A billion little pieces of tape

My husband took the day off yesterday so that we could spend the afternoon downtown Christmas shopping and I am soooo pleased to report that we are done done! A million pieces of tape and nearly all of the wrapping paper in our closet later, I also finished all the wrapping! I love to wrap gifts and always challenge myself to use as little tape as possible (mostly because I hate having to prepare all those little pieces and I'm too cheap to buy the pre-cut type). It took me all evening and it was a good thing I ended when I did...I was pooped after all that shopping (a lot more excitement and exercise than I usually get in my new role as stay-at-home mom) and I was really giddy while wrapping the gifts. Everything cracked me up and I giggled and giggled and giggled. I made up songs about cutting paper and curling ribbon...my husband looked frightened.

You'll notice from the picture that our tree is also up and trimmed. We're just missing a "baby's first Christmas" ornament and a tree topper. Julian doesn't seem to be as interested in the tree as we thought he would be. I guess he doesn't know yet that trees belong outside! He does seem to enjoy the blinking lights. He was kicking a lot while we were untangling them on the floor. So cute.

So other than the knitting, we're all set for Christmas. I've even planned Christmas dinner which is a really big challenge in our family because my husband is allergic to poultry, fish and sea food and my brother-in-law can't eat pork or any meat that is not hallal for religious reasons.

So I thought I'd make the Boeuf Bourgignon from this month's Martha Stewart Everyday Food since it uses beef cubes which are good and easy to procure hallal from our libanese market...problem? My brother-in-law can't have wine which is central to this dish. So I figured I would make a big batch and split out a couple of portions before adding the wine. Problem solved! I think that'll work and the recipe seems easy enough and, bonus, can be prepared in advance. Now I just need to figure out desert...

And now for the knitting content. Sadly, all I got is an incomplete sock for my sister. It is my first foray in sock knitting on two circs. So far, I'm finding this method less fluid than DPNs which is cramping my style though I like only having two ladders to worry about at the joins - I still haven't figured out how to avoid them completely, even on DPNs.

Cheers!

PS: For any Apprentice fans out there...can you beleive how much of a jack ass Randall is? I could not beleive that he told Donald not to hire Rebecca as well. I'm shocked at how selfish that move was, especially from him. I wonder what his family thought about that and weather he is now having second thoughts. I hope he is. Ugh, that makes me sooo mad!