Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

By all accounts, the holiday season is upon us. All stores are fully stocked with things red and green and sparkly.  Social media is full of photos of homes decorated and Christmas trees lit up.  We are here!
For me, last year marked a sort of new beginning with at least one holiday tradition, I think.

Christmas 2011

I made a gingerbread house with my daughter and it was so fun, maybe even the most fun of the whole holiday, that I've decided to do another one this year.  While we were shopping last night, I happened upon this little kit. It seems to have everything you'd need to make a little gingerbread village, and I have a little train set that I think will go perfectly with it.

Gingerbread village kit

KNITTING
I knitted another pair of gloves that my husband immediately took a likin' to.  Very "Old Navy-ish" in color, and very organic in their origin.  The wool is very coarse, bulky yarn I made years ago.  It's dyed green or "jade" on the dye package.  The needles used were bamboo double point needles in size 6.  They took about a week to make, and would have been finished much sooner, were I not busy with some special family visits.

I started another pair of gloves with some yarn I bought a few years ago.  The yarn is man made cotton novelty yarn but is really soft and washable.  I tried a new thumb on the last pair of gloves (gusset) and will probably do the same with this pair.  The gusset is knitted as-you-go rather than afterthought style with picked up stitches. What a pain!

BOOKS
My book world has a very short shelf life, pun intended.  I've been hooked lately with ebooks and audio books from my library.  Last year I made a resolution to not buy ANY new books.  I kept that resolution and the only new book for me was obtained with a gift card. 

I've read and/or listened to books all year long from alternate resources, and I'm amazed at the variety of books I've found.  This was one of my better resolutions, if I do say so myself.  Books were supposed to come from my shelf.  Books that I'd never finished or never even started.  Well there's a reason why they never got read, and I found that out after just a couple of months.  They weren't any good!  That's why I never finished them, at least some of them. So I had to resort to the library and my Kindle account where I discovered authors I never would have read otherwise.

PERSONAL
My mom and dad came for a quick visit this week to meet their new great granddaughter.  We went over to her house on Tuesday to babysit while my son went to a quick business meeting.  My parents immediately fell in love with her, just like I did when I met her.

This coming year I've already started to make a mental list of resolutions I'd like to try.  One for knitting would be steeking. One for my inspirational life is to study more in depth some books of the Bible.  I've read through the Bible many times, and this year I did it again.  VERY worth it, if you've never done it. 

Today  wraps up a week long second honeymoon of sorts.  My husband and I are caregivers for his father who lives with us.  My father in law spent this past week with his other son a few hours away and we had a little stay-cation.  It was marvelous, and that's all I will say.  Tomorrow things go back to normal.
On Monday I'm driving to see my sister who I haven't seen since 2009.  I am super excited.  Seeing her was another one of my new years resolutions!

My house is decorated for Christmas, and tonight we get to babysit  you-know-who.  I need to come up with a cute nickname or acronym for her. I'll keep you posted!

Christmas 2012