A New Years Tradition

Every new year, usually the first day where we are home but the kid goes to stay overnight with grandma, I set aside the day to watch the entire collection of Alien movies. I've been doing this for over 20 years now. I do this because I could never get through the first Alien movie, it was too gory for me. I was in my late 20s when I was finally able to sit through the whole movie, and I watched it on TV on New Years Eve. It was almost a rite of passage for me.


I don't just watch the original Alien movies with Sigourney Weaver, I watch them all, even the spin-offs. Except there's one that I watched this time around that I thought sucked so bad I won't watch it again... I rented it from Amazon Prime and I am SOOO glad I didn't buy it. I don't even remember the title.

This year, I decided to complete a project that I had bought the felt for a year or two ago. I decided to make a plushie face-hugger. I've always wanted one as a companion for watching the movies! So I set up a craft table in front of the TV, loaded up pictures of plushie face-huggers on my computer screen for inspiration, made some popcorn and filled up a jar with rum and coke, and got down to the business of movie watching and crafting.

I very nearly got the plushie done by the time I'd watched all the movies.  I had a little detailing to do with embroidery stitches later, but I got the basic form completed by the time my son came home from grandma's on sunday!

He wanted to pose with it for a picture, and then he announced that he loved it so much he wanted one of his own!  Well, it was a lot of work to make one, and I had no desire to do it all over again. Fortunately, he was okay with that, he said he'd make it himself, and make it smaller. So I set him up making his own!

Neither of them are quite done yet. I still need to add my embroidery details and he still has to finish his. But I'm sure they'll be done and ready to cuddle come the next new year, when I do this all over again!

Yule Greetings!

Blessed Yule to all of you! May you enjoy the company of your families at this time, and stay safe if you must travel.

My son is happy, he opened his gifts and now he is ready to eat a fancy feast at our yule table. He loves it when I set up the table all fancy for us. :)

Many Hands House Yule

Each year, weather permitting, we head over to my covenmate's house for a big Yule party. We love going, it's so packed with fun traditions!

We always start the night off with a vegetarian potluck feast. Wonderful food!

Not long after, Melanie sits the kids down and tells them the story of Mother Berchta, an old germanic Yule figure who brings gifts to kids. (or not, if they've been bad!)  Then Chris dresses himself up as Berchta and appears at the door, "GOOD YULE YOU ASSHOLES!" is her traditional greeting. LOL  The kids love it, they are a little intimidated by the figure of Berchta, but they know she brings them a gift (dollar tree gifts!)

The evening festivities also include a mummers play. It's always short and funny. :) 

Later after dark, if it's not super cold or snowy, the older boys spin fire for us. They are amazing at it.

The night isn't complete without lots of dancing, including the traditional Mr. Roboto that the Many Hands family always does, every Yule party. Everyone joins in!  There's nothing like celebrating the season with people of like mind!

Yule time is near!

We set up our Yule tree. :)

It's artificial, and it was a pre-lit. As you can see, some of the lights no longer work. :(   When I take it down, I will remove all the lights, they are just clipped on. For now, we have to make do with a half-lit tree.

We have a number of little traditions with out tree. A couple of very old ornaments that go in certain places. My kid does most of the decorating. Unfortunately we have cats who won't leave low-hanging ornaments alone so we don't hang anything on the lower 2 feet. Between that and the missing lights, our tree looks decidedly odd.

Kevin always wears his santa hat to decorate. This is, of course, one of his favorite holidays. ;)

Crafty Yule present for me!

I don't get many presents at Yule time. Our focus is mostly on the kiddo. He also has his own Yule "advent" calendar.  I was thinking to myself, I wish I had my own advent calendar... one that give me an awesome treat every day!

And then I thought of this. I made little boxes and glued them together, decorated them and made "Mama's Merry Yuletide Spirits" advent calendar. Rather than stopping at Yule (which is not the same day every year) I went to the 24th, because I needed the even number of boxes and also though Yule ends for me before xmas, I still spend time with family for xmas... and maybe I still want to keep getting little "gifts" for myself to fortify myself for the season. ;)

I think it turned out fantastic and I can't want to use it all next month!

witchy knitting

I'm just learning to knit.  I've knitted several washcloths of a few different patterns from a book I have.

I was looking around on ravelry and found this pentacle washcloth pattern and decided to try it. It turned out pretty cool. I suspect the pentacle pattern would be more visible in a solid color yarn, but I don't have any at the moment. I might make another later. This was not hard at all, just required counting!

I just recently bought some fancy expensive yarn to do my first non-washcloth pattern... a pair of fingerless mitts to wear under larger mittens for driving school bus. I am intimidated! lol

Mabon 2014

#nakedcoffee

My coven spent Mabon camping together at a local campground. Super awesome! We had so much fun! We like campfires, drinking and hanging out. :)

One of our members is pregnant and wanted a blessingway. We had a wonderful little ritual. We pampered her, hennaed her belly, made a special birthing candle and did some magick for blessing her.  It was lovely.

We also had a big "family" Mabon harvest celebration meal. Our meal gatherings are so awesome. Most of my coven is vegetarian, so we always have vegetarian potlucks. I love it because though I'm not yet vegetarian, I'm working in that direction. The potlucks help me find things I like, give me ideas on what works. My son doesn't realize it, but he and I were vegetarian that whole weekend.

witches knitting

In the evening, some of the boys spun fire, and we drank and hung out some more.

Sunday was cooler, overcast with occasional sprinkles. We were all kind of slow moving from our weekend of partying, not to mention a little sad that our weekend was drawing to a close. We mostly sat around chatting and knitting. :)

A lovely weekend together, we were sad it ended. Mainly because one of our covenmates and her family are full-time RVers, and they were planning to hit the road south in a few weeks, and we weren't going to see them again for months. Lots of wonderful memories though, and that's what matters!