It's beginning to look alot like...

Christmas at our house.



My blogging buddy Carole collects snowmen - so do I. :-) These guys are part of my favorite Christmas things that only make an appearence this time of year. They grace the windows around the kitchen and living room (and surprisingly enough, the cats leave them alone)
Each year when I unpack them, I ooh and ahhh like a little kid - silly, yet true.









Another holiday tradition that my daughters and I began many years ago, is to hang snowflakes in the windows. We cut them out around thanksgiving, and they linger until February sometime. Each year we add a few to replace the ones that were torn or faded from the previous year. The really gorgeous ones were made by my oldest daughter, Erin (yeah, she's the artist). Everything that she touches seems to turn to magic. You can see some of the snowflake collection adorning the windows behind my snowmen.
Do you have little traditions like this in your family?
Please share.


And, since you came for a bit of knitting content - here's a couple more completed projects for holiday gifts:

Socks made from Satisfaction Sock Hop Yarn











and I finished the cabled fingerless gloves made from Louisa Harding silk-merino yarn. oo-la-la
A few of you have emailed me, asking for this pattern.......... alas, I am unable to share it. It is published pattern, written by Karen Alfke. (I only modify which cable design I am using) I took a class from Karen last January while attending Madrona Fiber Arts Festival, and it was fabulous. It is possible that your local yarn store could find a copy of it for you.






We finally got our Christmas tree inside last night - and hope to get it decorated later on today. And in the name of the holiday season, I will share with you one more thing.....I have one other little tiny tradition (that caused complete embarassment and giggles from my daughters when they were young...) I have a small collection of these:

and I can frequently be seen wearing them to the grocery store, post office and while shopping for gifts this time of year. jingle jingle.