Christmas is Coming...Thank God for Knitting!

Happy Friday Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the Holiday Season! We certainly are. But folks, let me tell you. Thank God for the calming factors of Knitting. Seriously. I will get into that in a minute but let me show you where I am currently at with my new design that has brought me sanity over the last couple of days...

It's actually much larger than this now. This was just the last picture I took of it. No sense in continuing to take pic after pic of it, they all look the same! I am beyond pleased with how this is turning out. I absolutely CANNOT WAIT to see this thing blocked. I think it will really bring out the movement of the design and the detailed edging I put on this. I'm so happy with it! Its really the only thing I've been working on. Its taking a little longer than the other two shawls I did this year because its lace on the front and back sides rather than there being a purl "rest row." The yarn is Anzula Luxury Fibers. The release of this one will be exciting for me. Anzula will showcase the pattern on their website and will also be interviewing me for an article on their blog. Exciting stuff!! 

So, we all know the healing benefits of knitting right? Good for blood pressure, and the repetitive movements of knitting are CALMING, right? Allow me to humor you with what has happened over the course of the past few days trying like hell to get Christmas started in this house. It started this past Saturday with the family trek out to go and find the perfect Christmas tree...and boy did we ever find the perfect tree!

We were positive that this was the biggest tree that we had ever had before. And we were right...

We had to trim just a little off the top so it wasn't bent against our 12 foot ceiling. Here's Dad vacuuming all the needles up after getting it into the tree stand...for scale...

It was a huge, massive, beautiful tree and I loved it! We let it sit an evening in the stand to relax a bit. Here were are putting lights onto the tree Sunday afternoon...

People. This tree was GORGEOUS. By far the best tree had ever had and I was so excited to decorate it. That is my fathers BIG 12 foot ladder. We needed it to finish putting lights on the tree and to put decorations and the angel at the top. We needed a few more strands of lights and the only ones we had were on white wires. They just wouldn't look right on our beautiful green tree. So off he went. I took this picture when Dad left to get more lights. Isn't it lovely? It shows the size of the tree beautifully! When Dad returned with the lights we continued with getting the lights and and the angel placed. When he was done he announced to Mom and I "if you girls get a tree like this next year you're on your own." Dad was a little miffed, I could tell. When he was done he gathered up the ladder. And this is where the nightmare started. He pulled the ladder together...and I saw that there was a little itty bit of a branch caught in the ladder... when happened next I saw unfold in slow motion. I tried to catch it. I swear I did. The moment I told him there was a branch caught in the ladder he started to put the ladder down...and then the tree fell. In slow motion. It was like a dream where you're running and running but can't get anywhere. I tried to get to the tree to catch it but I just couldn't get there. It fell taking out the venetian blinds and a Tiffany Style lamp on the way down. The poor angel went flying behind the reclining chain, shuddering in fear on the floor. My mother and I couldn't look at each other. We would've laughed. Hard, crying laughter with tears. We just couldn't look at each other. Remember back in April of this year when we had The Great Flood in my parents bedroom and all the carpet needed replacing including drywall in the living room too?? The tree stand was FULL OF WATER when it tipped over.  Now there was tree water all over the brand new carpet in the living room. I was standing in it. My father and mother went for the towels while I stood there holding the tree. With lights dangling and hanging off the branches of the whole thing. My dad went for the vacuum. I'm not sure why, in his infinite wisdom, he grabbed the vacuum instead of the shop vac. We may never know. He used the vacuum to get up ALL the needles which were everywhere. And I mean everywhere. There were a few in my bra. Holding the tree and standing in water I said to him very lightly (I wasn't sure if he was still speaking to anyone at this point) "Umm, Dad? Do you think that maybe the shop vac might be better?" He said to me "yes, it probably would be." Unfortunately, the water that had been vacuumed up....dripped from the vacuum on the way out. There were black drops of water on the carpet all the way from the tree to the tile in the next room. I said to Dad..."Umm Dad..." and I just pointed. I was afraid to speak. And this whole time? Mom and I STILL could not look at each other. It took everything she had NOT to take pictures of this for later reference. Or Facebook. Those who follow me on FB and saw this post know about all of this. Anyway, Dad left with the vacuum and came back with the shop vac. He and I we able to simply wipe up the black spots on the carpet without too much damage being done. I was quite surprised by this. Dad vac'd up all the standing water. After this was done we had to center the tree again. And again. And again. And again. until it was straight and standing upright. Then it fell again right as I was standing next to it. I swear to God I'm not making any of this up. We were finally able to get it centered and standing on its own. I started looking online for a cast iron or wrought iron tree stand to put the tree in. Something very very heavy that would hold the tree. I found a few, and they were beautiful and would work. But shipping then became the problem. Turns out no one wants to ship you a cast iron tree stand overnight for anything less than $100.00 in shipping alone. While Mom and  I went to pick up dinner I called Home Depot. They had a tree stand made for 12 foot trees! We picked up dinner and then made a side stop at Home Depot. I ran in and grabbed the stand and off we went. The new tree stand was very very wide in diameter. This was good because it changes the center of gravity of a large tree thus keeping it straight and upright! We ate dinner then Dad and I put the tree in its new stand. Viola! Then we all went to bed for the evening happy that everything was going to be okay. Or was it? This was what Mom woke up to the very next morning at about 6:30 am...

