Watch out, I'm pretty proud of myself.

I've been crafting it up during my holiday break: scarf after scarf after scarf.

Dra asked me to make her a beanie.

I think it's adorable, and I probably should have looked for a tutorial, but I'm beaming with satisfaction for figuring a pattern out on my own.

What do you think?

All of the nephews are over at my parents'.

Here's Ezra playing with my mom's Christmas present. He loves wearing the apron; he and my mom made us sugar cookies with sprinkles with the cookie press I gave my mom for Christmas.

Earlier this morning, after I had showered and readied myself, I ran downstairs to continue playing and Ezra stopped mid train crash, "Hey! You look pretty good. I mean your hair."

Last night while waiting for our dinner at Cracker Barrel, my mom wandered back from washing her hands.

Ezra: "Grandma where the heck have you been?"

SNL Christmas Song | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Roommate Christmas:

My contribution to pot-luck breakfast?

Caramel Pull-Aparts

Note to self: For next time, remember that mom said to only use 24 of the 30 Rhodes rolls.

Oops. Didn't realize it'd make such a difference.

Final Product was delicious and eaten by the boys immediately.

Ingredients:

• 1 package Rhode's frozen dinner rolls dough
• 1 small package of cook and serve butterscotch pudding
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cube butter

Combine dry pudding mix with the brown sugar and pecans. Melt butter. Place frozen roll dough in a well-buttered bundt or angel food cake pan. Pour melted butter over frozen dough and sprinkle with pudding mixture. Leave cake pan out over night. The dough rises beautifully by morning. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Invert on platter to serve. Serves 10.

- Rose Payne

I drew Janey's name.

I presented her with a hat with flaps, a pretty long scarf, and peppermint and black licorice candy. I made two out of three of those gifts.

Karen had me!

She gave me a new door knob that I can lock from the outside, ear plugs, a little lint roller, bath salts, a chocolate orange, and candy in my stocking. I jumped off the couch and smothered Karen in a huge hug. She knows me so well.

Turkey and Vegetable Chili

I made this for my fam for our Biggest Loser Finale party. It is so good! I added some chili powder, and we ate it over a baked potato. Two thumbs up.

(It served more than four, more like six or seven.)

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

For the chili: 1-½ tablespoons olive oil 1 large onion, medium diced 1 garlic clove, minced 1 small red chili, seeded and small diced ½ teaspoon ground cumin 1 large carrot, peeled and small diced 1 large celery stalk, medium diced 1 small yellow bell pepper, seeded and medium dice 12 ounces 1% lean ground turkey 4 medium size ripe tomatoes, medium diced 8 oz cooked white or black beans 4 cups baby spinach Freshly ground black pepper ¼ cup plain fat free Greek style yogurt Micro cilantro to garnish, (can substitute with chopped chives or chopped cilantro)

METHOD

• Place a large saute pan over medium high heat, then drizzle with the oil.
• Add the onion, garlic, and red chili and sauté for 2 minutes, or until tender.
• Sprinkle the cumin over the onion mix and stir well, then add the carrot, celery, and bell pepper and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the vegetables begin to get tender.
• In a separate saute pan, brown the turkey in the remaining oil over medium high heat, then transfer to the vegetable mix.
• Add the tomatoes and the beans and cook for a further 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the tomatoes have broken down and most of the liquid has evaporated.
• Stir in the spinach and remove from the heat.
• Season the chili to taste with freshly ground black pepper
• Spoon the chili into serving dishes
• Spoon a tablespoon of the yogurt onto each garnish with the micro cilantro and serve.

Nutrition Facts: Calories 280 Total Fat 7g Sat Fat 1.5g Cholesterol 35mg Sodium 120mg Total Carb 28g Dietary Fiber 9g Sugar 7g Protein 29g

Today a student called out to me from across the room, "Ms. Bateman!?"

"Yeah Skylar."

"You're funny."

It's because I had them raising two fingers, then down to one finger, and I warned/laughed, "An appropriate finger."

I am funny.

In another class, a girl was up at the board showing us how to find the median of a list of numbers, and the kids were calling out helping her put them in order from least to greatest. One boy called out, "Seven!" but there was no seven, so he looked at his neighbor sideways, drug it out into, "Seven ... teen ... is the last number ... in the list," and it was. It made me laugh so hard because it was so secret, and only he, me, and one other student noticed. I had my hand covering my mouth, trying to be respectful of the girl who was at the board, but my eyes were shiny with tears.

"What a funny guy." (That's from the end of Home Alone.)

Two Things:

Today in church, I was playing prelude on the organ, and a guy came walking up to talk to me. I found a stopping point, and he asked if he could play with me. I had a second of panic thinking he wanted to sit next to me and have a little duet. He pointed over to the piano, and I understood. I shrugged and agreed to it. We started with Angels We Have Heard on High. I played straight from the hymn book, and he jazzed the hymn up very nicely. We finished on Silent Night. I loved it, and I hope the congregation enjoyed it. It reminded me of my piano days where we had to do a duet during our summer recitals.

My roommates brought home a delicious smelling Christmas tree last night. This morning, roommate Karen was working around the tree, I was in my room getting ready for church, and then I heard her yelp. I came out to help, and she was searching for the huge bug that had flown out of the tree and landed on her neck. We couldn't find it. I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs and came face to face with the bug we had searched for. It looked like a box elder bug on steroids. I ran upstairs screaming that I had found the bug. I dropped off my bag and mustered the courage to say I was going to stomp it, but then it was in a corner, and I got scared it would be elusive. Janey went to get a boy from downstairs, but I coaxed it on to a poster and screamed as I carried it outside. Ammon came out right as I stomped on the monster, then he teased me for killing it and for screaming so much. Whatever, I was proud of myself for taking care of the situation. It really pumped me up for the drive to church.