Christmas Continues

I know it is now the middle of January, but my side of the family was going to have our Christmas celebration on Old Christmas.  Mother Nature kind of put a few kinks in our plans.  Of course, as things have gotten busier we have had a hard time getting us all together.  We’ll keep trying, but for now we are just exchanging our gifts as we see each other. Mama bought me a beautiful apron with a Christmas design on it and  she also made me a beautiful red rose doily.  I love red and this fits perfectly on the stand in my entryway.  In fact, it couldn’t have fit any better if she had measured and custom designed it.

A Favorite Gift

My grandson made this apron for me for Christmas, and I finally used it this week.

The top hands are the ones he traced himself.  He drew me all kinds of goodies on there — muffins, cookies, and an orange.

I’m almost afraid I’ll mess it up, but I know he was so excited for me to have it to use.

Best Christmas Gift Ever!

One of the downsides to being named Shara is that I never can find anything personalized.

This year my sister and her boyfriend gave me the best gift ever.

A monogrammed dish carrier with a 9”x13” casserole dish.

Then they added the message to the dish.

I love, love, love it.

B

Knitted Shawlette

A to me from me Christmas gift.

I use two skeins of light worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles to knit this shawl.

The pattern is free online.

Pincha

Thanks to sales prices I spent $7.03 on this shawlette including tax.

The feather pattern curves around the neckline creating a bit of an asymetrical feel when I pin it together.

I love that the short rows create an interesting patterning.

The End is in Sight

Those three quarts of purple hull peas represent the last of my quart jars.

The concord grape jelly is finished and cooling.

I'm down to about 20 hodge podge smaller jars that I will fill with small batches.

One of the perks of canning -- for me anyway -- is that I have to stay with the canner.

I'm finding lots of time to crochet as a result of that.

These still need the ends worked in, and I am out of starch.

I'll get those things done and these will go in my Christmas gift pile.

The blue/white combination is for my brother.

I think I am going to keep the red, white, and blue for myself to use in July.

How many days until Christmas?

I always start January with the best of intentions.  I promise myself things like "I'll make a gift each month" or some such nonsense. It just never seems to happen.  Tax season starts, other holidays roll around, birthdays come and go, and life just gets busy.   

 I saw Anne's post (found here) on how to make Christmas boxes from old cards, and I immediately asked myself how many days until Christmas.  It wasn't that I hadn't been thinking about it, because I actually had.  When my children were little we had a tradition of holding a week-long Christmas in July celebration.  We made Christmas cookies, watched Christmas movies, and listened to Christmas carols.  I don't have any little ones at home anymore, but that didn't stop me from listening to my favorite carols and crocheting. 

 I now have two people marked off of my list.  A sister-in-law and my sister.  I'm sharing a photo of the gift for my sister-in-law, but since my sister reads my blog, you'll just have to take my word on her gift until Christmas comes around.

This red doily is all starched and blocked.  One of my sister-in-laws loves the color red so this is perfect for her.

This yummy blue is called Peacock.

Truthfully, I wasn't sure about the color on the spool, but the more I crocheted with it, the more I fell in love with it.

Now I just can't decide if I want to part with it or not.

My sister's gift is just waiting to be packaged and I'll mark these two off my list.