cans of tomato paste. I grabbed the cans, can opener, and a butter knife and head to the bathroom to start a nice warm tomato bath for Cassie.

We washed her in the tomato water, rinsed her with vinegar then again with water and wrapped her in a towel and took her back to the kitchen. At this point, she smelled like ketchup, but the skunk smell was gone. The whole time I’m drying her off in the kitchen, I fussed at her to leave the kitties alone. I know she was trying to mother the skunk that she found, but she ended up sprayed instead.

Needless to say, Cassie did NOT get her cuddle time in our bed last night before going to her own bed. She “bruffed” for about 15 minutes (her new smell maybe?) before settling down nice and cozy in her crate. We smelled skunk all night, but we were glad at that point that Cassie sleeps in a crate and not with us! No lingering odor in the house, thankfully. This morning, she was raring to go outside again. No smell of skunk or vinegar, so we’re happy about that.

Do I think she’ll learn to leave the smelly outside kitty alone? Probably not. We’re going to make sure to keep more tomato-y stuff around just in case. I think I lost a few nose hairs last night from the burning skunk smell….

EDIT 12/12: I’m not sure exactly what was wrong, but I changed a few minor details in the code for my blog template and now the link for the comments shows at the end of the posts. The pop-up works for me now, but if you have your Firefox pop-up blocker on, you’ll need to set the permissions to allow pop-ups from catscradlecreations.com.

It seems that Firefox users can’t access the comments for my blog (myself included) because of the pop-up thing. I’m going to try to reinstall my blog template using a text area for comments and having the comments on the same page as the post. Either that, or I’ll try going to HaloScan comments instead.

It’s been really annoying, because one of my friends, Deneen, can’t comment on my blog and she’s wanting to. I’ll talk to Del and see if he has any ideas.

In the meantime, if you use Firefox and can’t comment, be patient; I’m trying to work this out.

I can hardly believe it myself! I have not one, not two, not three, but FIVE FOs to showcase here! Wow! Keep in mind that these are over the last week or two and I did NOT do them all in just a couple of days.

First, I have to show what I ended up doing to Sami’s hair after the goopy foam incident: Like I said yesterday, it’s shorter than she likes to wear her hair, but it will grow back. Eventually.

Now, for the FO pics:

Pattern Name (linked to source)	Photo
Easy Tunisian Scarves Remember when I posted yesterday, I didn’t have a pattern? Well, I wrote it up last night. Worked up the second one today.
Toboggan Hat
Hat of Horns I swear, these are the last two of this pattern I’m making for a while. At least until next year when one or more of the kids needs a bigger hat. Or if one of their friends wants one. The pink one is Sami and the orange one is Delbert (he was goofing around).

We’re still filling in cracks where the cold winter air is coming in and that sometimes means using that expanding foam that comes in a can. Del filled a rather large space under my laundry room counter with said foam earlier tonight. While I was working on getting the small cabinets back on the counter, Sami was playing with a pair of her Dora undies. I reached for the dryer door to get the towel out that I was intending to use for added insulation (the counter has outside air under it) and I noticed there was something in Sami’s hair.

Upon further inspection, I realized it was that damn expanding foam. I tried to wipe it out with my hands. No good. I tried with toilet paper. Nope. I tried combing it out. Nada. Del tried rubbing it out with rubbing alcohol. No luck.

I ended up cutting two inches off the back of Sami’s hair because I couldn’t get this goop out any way available to us. We don’t keep acetone nail polish remover in the house because I don’t paint my nails. Apparently, acetone is the only thing that will dissolve this nasty stuff. *sigh* Too bad we didn’t have any around or I might could have saved the length on Sami’s hair.

So, Sami now has a short pixie cut that is really really cute on her, but it’s shorter than she likes. I told her the hair will grow back and she can keep it longer as long as she doesn’t get any nasty goop in it that won’t come out. (We tried for half an hour. Try that with a three y/o sometime. It’s great fun.) I’ll post pics tomorrow, as Sami is already in bed and I don’t want to disturb her.

Basically, if you use this nasty spray foamy stuff, don’t let your kids anywhere near it until after it’s completely set (about 15-20 minutes depending on the temperature) if you value their hair.

I’ll have other pics to post tomorrow as well. I’m just about finished with Sami’s Hat of Horns and will post pics of her wearing her new hat.

Christmas Gift List:

• Delft Tunisian Scarf: DONE! (5 crochet hours)
• Cocoa/Majestic Mountain Toboggan Hat: DONE! (7 knitting hours)
• Spice Tunisian Scarf: will cast on tomorrow
• Two Black/Grey Toboggan Hats: will start after Tunisian scarf is done
• 6 Shopping Bags: not started yet
• 6 Dishies: canceled

I posted a few days ago that I sold one of my designs, the Wrapped in Ribbons Tote. When I started shopping for yarn to make the purse, I realized that the purple yarn featured in my original, Lana Grossa Carta, is no longer available. Bummer. I really liked that yarn!

I knew that the yarn used was a bulky weight, so armed with that information, I set out to find a suitable replacement yarn. I did, so now the purse is made entirely of Nashua Handknits yarns. Creative Focus Worsted for the solid and Painted Forest for the variegated.

The colors I’m using for this next one: CF Khaki and PF Autumn

I bought the Creative Focus from Jimmy Beans Wool and the Painted Forest from Herrschners.

Once I get the purse made up, I’ll post the picture here and on the pattern page.