It's just that time of year

We are hosting my husband's work Christmas party this year. I believe most of the stress has passed (thanks to red wine)and the oh-well-it-will-all-work-out stage is firmly in place. Up until yesterday it looked as if Elves threw up all over our house. There were boxes and containers everywhere holding plenty of mis-matched Christmas decor. We've tried to whittle down things that probably won't be used, but there is always one more box. Yesterday allowed some headway and I was even able to sweep the floor!









Knitting has been occurring and this vest is a gift for my dear friend, Amy. It is the Mary Swanson cardi-vest and I simply adore it. It is knit in Brown Sheep Worsted and the main color lived in my stash for a long time. I picked up the contrasting colors from my LYS. It was a quick knit and this is definitely a pattern I will knit again.

The colorwork is actually knit in, but duplicate stitch will be used next time. Purling in colorwork was fiddly even though it turned out nice and pretty even.

Typically, I do not gift handknit items for Christmas. Amy is an exception. She appreciates everything and will be thankful (even if she doesn't like it). I suspect she will wear it quite often as a vest in this weight is very practical this time of year.






Stay tuned, there is at least one more post in me before the holidays are over and I might even throw in a photo of the decor!

Dirty Christmas Carols

I find myself singing Christmas songs at this time of year. I find myself ad-libbing dirty words. Hubs and I discussed this not long ago after musing that there may be a market out there for an x-rated Christmas CD - Hubs replied "everyone I know sings dirty words" after hearing me ask if it was only us that butcher these traditional songs with smut.

While Rockin' around the frickin' tree this morning, it occurred to me that there has not been a sharing of the tree hunt from a few weekends ago. So...a few photos:

...Later we'll share some !#1*&# pie before we do some !$@##!

And on to the tree:

We walked the fields looking for the perfect tree. The youngest son found one, Bugg found one and it didn't take a genius to figure out that we could not choose EITHER of those trees because we'd never hear the end of the bickering. My strategy was to drag them all around the other fields and return to suggest a couple of others that we had not previously eyed. It worked! Everyone was freezing and relented with sighs of relief - Just cut it already...and he did, just before the camera battery died.

Youngest son put the stand on and lugged the brute tree into the house. He stood it up and I winced as it it was pushed up to it's full height.....2" shy of the super tall ceiling (gulp). The only thing working for the topper was a Santa hat.