extremely glorious

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These days the girls are always exclaiming how glorious everything is. Glorious. It is their new favorite word. And Chessa's second favorite word right now is "extremely", and she always says it at least twice in a row.

Well here are some glorious pictures from the wonderful Tasha Tudor book Take Joy that I told you about last time...



So so so incredibly beautiful!



And our own Mary now traveling the last stars along the path.

Maybe next year I will get around to making Joseph to accompany her...

This year there are mittens to finish seaming, a few more holiday cards to make, and lots of Christmas cookies to bake!

Tomorrow we will head into the forest to celebrate Winter Solstice and bring home our Christmas tree. We will have hot apple cider, snowdrop cookies, and bring out our handmade ornaments and vintage decorations.

(After we finally finish moving the girls into their new bedroom...)

Friday is my birthday and I have this kind of crazy idea that I would like to do some sewing for myself that day. Maybe a new wrap skirt to wear over wool tights on winter days. I can sew while my family makes dinner for me...

Then it's Christmas Eve.
Then it's Christmas Day!

My sister is coming for Christmas and will be here until New Year's Eve. We have all kinds of kitchen adventures planned, and I'm going to teach her how to knit...


So to all of you here, my dear friends I am so glad to know, I wish you and your families an extremely extremely glorious glorious wonderful holiday season!!!


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Advent Days, Yarn Along, and a Handmade Holiday...

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It is snowy on this St. Lucia Day, but with a brightness to the sky that is bringing us lots of light.


And bringing lots of happiness to us on these December is a wonderful vintage Tasha Tudor book called Take Joy. So much goodness is this beautiful book! Holiday stories, poems, songs, recipes and delightful traditions!


I have so many favorite pictures from this book, I will post again one day soon and share some of them with you.


This year our handmade holiday seems to be all about knitted gifts. Mittens for the girls, the first ones I have ever knit. They are fun to make! I think I am going to add a bit of embroidery to these so I haven't sewn the seams yet...


Knitting i-cord ties for the winter bonnets. Chessa's green one is done too...

Finished knitting both sets of nesting bowls, but only half of them are felted yet.


The other day the girls made some holiday cards to send to relatives.


Chessa's of course all say "Love" on them.




And some made by Chloe...


I love all the angels!


Our St. Lucia crown has been serving as our table centerpiece, except for this morning when Chloe was wearing it.

And our Advent Angel continues her journey. Now wandering through the trees and joined by some animals.

(Some of you have asked if I made our Advent calendar and angel... Yes, I did. You can see how I made the wool starry path here. I actually meant to share the link last month in case anyone wanted to make one, but time of course got away from me...)


Now I will tell you, most of the above pictures where taken while I was in bed. A really yucky sickness has decided to visit our house. Jason was in bed for 8 days! All the symptoms are very mild, except for extreme horrible horrible dizziness. And just before Jason came down with it we had taken apart half our house, decided to move the girls bedroom, need to paint and redo the floor. We though it would be done in just a few days (or maybe a week) and now we are way way behind! The girls are sleeping on the couch bed and there isn't even space for a Christmas tree yet.

Fortunately now Jason is much better and probably by the weekend the project will be completed. Fortunately I am nowhere near as sick as Jason was but still need to really take it easy. (Thank you homeopathic remedies! Jason has been very over-worked lately, and we didn't even realize he was getting so sick, so we weren't taken care of him well enough...) Fortunately the girls are healthy.
Fortunately knitting is a very restful activity.

And when we are finally able to get our tree and do some more decorating things will feel all the more special and festive!


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autumn ending...

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December is here! I truly do try to stay within the moment of each season, and of course winter does not officially begin until later this month, but really it seems that these advent days are a time unto themselves. With certainly a more wintery feel to them.

Yesterday I spent several hours in the garden harvesting the last of the carrots and cleaning up the beds. I was so very grateful for one last outdoor garden day! Tonight more snow is arriving and will likely continue for several days!

I have been so quickly falling behind on posts here so there is some randomness to this one...



A non-wintery, not autumn either picture that Chessa drew on the small chalkboard recently. If you look closely you can see that she has written "I love you Rose" on it. Besides her name and our names, and the word "the", these are the words she knows how to spell (and has known for at least a couple years) so she writes them often. Also "Lily".



Cardigans with buttons! Yes, I finished knitting the cardigans in time for Martinmas, and then didn't sew the buttons on until the first day of Advent.




Chessa's cardigan is way too big...



Chloe's cardigan fits her perfectly. Too perfect! She may grow out of it before the end of winter...




But both are keeping the girls warm and cozy, and quite cute, so I'm happy with them!




And now our little Advent angel is walking slowly along her starry path, with each day holding a bit of holiday magic.



Wishing you all peaceful Advent days filled with beauty and happiness!


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