Happy New Decade

DH insisted on a live tree again this year (it's so cute that he hates to cut down a tree just for Christmas). This one looked kind of silly even in the field, but we were a couple of weeks late going out to choose a tree and it was the last one. It is a Norway spruce, fat around the bottom and sparse higher up. I wired a crocheted Christmas angel that my mom made to the top; it stood up straight for a while and then started to sag to one side, as if the angel had just given up all hope (fortunately, real angels don't do that!). Almost immediately after we got the tree set up in the house, the needles started to fall off in clumps. We watered it religiously, but it was determined not to be pretty. As the branches sagged, the ornaments slid off, stripping every needle and crashing to the floor.

I normally keep the tree up until after Three Kings' Day, but if we wait that long it will be nothing but sticks, so I'm contemplating a break with tradition this year. I really hate to take it down so soon, because the house looks bare without it.

It was a fun holiday. DD was home from college, without the love of her life who went back to Lithuania to visit his own family, so we had lots of mother-daughter quality time. We learned together how to double-knit and are making an argyle scarf together. I've helped her design a special gift for her sweetheart (I can't tell you what it is, just in case he sees this, but when it's done I'll put up a picture). Two of my sisters were with us for a few days before Christmas and we took in the Barbie exhibit at the Indianapolis Children's Museum--what a great time!

I am pretty pleased with the festive touch we gave to the dining room chandelier--a roll of ribbon and a box of ornaments from Lowe's can work wonders! And I still love the hand-carved wood nativity scene from Georgia that DH and the kids gave me some years ago--I think it looks great in front of this photograph by my friend Gia Chkhartarashvili (for more see http://www.pscphotographs.com/bridge_over_the_ocean/gia/index.htm) of the village of Ushguli in the high Caucasus mountains.

Here's wishing you and yours the happiest of new decades, filled with love and creativity!

Felting/Knitting Setbacks

I'm bummed--the tip of my felting needle broke off already and there's nowhere close by to buy another one. SO even though I dreamed about felting last night (no kidding), I can't work on anything until I replace the needle. I should probably order these things in bulk.

Stymied by my inability to felt, I got out my latest knitting project and discovered the needles aren't long enough (it's one of those sweaters that you knit all in one piece up to the armholes). This must be the universe's way of telling me to stop playing around with wool and finish preparations for DS and DH's Christmas stockings.

You know, the thing about being the mom is, you spend all this time and energy filling stockings for your darling children and their father and then what do you have in your own? Only what you put there! One of these days I'm going to use the stocking as an excuse to buy myself some really peachy presents for Christmas, like a huge bottle of Chanel No. 5 or a sapphire and diamond ring. Maybe a bottle of Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, if I can figure out who sells it around here.