Day 12: The Jensen Family Christmas Playlist

My family has a lot of traditions and one is listening to Kenny Rogers Christmas in America as soon as Thanksgiving is over.  I remember listening to it almost non-stop in my mom's mini van for weeks on end.  In honor of our family (or my mom's) love of Christmas music here is the Jensen Family Christmas playlist.

1.) The First Noel, by Eve 6 (Amanda & Zach)
2.) Jingle Bell Rock, Bobby Helms (Simon)
3.) Christmas in America, Alan Jackson or Kenny Rogers (Mom)
4.) Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer, Elmo and Patsy (Dad)
5.) I'll Be Home For Christmas, Bing Crosby (Grandma J) 
6.) White Christmas, Bing Crosby (Jensen Family Favorite)
7.) Holly Jolly Christmas, Burl Ives (Amanda)

A few staples for Christmas:

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
Let It Snow
Winter Wonderland
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday this year!  Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! 

Day 5: Easy Knit Garland with Button Ornaments

You can see our Lobster hanging out in the background

 Our Apartment is small, I mean really small, so we never have a Christmas tree.  Simon is always a bit sad that we don't have a Christmas tree so this year I surprised him with a small rosemary cone from Whole Foods.  It fits on our entertainment center nicely and gives the living room a festive feel and it smells wonderful.  I made a few quick ornaments and a i-cord garland for our little tree so he could decorate it.  Here's How.

I-Cord Garland

Materials
Novelty yarn (Mine was a with nylon with sequence attaches)
Leftover Bit of some special yarn (This was some of my hand-spun left over from another project)
2 DPNs the appropriate size for yarn (I used US 2)

Cast on 4 stitches and work in I-cord till Garland is desired length, (mine was about 4 ft).  Bind off and weave in ends
Tie the I-cord and the left over bit of yarn together.  Wrap the leftover bit around the I-cord, knotting them together at the end.

Button Ornaments

Materials
Different Size and color Buttons
Ribbon
Hot Glue Gun

Stack buttons and glue them together in interesting combinations.

Cut about 2 to 3 inches of ribbon.  Form a Loop and glue on to the back of the button stack.  
 Now you can go and decorate your tiny tree!

Tuesday

Tuesdays always seem to turn out to be my busiest days. I am trying to figure out how to balance a few things in my life right now. A big balancing act is my knitting. There are so many things I want to knit for me while at the same time I am trying to get some designs done. I am currently working on a hat and mitten set for Nangellini. I love the yarn I am using, and it is special, because it is exclusively dyed for that yarn shop. As I get closer to finishing it I will put up pictures. I am almost finished with the hat and will hopefully start the mittens tonight. That is my unofficial time line.

I am also considering submitting another pattern to Knitty. I have a knit cotton top that I made last year all ready to go, I just need to knit a second one and finish typing up the pattern. The deadline for that is January 2nd so I need to get knitting.

Along with all the knitting Simon and I are trying to organize the apartment and start making it look like a home instead of a temporary place to keep us and our stuff. We plan on staying in this apartment for awhile so I believe we should make it our home.

Christmas seems to be sneaking up on us as well. I have maybe half my Christmas shopping done. I still need to make a batch of fudge and start wrapping the presents I do have. (Which as of right now isn't too much.)

Again with the to do list!
1. Sort out top of fridge
2. Finish hat pattern
3. figure out Christmas present for my parents
4. Finish Aussie Christmas package and send out
5. figure out where to put my sewing machine
6. sew wool dress for Christmas
7. sew cotton dress just because
9. sort out office space in living room

A bit long and non descript but stuff that needs to get done.

Christmas Eve

Hope everyone is have a wonderful Holiday!

I will be posting a Vintage Finds later in the week as I am in Upstate NY visiting my family.

Merry Christmas!

This is my mom's wee tree, it has all the christmas orniments that my brother and I made for her through the years. There are some on that tree that I made in Knidergarden.
This one is the actual tree in the family room. I took this one after we opened presents on Christmas eve.
This is one of my favorite pics of my brother. Simon and i bought him a snuggy and made him put it on for a photo op. It has moose, bears, deer, and tree stumps printed on the fleece. Zach couldn't stop laughing when he opend it up. He is going to be the coolest kid at RIT.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! I hope everyones day is filled with family and friends, good food and great times.

We have just returned from breakfast and are shooting off to Rochester for the rest of the day. I'm going to nap in the car, mom had me up at 7am...ick. A good dose of Coffee is needed.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and it's a beautiful white Christmas up here in the Finger Lakes. I've been home for two days and my mom has been baking like crazy. We have five different baked goods in the house not to mention the fudge I made. The tree is up and looks beautiful and I would post a piture, but I forgot my USB cable for my camera.

Tonight my mom is making a roast with all the trimmings and we'll make a pie for tomorrow. We'll open our presents to each other and watch about four different movies from batman to a Christmas story.

On Christmas morning we go to My mom's friend Mindy's and have a giant Breakfast with all the family friends. There's no other way to celibrate the birth of baby Jesus than with Bacon and mimosas. Then we'll come home and open our stockings, then it's off to Rochester to spend the rest of the day with my mom's dad. Grandpa King will have the turkey and potatoes and mom is taking up her famous sweet potatoes and apple pie.

It's all very wholesome, or at least it appears to be, but I really love spending the Holidays with my family. Next Christmas Simon and I are going to Australia for Christmas and the New Year. It will be the first holiday that I'm not home, but Simon has been staying here for the past two years, and it will be exciting to see Australia.

My lace is coming along and it is taking longer for me to finish a row. I blame that on two things, the lace, and the number of stitches on my needles.

Happy Holidays to All!

Shanty Town Christmas

Every year after Thanksgiving my family gets together with all our family friends and have shanty town Christmas. We eat a ton of food and all of us make a gingerbread house and decorate it. It so much fun and has become a holiday tradition to make the begining of the christmas season. Here are some high lights.


One of the kid's houses.

My Best friend Beaner's house. His house is super classy this christmas, no tires out front.


Mora adding more goodies onto her house. She really likes the Tootsie Rolls.

This is the one Simon and I made. I worked on the front with it's classy waffle cone walkway and pretzle square windows.

And Simon worked on the back. That green thing is his impromptu gumdrop and reindeer corn dog.

Running

I've been workig extra hours at the shop as well as more hours as a nanny. Lately I feel like I've been running, but the extra cash is nice. The extra money is going toward Christmas presents. I'm making a few, but I'm going to try to purchase most of my presents on Etsy, or at least atempt to make most of my purchases hand made.

I happen to mention this to Simon and he was a little dis heartened. First, he is worried that whatever I purchase for him will look silly, or like somthing nanna made out of yellow acrylic yarn. (sorry nanna, I loved my afgan). Secondly, he cringed when I mentioned I wanted him to purchase hand made items for me. I don't quite understand this as he hate going to the mall. I'm going to chalk this all up to the fact that it's new or different. I'm going to win him over to the handmade side.