For the third time. Then my Father woke up...

He. Was. Pissed. I was in bed for what took place next. He took the tree outside and made it "smaller." He took a bit more off the top...like 2 more feet. Then he took some of the bottom branches off then he cut the trunk down. So what we ended up with looks like this...

Mom sent me a text before I got out of bed with pictures and simply said, "Don't say a word. Your father is working on it." Its nothing even remotely close to what we started with but...we have a tree. Its standing upright. And its no longer falling down. Its a cute little tree with a story that none of us will ever forget. I have a strong feeling that we might be going artificial next year. I have a friend of mine that has a 12 ft artificial and she loves it. She advised to get a tree without the lights on it, its cheaper. She just leaves the lights on it when she packs it up. So when the sales happen this year after Christmas I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if we finally went that direction. My father is 80 and shouldn't be climbing ladders for this stuff anymore. I mean, he's in great shape for his age and he climbs right up there (he still changes over our swamp cooler every year and also does it for a few friends and that's a job that involves climbing a ladder and walking around on the roof to get it done. We have a flat roof on our home here in New Mexico so its not like he's scaling the roof with rope or anything like that). But still. He's 80 and simply doesn't want to do it anymore and I can't blame him at all. I am actually surprised as how chipper he's been through this. Something unknown actually inspired him to put lights up around our door this year. Early. We couldn't believe it. Its been a busy week for us here, lots and lots of doctors appointments and stuff to do like that. We didn't get a chance to actually decorate our tree until yesterday. It was as pleasant as it always is. Its something Mom and I do together. The first Christmas CD we put on is the Odetta Christmas Spirituals. We hung three very large plastic bins full of family and very special ornaments that we have acquired over the years. I commented how lucky we are to have all of them. Every single ornament on our tree is very special to us and has a wonderful memory attached to it. Whether it be a beaded ornament that our friend Sidney made for us, or beaded ones that I made, or ones that we have had since I was a kid.  We have one ornament that my grandmother remembers hanging on the tree when she was little in the 1920's. Every year our tree is very special to us and covered in memories and family history. This tree however, this year, will remembered forever. The is what it looks like now...

We put the Nativity Set up which is new this year. I gifted it to Mom last year for Christmas but it didn't arrive until after Christmas. She forgot all about it. When I took them out and handed them to her she cried. They're THAT cute. Its a Nativity Scene made up of mice all dressed in their best for the little baby mouse sleeping in the manger...

Isn't it cute? I absolutely love it. The three wise men and Joseph are all wearing capes that are gathered just under their next and closed with a button The Angel is wearing a shawl with a button closure and Mary is wearing a dress with buttons. Its. So. Damn. Cute. I cannot remember the name of the website I got it from but Amazon is selling the same set and you can get it here. We really enjoy it. We also put up the Polar Bears too. Those go up every year and greet everyone at the front door for the Holidays! 

I took the picture at night but as you can see...it looks like they are staring at the lights. Last year they stayed up until St. Patricks Day. Mom just decorated the lights differently for each Holiday. We love the Polar Bears! We have a Christmas table runner that our friend Melanie made for a us a few years ago that's now on our table with a Christmas centerpiece from PartyLight. That's pretty much all we do for decorations. Simple but very meaningful for us. 

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the season and getting ready for whatever Holiday you are celebrating this year! I will get my new pattern to my test knitters in the next week or so and am hoping for a January release. Stay safe and warm my friends, and for the love of God, keep knitting!

Until next time...KNIT ON!!