It Knits Us Together

The two weeks before Christmas I knitted like crazy to get these three monsters made. All three are designs by Rebecca Danger. The black and white one is Cecil the Computer. I actually made him quite a bit bigger. I added 30 stitches to his body. The purple and green monster is Charlie the Ceiling Monster. He is a very small monster and while I did not add stitches to his girth, I did knit a lot more rounds. And finally, there is Louie the Lovebot. I made him for Gavin since he likes robots.

I sewed Charlie together late on Christmas Eve, but they were all made and waiting for the kids in the morning.

Since we didn't have the funds for extra Christmas decorations, I used an idea a friend of mine had to make a wreath. It is made with a dollar store wooden wreath form and bow and a lot of plastic grocery store bags. I cut the handles and the bottom seam from the bags then cut the bags into strips. Each bag was tied to the wreath form. It's not fancy but I like it and it only cost $3 and a bit of my time.

This year I set our table with the place mats that my mom made years ago. Even the candles are from her house. Her husband loved the Bullfrog Candle place and bought a ton of candles there. These had not yet been used so I set them out on our table.

The small tree decorated the island in the kitchen along with the gingerbread houses made by Irene and Gavin. The gingerbread house on the right is a plastic canvas kit my mother made. It used to sit out at Christmas for many years.

And, of course, the dog tree which is also my mother's. It was important to me that the house be decorated this year. I wanted our first Christmas in the new house and new town to be a happy one for the kids. Our transition to this new town has not been easy. I want the kids to look back on this time as not just a place we landed but as a place we made a home.

In my last post I was afraid that Santa would not be able to visit the kids this year. There really was no way I could figure out to get him here. Thankfully, I am blessed with a generous knitting friend. Sassafrass is the first person I made friends with on Ravelry and her blog was the first I started following. I loved looking through her finished projects and adding a lot of them to my project list. Granted, I don't know her in the "real world" but that has not stopped her from being kind, understanding and thoughtful. After she read my last post about the state of our finances and Santa's not being able to find our house, she and her husband graciously decided to help us with that. They sent us the money to buy the children gifts. We were able to get them each two gifts, coloring books and crayons and some goodies for their stockings. We even got the dogs a chew bone each.

Christmas morning started with my going to bed rather late...or early. Irene woke me up at 4:30. She then went upstairs singing carols and woke up Henry. I finally had to get up and tell them to go back to bed. At 7:30 Gavin woke me up by throwing up all over me. Yuck.

Still, the morning was so much fun! The kids were so pleased with their gifts and even liked the knitted ones. We had Christmas brunch with ham, potatoes delight, broccoli, cauliflower and fruit.

We are extremely grateful to Sass and her husband, whose name I sadly do not know. We were able to give our children a very Merry Christmas because of you! Many thanks and warm wishes to you both!!!!

Gavin taking a quick break from playing with his new Little People bulldozer.

Irene showing off Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder.

Gavin posing with some candy stuck to his face.

Henry and one of his Legos.

Knitting has brought some fantastic people into my life. This Christmas would not have been possible with out the help of one. We are so grateful! My next post will be about the kind knitters (also from Ravelry) that are trying to help my husband get a job. Once again, it is knitters giving a helping hand.

Does knitting make people nice, or do nice people knit?