Christmas 2011

Yesterday was Christmas.  As you all know I've been knitting, crocheting, and other sorts of hand crafting most of the gifts that I was giving for Christmas.  I was so excited to give my mom the vest that I had knit for her!  Our family has a nice dinner and celebration for Christmas Eve, then I sleep at my mom's house in my childhood room, and then Christmas morning my mom and I open our gifts to each other and the ones that Santa brought.

So without further ado, here is my Christmas 2011 recap (and yes, my mom might not be so happy with the "Christmas Morning" pictures of her I'm posting...)

Here we have my mom's Christmas tree and the presents on Christmas morning! Yep, it's just my mom and I.....we really love each other :) (not that material items = love...just saying).

My stocking was packed from Santa!  He even wrapped these gifts in a very special way....

A lovely mirror picture of me before present time :).  I figure that if I put a picture of my mom up, I might as well include myself in my pjs :).  I love them! All of my favorite colors!!!  (Note the Christmas tree in the background....).

I just love pictures of presents up close....I love to wrap!  I wonder if you can tell which ones my mom wrapped and which ones I did.... here's a hint, I get more creative with my bows than my mom does :). I also like owls....and sparkly things :).

 

And here is my favorite picture of the day!  This is the moment when my mom opened the vest :).  As you can see, she is sooooooo excited.  (Mom, if you ever read this, I'm sorry that I posted a picture of you on the internet on Christmas morning...I love you!!)

After my mom opened my vest, I got to open my stocking.  As you can see, Santa decided to wrap my stocking stuffers with a new material this year...aluminum foil, the heavy duty kind.  While very ingenious....aluminum foil DOES NOT make for good wrapping material.  The large gash on my index finger is proof ;).

After all of the unwrapping was over, we were left with a GIANT pile of papers and other packaging materials.  (Of course we recycled what we could!)

Nothing could make Christmas better than my mom's excitement to wear her new vest!  I was thrilled when she said that she wanted to wear it for Christmas!! She even asked me to make her another one this summer in a different color!  My mom's so cute :).  She made me so happy!

After visiting family after Christmas breakfast and gift opening, my mom and I headed back to my apartment to make our traditional Christmas Day dinner.  We've been having this for years and years....I can remember how much my Baba (grandma) loved it!  What was it, you ask?  Well, we had cornish hens baked over seasoned (cream of chicken soup and italian seasoning) rice, with green beans, carrots, cranberry sauce, and an amazing jello mold that my mom made!

2011 was really a nice Christmas!  I'm super thankful for my amazing family, a mother that loves me more than I can ever understand, and great friends!  OH...and the Knit Picks harmony wood interchangeable knitting needle set that I got from Santa!

Christmas gifts part 1

Tomorrow is Christmas eve.  This year I set out to make most of my holiday gifts, unfortunately I've not been able to complete all of them yet....but I will get them done!  I'm setting a second goal of January 7th, which is technically the Christmas that I celebrate.

Anywho, since I've given out a few of my gifts, I no longer have to worry about posting about them and ruining the surprise! (And I'll freely post about my mom's gifts because she does not use the internet!)

First, I knit my friend Stephanie a "Honey Cowl" in Madelinetosk DK in "Fragrant."  It is a mixture of different pinks (her favorite color) and really came out nice!  I made the one skein version and you can wrap it around your neck twice--when you do this it is snug on your neck (which honestly I found to be very nice). [Steph really liked the cowl!]

For my bosses at my internship, knit them each a coffee cup/mug cozy and crocheted a coaster.  Each got really excited when I gave them their presents--that's always nice to experience :).

Finally, one of my mom's gifts is a set of two towels for the kitchen.  In 2009 I started making her two kitchen towels....she got them in 2010 as well and now again in 2011.  I learned a new technique of embroidering a chain stitch along the edge of the towel and then crocheting on to that.  It really saved time when making these.  (Yes, I made these today....Christmas eve eve!).

My mom is also getting the knit vest I made, which I posted about here.  I'll get some pictures of her in it once I give it to her.  I really hope she likes it....

We Love Lucy Christmas Swap 2011

This year I participated in my first "We Love Lucy" swap...which was also my first swap ever :).  This swap was part of the "We Love Lucy" group on Ravelry...we all **really** love Lucy and her Attic24 blog.  The theme of the swap was "Christmas!"--what Christmas means to you, what it's like in your area, etc.  It's an international group so you could swap with someone internationally if you chose to go that route.  My wonderful swap partner, Shanti, lives in Indiana and is originally from Mexico :).

For my package, which I posted all wrapped, I tried to get things that represented Christmas by me and also spoil my partner.  Cause really, what's better than being spoiled during the holidays? (Note that these photos are borrowed from my swap partner, I really hope she doesn't mind :)).  The package had to include yarn and something hand-made.

The item that I made were dragonflies and butterflies.  My partner makes wire jewelry and really likes butterflies and dragonflies, so I figured she could maybe use these as part of a larger project.

Here is the entire unwrapped swap package: a jewelry holder, some Christmas balls, a book I love and kind of figured she wanted, a Christmas tree ice cube tray, some socks, the hand-made goodies, a whole bunch of yarn, hot cocoa, gummy bears, beads, pom-poms....annnnnnd a letter with some recipes in it that my mom and I make for the holidays :).

Now, on to the package I got!

Every object was wrapped up in colorful tissue paper!! HOW CUTE!

And here we have all of the goodies!  Yarn, a hand-made cowl, crochet hooks, patterns, little Christmas trees, things for decorating cookies, a coaster, pens, hand-made earrings, and a lovely hand made note!  I was so spoiled!

Here is some new yarn that I've never tried or even heard of! I'm so excited! The colors are so so so vibrant!

These lovely Christmas trees found their way onto the bulletin board in my office :).

She also made me these AWESOME wire earrings! She is just so talented :).

Thank you Shanti!! I love everything!!!!

Mom's Christmas Vest

Yes! Got the buttons today at Mood :). Just need to sew them on and block it!

Stats and snowflakes

My office is now festive :)  I've always really enjoyed cutting paper snowflakes :).  I think they go rather nicely with the crocheted Christmas trees I received in a swap :)!

Sharing is caring :)

My yoga studio is having a coat drive and they are also accepting hats, scarves, gloves, etc.  So I went through my collection of things I've made and came up with this pile for donation :). Makes me feel happy to help those in need! (and cleaning up the closet isn't a bad thing either!)

"We Love Lucy" Christmas Swap 2011

Today I sent out my Christmas swap package!!! It should be in Indiana by Wednesday!!!! I hope my partner Shanti likes it!!!! Eeeeee so excited! :)