Merry Christmas!

The week after Christmas is a funny time for me. I'm always so sad to see Christmas go, but so excited to get back to normal life. We had a great Christmas this year. Here are some highlights-

• Christmas Eve Chinese food feast with Doug's family
• A trip up to Idaho and Wyoming to see our brothers, Carl and Nathan
• Lots and lots of game time with family- this year's favorites were Dominion, Ticket to Ride and Agricola. All very fun.
  
• A fancy Christmas dinner complete with steamed Christmas pudding (I look forward to that stuff all year long...) and monogrammed linen napkins (I love DownEast Home...)
  
• Lots of fun holiday baking
• Wearing matching PJs on Christmas Eve (yep, I do find myself very funny)
  
• Enjoying our annual Honey Baked Ham (provided by Doug's work) for every meal all week long
• Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas with Andrew and Lauren- love how Skype can bring you close to family even if you're thousands of miles away.
  

Puppet Nativity

I took a puppetry class at BYU. If you're like most people I talk to, you'll laugh at that statement. But I seriously think I've used what I learned in that class more than I've used anything else from college. I love making puppets! And I love using them. (the class taught us how to design professional level puppets without patterns, and then how to act with them-it's offered in through the theater department)

I've been working on a puppet nativity for a few years now- adding a couple puppets each year. This year was the first year with the whole set. It was so fun! We were lucky enough to get to visit my brother's family while they were up in Wyoming, so I brought it along to do with his kids. We did it again on Christmas Eve with Doug's family which was awesome since it was a bunch of adults doing it- but we had fun!

Christmas Fun

I love Christmas! I love decorating the house and burning Christmas scented candles and listening to Christmas music.

This year I wanted to make sure to get into the Christmas spirit despite the fact that I can hardly get out of the house. It's been SO much better! Amazing what a little planning can do. We've done a lot of low key, at home Christmas activities (roasting chestnuts, making orange and clove decorations, watching Christmas movies etc) but a few Christmas activities have definitely been my favorite so far.

First of all I made a puppet nativity. This one cannot be described in anything but pictures, so I will post some soon.

Second, my Christmas book. Best Christmas activity ever. (I'm so modest, huh?) In November I started collecting scripture verses that told of prophets who lived before Christ and devoted their lives to looking forward to His birth. I found 25 of them and put them in chronological order (a task that turned out to be much harder than I expected- but now I'm just so stinking proud of my list!). Starting December 1, I've been taking one scripture a day and putting it into a book complete with pictures and a time line when the story took place. It's been so fun to watch as the dot on the time line moves closer and closer to the birth of Christ as we get closer to Christmas. The goal is to print the book so next year we can do it all over again, minus the long process of finding scriptures.

Last of all (for this post anyway)- making snowflakes. Growing up, my Grandma Stacey made us a set up crocheted snowflakes. They were the only ornaments special enough to warrant their own box. (everything else was just thrown into one big cardboard box) I remember carefully taking them out each year and wondering how in the world someone could make something so intricate. This year I figured out my grandma's pattern and made us our own set. (see post below) So fun!

It's definitely been a good Christmas season so far- I'm excited to see what we get to do for the rest of it.

Grandma Stacey Snowflakes

Growing up my favorite Christmas ornaments were the snowflakes my grandma crocheted for us. Since she's not here to teach us how to make them, I pulled out one of our old ornaments and figured out her pattern. Now our tree is filled with Grandma snowflakes and I just love it! Here's the pattern in case you want some too-

Materials

Size 10 crochet cotton in white or off white, Size 5 crochet hook, Fabric stiffener

Abbreviations

Trc-triple crochet,Ch-chain, Sl st- slip stitch, Sc= single crochet, dc- double crochet, sk- skip

Instructions:

R1: Chain 4, connect into a circle with a sl st

R2: Ch 4, (trc, ch1) repeat 11 times, sl st into 3^rd ch to complete round

R3: 3sc in each ch around

R4: (dc, ch) in each sc around

R5: 2sc in each chain around

R6: (5sc, sk 1, 6ch, 5trc, 6ch, sk1) repeat 6 times

Sl st into first sc of R6, 3ch, moving backward sc in last group of 6ch

R7: moving forward again, 3sc in first group of 6ch from R6,

(6ch, sl in 3^rd ch, 3ch, 1trc in first triple of R6, 6ch, sl in 3^rd ch, 6ch, sl in 3^rd ch, 6ch, sl in 3^rd ch, 3ch, trc in the 5^th trc of R6, 6ch, slip in 3^rd ch, 3ch, 3sc in ch, 3sc in next ch) repeat around

Bind off

Starch and block snowflakes before hanging

Fun note- I wore a bunch of crystals in my hair the day we got married. (see pic below) I crocheted them into our snowflakes and it gives them the perfect bit of sparkle. Plus it was a good way to use something too sentimental to get rid off, but not useful enough to do anything with!