Christmas 2017

Christmas morning we woke up to over 5” of fresh snow and one very excited toddler. K was literally trembling with excitement when we walked downstairs to see if Santa had come, but after a brief moment of awe at the new gifts, she got her boots on and wanted to go right outside into the snow- not surprised! We talked her into doing stockings first (in no small part so we could have coffee first), then we bundled up and headed outside for over an hour of playing in the snow, building a snowman and walking down the street to play with the neighbors.

We then worked on presents until my parents and brother came over around 1, and spent the rest of the day snacking, opening presents and playing cards while K napped. She opens presents slowly – tearing into one then wanting to play with it for a while before considering a next gift, so the day had a wonderful lazy pace to it. She got so much new treasure over Christmas that she has been loving - Brio trains, a soccer ball, a doll bed, wooden cakes and slicing fruit, bees, play silks (rainbow from Sarah’s Silks, pink and blue silks from Ginny Sheller’s handmade shop), playmobil from my brother and the feather wands from her stocking. This girl was well and truly spoiled and loved every minute of it.

Not even a mouse

Santa was here!

Before

We had the most perfect Christmas Eve. We woke up to a heavy frost and the promise of snow, so we canceled our plans and stayed home all day listening to Christmas music, wrapping the remaining presents, baking cookies (I iced, K added sprinkles), and watched Elf and Polar Express. Well, also a lot of cleaning and cooking - don’t think I sat down from the time I got up until about 3pm because the house was that trashed and I really wanted it nice for Christmas. My feet felt like they did when I worked retail in college but it was so worth it to have the house all nice.

Just as it started to get dark out, I was looking out the window checking for snow and there was nothing, but I looked a little bit longer and there was one flake, and another - snow! We were all off-the-charts excited and K ran to get her snow boots and was ready to go outside right away so of course we bundled up and went out in the dark to play in the yard. A white Christmas is lovely anywhere but it doesn’t happen a whole lot in the Pacific Northwest and the rarity makes it just that much more magical. All ready for Santa to come!

December

There is no place I would rather be lately than my own Livingroom, and each picture above perfectly illustrates why. We have been so busy this month, and while each event and activity is fun, my favorite part of the holiday season is slowing down, nesting, and spending time as a family.

We got our tree the first weekend of December, but it took me until now to get pictures I’d send to anyone because of the laundry piled up, the toys piled up, the everything piled up, eesh. It’s normal, I wouldn’t hide it or judge it, but I prefer not to publicize it either.

But even with the mundane stuff, this is such a magical time of year. I thought I loved Christmas as a kid, and I did, but wow, Christmas as a mom is at least as magical if in different ways. I am so excited for the gifts carefully selected for K, the traditions we have together, the anticipation and the creativity.

K has been really into gifting this year and I look forward to sharing the things we made together as soon as the gifts have been opened. She is as excited to give her gifts to others as she is to get something in return and I am humbled by that spirit. She has been telling the recipients some little details about their presents for the last few days but while she speaks pretty clearly for a 2yo in her core language, there is still a good amount of newer language I can pretend not to understand when a recipient is saying “she wants to give me the what-a-what?” – shh, don’t spoil the surprise!

Little Knits

I’m cheating, these pictures are old (see the little sliver of pumpkin by the cat?) but there are so many things I’m working on that I can’t post because Christmas, and we have been busy with holiday preparations and parties, and with the general life-maintenance of cleaning the messes left in the wake of our delightful 2.5 year old tornado (ok, some a lot of those messes are ours too).

My phone and camera are also both busted and in need of replacement, so the few pictures I would snap in the midst of busy days have been missed too (really need to take care of those replacements – I’m having a big “nice one vs. cheap one” debate on both fronts).

We have been having a lovely December though, and we have big plans for even more fun before Christmas – another trip to the mountains, seeing Christmas lights, cookie baking and decorating, art projects, carousel rides, cozy evenings with family and friends.

I started knitting this sweater for K in October and it’s been finished for a few weeks except that I still need to get buttons. I whipped up a little version for Cat which was very satisfying – took maybe 2 hours? It actually came out a tiny bit too small but good enough. I did not take notes, but it’s more or less a tiny version of the main pattern. My cast on was 17 (3 for each front and sleeve, 5 for the back) and then you just go from there. The leaf lace increases to a max leaf width of 3 stitches with no purl bump before the decrease again. This all makes much more sense if you’ve just finished knitting the regular sized one.

Quilting

I’ve been working on this Christmas quilt for K and while I would not say I am good at hand quilting (hello enormous uneven stitches), it has been so much fun to put this together. I love the fabrics, especially the trees and the tiny houses in the background and backing, and quilting the panels has been like a stitched coloring book. I think I even have a shot at having it done for Christmas (although she has seen me work on it too so no big surprise).

I ordered this doll bed after much back and forth between it and another adorable option on Etsy. This one won the debate after the price dropped to less than half the cost of the other and with free shipping, plus it looks much more like the headboard and footboard I found at the thrift store a while ago for K’s bed. I still need to get to the hardware store for lumber for the side rails and bottom, and a bracket to attach to the header and footer.

Right now K has a floor bed but at 2.5 I think she’s ready to move into a big girl bed and am hoping to pull off that project right around Christmas too so that she gets her new bed and (almost) matching doll bed at about the same time. I even have an extra top sheet for one of her sheets sets that I got because it matched and was $2 (thank you thrift store), so I’m going to cut that up to make matching sheets for the doll bed. I also plan to make a matching duvet and a mini version of both the Christmas quilt, and the quilt that my mom made for her that’s usually at the foot of her bed. The doll bed might really be for me – ha! It will of course be her toy, but I am having so much fun making little things for it. I love miniatures as a kid, and getting back into them to make toys for K is such fun for me. 

I’ve also been working on her doll house which I bought at the thrift store last November, and which will probably be a Christmas gift next year or the year after. I know – that’s awfully far in advance to buy something, but I found a beautiful Pottery Barn doll house for $8 and it needs a decent amount of fixing up so the early start is handy, and of course lots of mini-versions of things we have. More on that later. If I didn't already have a doll house in progress, I would for sure buy this one and stash it - so cute. I've been thinking about painting the one I have white with a gray or black roof and this is the push I needed, although I think I will do the door (when I make one, it's missing) in a dark blue.