Christmas!

Chess

Well Christmas is past and it was a wonderful time. Great meals (two christmas dinners!) good company and good time to catch up with family. I was able to give a handmade gift to every one this year. A bird to both Megan's and my parents, chess sets for the siblings, a glass plate for Megan, a glass sculpture for my dad, and ornaments for the tree. I was really happy with the way the chess sets turned out and loved giving them away. I am looking forward to visiting them in their respective homes often. I took some photos of them for my portfolio, you can see them in this slide show.

My parents also got all of the kids a life-long gift of Wüstof Knives, the best kitchen knives in the world. It is a set of 6, a larger chopping knife, a larger utility knife, a bread knife, a paring knife, kitchen scissors, and a diamond knife sharpener in a block. There are three open spaces in the block to fill.

Megan and I also promised each other that we would get each other a gift that we could bring to the apartment in May as our Christmas present. So we went to IKEA today to look at their stuff and came away with about $700 worth of stuff! Or, rather, we wish we did! No its just a list and I have

IKEA

posted those things on a google picasa web album for you to see as well. I think the chairs are the most important thing so they match the table. Then the bed, then the other stuff. The big book shelf looks really great in person, but I think its too expensive for right now. I might try building something like that even. I like it because it is so tall and there is no back so we could put it over the brick if we wanted to. I also want to build something for the big 43 gallon fish tank out of bricks. It will match the walls!