Where did December go?

I can't believe how this month's flown by! My intention was to do a post a day in December - ha! I managed to do one so far this month - that's just so sad. I will now give you marirob's month in review, image heavy and chock full of crazy people!

After our attempts at decorating the house, we had the girls Huay and Su over for some delectable pizza, including Rob's combination of our two favorite recipes of the year, ratatouille and pizza.


The next event was Rob's work party, where baby JG made his public debut.


A couple of months ago we had a grilled cheese sandwich competition at our friends' Jared and Karen's house, which was followed up a couple of weeks ago by the epic pancake battle.


Here are Rob's delectable pear pancakes.


And only in California can you have a pancake battle and eat outside in December.

The next day, Sarita and Chris invited us over to decorate gingerbread cookies. We started out with some delicious homemade hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows.


The next two hours were filled with such hilarity that I proceeded to get a headache from all of the laughing and sugar. Here are the only cookies I can share on a g-rated blog.


Sometime during the month Rob brought home a real Christmas tree. This is important because 1. Rob has never had a real Christmas tree and 2. I have not had a tree since I lived with my parents. My biggest fear was that Unki would jump on the tree and bring it down, but it seems that Unki is very fearful of non-human items and has only batted a ornament once or twice.


When Rob brought the tree home, he announced, "We're going to make all of the ornaments!" To date, I have made seven and Rob has made none. Here are two that I whipped together in haste.


I remembered that I had six ornaments that I had brought home from Prague four years ago, so carefully because they were made of eggshells.


I also made a tree skirt from some Nani Iro fabric from work - I just have to bias tape around the edges to finish it.


We had a Secret Santa gift exchange at work. I thought it would take forever to draw names that weren't our own, but it only took four tries. The only stipulation was that the gifts had to be handmade.


Jen made Rickie this incredible colored quilt.


Tracey made Jen this adorable apron.


I made Tracey a scarf from the new Manos Silk Blend in Wildflowers.

I think I got the best gift of all.

A cornucopia of handmade cookies from Rickie! I was stunned when I opened the box. They were even more delicious than they look!

I can't show any of the gifts I have made and given to people because I am still in the process of finishing some gifts. But I can show you one gift that I know won't be seen, it's a scarf for my dad. I don't think he's ever touched a computer in his life.


And it's not a post without parting shots from Unki and Maggie! Maggie was easy to shoot, I just woke her up from her usual spot on the couch.

I had to chase Unki all over the house taking crazy photos.

Of course, when I had despaired of taking any nice photos, Unki settled down to take some very handsome photos.

Merry Christmas!