Christmas Party at Mom's

We had our Christmas party at my mom's last night. She always schedules it for a week or so after Christmas. I am glad that she does :). It gives everyone a chance to do their own things with their families and then come back together. I love that I don't have to worry about scheduling conflicts or anything with mom's get together. It is pretty much always relaxed and everyone just hangs out until I start giving out presents. I am usually the one that gets impatient and wants to see everyone have their presents :) So I will start pestering everyone to get in there and open them... I try to snap pictures but there are so many people and everything happens so fast that I have given up on getting many good ones. I did however manage to snap a pic of everyone I knit a hat for, plus a group shot of the kids all together. We were missing a few kids, but still had quite a crowd. 

My niece Debbie wearing her new beret and feeding my great niece Elliana who is wearing her new kitty hat.

Tiffany is wearing the slouchy blue and brown striped hat I made while playing with a funny toy mom had picked up at the mission :) I think it went home with Tiffany.. I wonder if she has driven her poor mom & dad mad with it yet ;) That is her mom, Paula, there on the left.

Here is Tiffany wearing the hat that I made for her :) Not sure why she is making this expression.. Maybe she is in awe over how great a hat it is? ;)

I had a hard time getting a pick of Nicholas with his eyes open :)

Here we have Baby Ellie (Elliana) wearing her kitty hat. She kept wiggling it around and getting it off all night, but it did look very cute on her.

This is my nephew Garrett wearing the blue ribbed hat that he chose from my collection of 'guy hats'; his buddy Logan  (who lives with them) chose the green and brown striped one.

Here is another shot of Logan and his hat.. I think it goes well with his coloring :)

Garrett being silly with his new hat :) The blue brings out his eyes, so he made a great choice :)

This little cutie is my niece Kayleigh. Look at those pretty brown eyes :)

I think Kayleigh likes her Cuppycake hat :)

This is my niece Dessirae :) She seems to like her Cuppycake hat too!

Cheyenne finally put on her hat and was happy with it :) She didn't want to put it on at first, but once she had it on she was running everywhere telling us about her new hat ;)

My niece Jess, being silly, modeling her new Midnight in Georgia Cowl. 

Jess, Debbie, and Max :)

Looks like Jess is about to eat Debbie, but Debbie is holding her back with the power of her evil eye stare!

This hat was made for my niece Jasper, but she wasn't there last night.. so Jess is modeling it for me :)

My daughter Korina and my niece Dessirae are modeling their hats :) Korina crocheted her hat all by herself! She has become quite crafty lately, she whipped up this hat in just one evening :)

My niece Jess' husband Mike wearing his new hat :) I have to say it suits him quite well.

Mike, Jess, and Ellie :) Mike and Jess swapped Christmas gifts for a picture :)

Here is Tiffany playing with Jess' cowl :D

Tiffany still playing in the cowl :D Maybe I will make her one soon.. 

My mom and her great grandbaby Ellie. :) I forgot to have mom put her headband/earwarmer on for a pic. Maybe she wore it this morning to keep her ears warm on the way to work, brr it is cold out!

The hoodlums all in one place for a moment or two :) I wish the other kids had been here..

It is so hard to get all of the kids to look at me and smile at the same time!

Christmas Knits; Part 2

It is after Christmas and I am still working on Christmas knits. :) I think it is pretty common among knitters.. especially disorganized ones such as myself. I am happy to say though that I only have two more to go! 

First I want to show you some that have already received their gifts :)

Mrs. Judy was really pleased with her zebra colored ruffle scarf :)

Both Aunt Frances and Cousin Karen seemed happy with their cowls. The white one is my own pattern that I made up; I will write up a post on it soon. The beige one is the Drop It! Cowl by Ellen Kapusniak; pattern can be purchased through her website Knitti Politi

Kerstin was also happy with her new Ninja Kitty hat. I didn't really follow a pattern here, just looked at a bunch of pictures for how to do cat ears and then went and knit it :)

Konrad was happy with this hat even though it wasn't exactly what he asked for.. I will have to make him another one soon, but for now he will be warm and stylish in this lovely hat.

These knits are all nestled in a bag waiting to be given out. We are having our Christmas party with mom on Thursday evening, so most will be going to their new homes then.

Black half ribbed hat, I made this for one of the guys on my list.

Sort of slouchy Camo hat, another for one of the guys on the list.

I knit this kitty hat for one of my little great-nieces. My daughter Korina crocheted the eyes for me :)

I created this pattern and it is named Midnight in Georgia.. mostly because that is when and where I thought of it ;) I am giving this one to one of my nieces and making another one in different colors for another niece. Pattern will be posted soon!

Another view of the Elliekit hat and the little cupcake amigurumi I knit based on my Cuppycake pattern.

Here we have two knits waiting on notions.. 

Please excuse my disheveled appearance.. we have been busy remodeling, painting, and wrapping up Christmas and 2012 so here I am in my work short modeling not quite done knits.. This headband/earwarmer is for my mom. It has a simple cable design. I just need a couple of buttons for the back so that she doesn't have to go around holding it on her head as I am doing.

I knit these for my grandma. I still need to add buttons to the top and puffy paint on the bottoms to make them slip proof. I  mostly followed the Parkspin slipper pattern. I meant to follow it exactly but got a bit sidetracked at our last knitting group.

These are my Christmas present to myself from me and my inlaws :) They gave me some money and one of the things I bought was this lovely alpaca/bamboo blend yarn. My hands have been really cold lately so I knit myself some handwarmers and these really do the trick! They are super soft and very warm. Now my mom-in-law wants a pair so I get to make them again ;)

Lovely yarn and a nice pattern.. what more could you ask for? :) This pattern is the Leftover Mitts pattern from Belatedly Tangled. And the yarn I used is Classic Elite Yarns Mountaintop Chalet in Chestnut.

Ornaments

We took down the Christmas tree yesterday. I enjoyed looking at all of our ornaments and decided to take some pictures of my favorite ones. We have loads of different ornaments; some handmade by the kids, some that we have had for years, some that we just got recently, some that mean something to us, some that are just pretty.. :) Some of my favorites are the ones that have been around as long as I have. 

These were on my mom's tree for as long as I can remember. She gave them to me  when I got my first Christmas tree. :)

These used to be on mom's tree also. The little mouse who is missing a pompom was one that I bought from my school as a child. Actually all of these were sold through school fundraisers when I was little. 

These are more of the ones that were sold through the school fundraisers back then :)

One of my favorite things about these bells is that their little feet are the clapper. The duck one has little webbed feet as her clapper. I also love how they hold their little babies in their arms. 

These worked out well as they are snowmen bells wearing knits ;) 3 of my favorite Christmas things!

More cute animal bells mom has found for me :)

These bells were made using small terracotta pots. One of these days I am going to make some myself :) 

The bear bell was bought for my first Christmas with Kerstin in 1998.  The other too my mom just bought me this year. I especially like Himself the Elf and his pleased little expression. :)

These are more that mom has bought for me :) The picture frame is in the same style as the ones sold from the schools.

I bought this tree topper for mine and Kerstin's first Christmas tree :) So he has been with us for 13 years now, since for Kerstin's first Christmas we were still living with my mom and shared her tree. 

 A lot of my bells and ornaments need some TLC. I hope that soon I will have a Craft Haus so that I can repair them and maybe make some more to add to our collection. :)

I hope each and everyone one of you out there had a wonderful holiday season and an even better New Year!