Making Merry, Good Cheer and All That

Yeah, Christmas cheer has come to my house at long last!  In dribs and drabs, the decorations have come out of hiding during the week.  Right now I'm listening to Nick at Nite's Classic Cartoon Christmas whilst I type on the laptop.  Earlier I went shopping for a few little items.  Wrapped a few presents (even finished some knits but I'll post those later).  Some of those gifts are heading to the post office on Monday.  Later I'm off to a staff Christmas party.  And apparently there's a winter mess--at the very least snow--heading our way sometime 'round midnight.  Tis the season after all.

Christmas is generally my favorite holiday.  Why so long to get into the seasonal spirit?  Why so lackadaisical this year?  Then it hit me: no snow.  I need snow to get into the season.  Usually we already have a sprinkling of the white stuff by now, but almost nothing thus far. 

Last year I was also making lots of ornaments.  I think that helped me get into the spirit.  The  little balls were a free pattern at Canadian Living website.  The pattern originally came from the book Handknit Holidays.

And the cutest mini-stockings.  I loved making them!  These were also a free pattern from Little Cotton Rabbits (who incidently makes the cutest toys!  You gotta check out her website).

And I even started a few items that never got finished.  I found the patterns in my MIL's old Canadian Living magazines circa 1980's (I guess the magazine used to put out an issue devoted solely to Christmas crafts and gifts).

I even finished knitting most of the pieces for the snowman and the reindeer too, but I just never got around to seaming and assembling.  Everything has been languishing in a ziploc bag.  Maybe when I'm off for the holidays . . . three more weeks! :)