Christmas Eve at Dad's

My parents divorced when I was in high school. Since then, Christmas Eve is with my dad, Christmas Day is with my mom and Bob, and then Bob's kids come over on Boxing Day. Here's some photos I took yesterday.

I finally finished dad's throw-pillow cases:

The photo shows the front of three, and the back of the fourth. (All have the same back, but different hunting dog photos on the front.) He had picked out the fabric and requested them several years ago. I kept not getting around to them... they weren't exactly a "pick up whenever" project. I first had to clear my sewing table and ironing board, get out the sewing machine and iron, do the calculations, etc. Well, this Christmas I asked dad for his head measurements, and he asked for his pillowcases. Oops. Well, with all the other stuff, they still got pushed back, until I was sewing them up on Christmas Eve morning and early afternoon. I skipped having a real lunch, and it still took me until nearly 3pm. Well, they turned out great, and he loves them! (And I'm glad they're no longer sitting on my conscience!)

When I got over to dad's, everyone was trying to figure out how to cook dinner. I called mom to find out the oven temperature and time. (But asked about baking instead of rotisserie... more on this later.) O rinsed the chicken while I prepared the stuffing to go in the bird, and dad looked for the skewers and string for trussing the chicken to the rotisserie. I almost went back to my mom's for string, but we eventually found some that wasn't disgusting, or looked like it would melt. (Note to self: buy string for dad's stocking next year.)

After the bird was in the oven (on the rotisserie, but with the baking settings) I decorated the tree:

Dad buys his trees a few days before Christmas at a deep discount. They always have, um, "character." ;) I prefer the wild ones we used to cut down, but we haven't had time for that while I've been away at school.

O stuffed the candy in the stockings that dad bought at his friend's bulk food store. I made the stockings a few years back, but still haven't gotten around to adding the initials:

I really should... the Jelly Belly jelly beans that go in each is customized to the recipient, and some years we've had to make corrections. ;)

Dad really liked the hunting toque I made him:

and didn't mind the dirty spots on the yarn. ;) O and T liked the Scroogy gifts I gave them too. :)

Then there was an incident where T corrected out chicken mistakes, we didn't notice one thing he did, thought another mistake had been made... and lots of confusion and grumpiness ensued. T stormed off in a huff... but I think it's mostly because Christmas stresses him out.

Even with out inept cooking and timing issues (chicken was done when we started the wild rice, wild rice was done when we started the vegetables...), dinner tasted really great. T didn't join us, but that's T for you.

I went with dad to midnight mass so I could listen to him in the Choir. Here's the inside of dad's church as seen from the choir loft:

and here's the choir singing carols as people file in:

(I took the photo at maximum zoom and cropped rather than shrunk, but my camera doesn't have all that much zoom.)

I made most of a mini-Weasley last night (needs some finishing, but that's it) and a sleeveless mini-cardigan (ran out of scrap sock yarn). I'll post a photo when I get around to taking one. ;)

I was up way too late, but had a reasonably good Christmas. One more photo... here's dad's doggy: