2. It is Friday!! And though I work next week, it is hopefully a fun mellow one since it is the week before the holidays.
3. I finished that hat I was working on tonight. More knitting now that I don't have that class. Plus chunky yarn is made of win!
4. I have a new design being released in the next week or so. It will be the first of a collection (more details soon!!). It features the lovely Sunshine Yarns colorwork kits. Here's a sneak peek...
5. I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the blogiversary specials! Since I probably won't have time to prep one for Saturday, I'm doing two for today and tomorrow. You still have time to knit up a Dancette for Christmas.
Dancette
$3.00 until December 15, 2012 (11:59pm PST).
And just in case you really need a few last minute gifts....
Naylor Street
$3.00 until December 15, 2012 (11:59pm PST).
Perfect for everyone in the family!
6. Time for a contest!! A few lucky winners will win an IGK pattern of their choice from the IGK ravelry shop and one fabulous winner will win a yarny prize too! All you need to do to enter is tell me a favorite holiday tradition you have this time of year....or something special you enjoy this time of year.... a new tradition? old one? One you miss? Please be sure to leave a way to contact you (e.g., ravelry id, email address)
I'll start. Last year my family started two new traditions that we'll be doing in the next week. First, seeing the Nutcracker in San Francisco. It was magical last year and I can't wait to go again. Second, my mom, sister and I spent a day in the city enjoying all of the holiday decorations, doing some shopping, and having just a fun day together. We're doing that this Saturday. Can't wait!!
Leave a comment by December 15, 2012 (11:59pm PST) and I'll announce the winners this weekend.
Happy Friday!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits
37 comments:
christmas eve oysters, and basically sitting at the dinner table until 1 am with lots of family. yay christmas!
I miss the big family Christmas I had as a kid. There were 17 of us cousins running around at Grandma's house. We all received one small gift from Grandma and a gift from our secret Santa (one of the cousins).
A fairly new tradition, but I hope to continue it for some more years. Hubby and FIL put up the tree, the MIL and hubby retire to the kitchen and make a lovely meal while FIL and I sort out the decorations. That is fun, as on MY tree I get to decide how we do it and he has some opinions on how it should be done.
The early service for church on Christmas Eve and then a wonderful light supper of potato cheese soup and crusty rolls. And of course, oyster dressing on the big day itself.
Brunch on Christmas morning after opening gifts.
A tradition that I hope will stick around would be to do all of our cooking the day before Christmas so we can just kick back and enjoy the day with each other.
My bff and I went to Ireland a few years back and we have been going to see the Celtic Women perform each year since, as a Christmas gift to each other. The Celtic Women Christmas is a fabulous show and this year it was at the beautiful Fox Theatre in Detroit.
fowlervillesdeb (ravelry tag)
Ever since we were kids, we would get ready for Christmas Eve mass. Mom would take a SUPER long time getting ready (and as I got older, I did too). We would go to church and then drive around looking at Christmas lights and watching the skies for Santa.
By the time we got home, Santa had come and we were able to open stockings. We ALWAYS have chilli and cinnamon rolls for supper (I think that's a northwest Iowa thing) and then open presents and stay up late. We usually got a game or two as a family and would play into the wee hours of the morning. Now that we are all grown up and married, we still do Christmas the same, heading back to my parents for Christmas Eve, going to church, looking at lights and waiting for Santa.
I'm loving the 'blogoversery' posts. Congrats on the great news about your classes and your boards. How exciting.
Family tradition - I have a mixed family (his/mine/ours are dogs!). When we first got married, we started the tradition of putting a puzzle together that had Santa in it. We still do it every year - the puzzle comes out on Thanksgiving to start working on and stays up as decoration through the holidays.
Also - my girlfriend and I head into Downtown Seattle to see the huge gingerbread disply we take her Grandkids when the Air Force lets them be in town. And hubby and I go with friends every year to a wonderful light display at the botanical gardens.
I've been knitting bulky socks, bulky cowls and bulky hats. And sewing, sewing, sewing up a storm. Your teaser looks fabulous. g
When my mom was little, her parents started their tradition of birthday cake and singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus every Christmas morning. She and her sister continued this with their children, as have my cousin, brother, and I. So that is absolutely #1!
Neither my husband nor I grew up opening presents on Christmas Eve, but as a new family we started our own tradition with our kids of one collective gift of a new Christmas book, which would be the bedtime story for the night.
Our family has a "lefse day" where we get together to make this Norwegian specialty. It's a flat bread made with potatoes and there is lots of rolling and baking involved. It is our grown children's favorite Christmas tradition. When they were little, and too young to help make the lefse, they decorated mini gingerbread houses. Now their kids are doing that.
My husband's family gives new ornaments on christmas eve, and it's a tradition I've really come to love!
We have our annual white elephant gift exchange party this weekend with friends and family, and I am really looking forward to it!
We eat home-made spaghetti and meatballs on Christmas Eve, and then stay up late playing games (often penny ante poker). At midnight, someone puts the baby Jesus figurine in the nativity scene and we all go to bed. In the morning, a recording of Mitch Miller's "Must Be Santa" wakes everyone up, and we gather around the tree in our pajamas and Santa Claus hats.
reginasneedles (Rav name)
Sometime in December, we start the "sing a Christmas carol after dinner." Each night a different person gets to choose one song. We often end up singing more than one ... but even on nights laden with homework (kids) and chores (adults) we can almost always sneek in one song!
SarahJS (rav ID)
This year we did a family gift drawing so that each adult only has to get a gift for one other adult. I hope this is a tradition that continues because I'm not a huge fan of buying or receiving gifts. I rarely give non-knitted gifts, but with a big family it's impossible to knit something for every single person!
Family all cooking together to create a feast--plus family gathering to visit!
I like to make several types of Christmas cookies each year. The kids are old enough now to help make many of them and I have just started to have them do the actual work while I supervise. I hope it is a tradition they carry down to their children someday.
ScarletFever (Ravelry ID)
This will be Year FIFTEEN of what has become a cherished Christmas Eve tradition for our family. Lunch with my family (now just my mom and brother and his wife, my dad died in 2009), then the kids open their presents from them, then we go to "early" church service, and then home for round 2 of the same meal (steamed shrimp, beef brisket, turkey sandwiches, and lots of "little boy wine" aka sparkling cider) with some dear family friends and talking/visiting until nearly midnight. Then after the guests have gone, I make a breakfast casserole which needs to "sit up" overnight, my husband and I finish wrapping and watch midnight mass at the Vatican on television. My youngest, DD age 12, doesn't know any other way to spend Christmas Eve! Last year due to some travel and illness, we had to make some accommodations to the schedule so we're all hoping for a "normal" day this year!
Debbie4 on Rav
mcsix at embarqmail dot com
For as long as I can remember, my family has always spent Christmas Eve with my father's side of the family and Christmas Day with my mom's. Each day includes a big meal and presents. I love this tradition because I get to see my entire extended family in two days.
Also, since my husband and I have lived together, our tradition has been to decorate our tree in a non-traditional way. Our ornaments are unmatched but all cat proof (!) and the tree is always topped by a Luke Skywalker action figure.
My mom and I always bake A LOT at Christmas time. I just love the actual baking part and spending time with my mom. She always has a list of people who she HAS to give stuff to. Half the fun is watching her freak out about not having enough time/containers/brown sugar (we always run out of brown sugar...) and then calming her down with a reminder that this is NOT the end of the world...
The new design looks lovely!
My favorite holiday tradition is the Lessons & Carols service that my choir sings at our church, coming up this Sunday afternoon. The church is all decorated with holiday greens and lighted with candles in stands, the pews are full of people, and we have nearly two hours of the best parts of a church service: just readings and music, including anthems sung by the choir and hymns for the whole congregation. After that it really starts to feel like Christmas for me.
My sister and I gather our families to bake cookies one Sat. in December. The guys frost and decorate the cut outs while my sister, daughter, niece, (and who ever they bring to Cookie Day) bake other kinds of cookies. In the words of my niece, "Cookie Day is the happiest day of the year!"
oyster stuffing on christmas day! Yumm
Congratulations on your blogiversary Carrie! Your blog was one of the first knitting blogs I started reading and I continue to enjoy it. It's been great getting to meet up with you the last couple of years at Stitches West. I hope I get to meet up with you again next year.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to the Christmas eve service at church with my family and eating Chinese food with them that night. Thanks for the chance to win!
I miss making Christmas cookies with my kids, who are now grown. We would make cut-out cookies & decorate them, usually on a Sat. or Sunday, with Xmas tunes playing on the stereo. DH and I still make a batch, but without the kids it's just not the same.
Happy Holidays!!! ~xoxo
A new tradition this year--girls crafting weekend with my sister-in-laws the weekend before Thanksgiving. So lovely!
stretchforever
Thanks for the fun chance! One of our newest traditions is to open all our Christmas cards on Christmas day in one of the lulls between the Santa madness of the morning and getting ready to meet with family for dinner. It's amazing how much fun it is to sit down and read each one.
Happy Blogiversary!
Nancy (n2n on Ravelry)
Every year my granddaughter comes over to my apartment and we put the tree together and decorate it. This year I felt that there wasn't enough room for the tree. I thought that I would not put up a tree. Rachel was not going for that idea so we sat and discussed what would have to be moved and where the tree would be put. 4 1/2 hours later the tree was up and decorated. We had to move furniture but we did it. I told Rachel I wouldn't have made it without her.
Christmas time tea! Basically afternoon or high tea with a holiday feel, oh so good!
Tcufrogrn ravelry
I'm loving the colors in your sneak peek!
I'm really feeling making a holiday wreath out of yarn this year, I think it will become a new holiday tradition.
My very favorite Christmas tradition is opening a new pair of pajamas every Christmas Eve! My sister and I both get a new pair so that we coordinate for pictures on Christmas morning!
Our favorite Christmas tradition is our stockings. We travel a lot at Christmas and our stockings go wherever we go! This year they're visiting California for the first time!
Dang. You've been busy! Happy December. Just checking it!
On Christmas eve, we have the tradition of having seafood chowder (the kind with cream, not tomato). This way you hae a hot meal before going to midnight Mass. Also, you have lunch for the next day and you don't have to worry about making lunch while dealing with Christmas dinner preparations. Also, one I miss but plan to start again soon is Rappie Pie. It's an Acadian tradition in Nova Scotia. It's a potato dish that contains a meat of some sort. We used to have that on Christmas Eve as well. It is great to throw in the frying pan the next day to crisp it up for lunch.
tanyalavine (Rav name)
We have several that run through the season but my two favorites are buying an ornament that perfectly depicts our year. The next one is that on Christmas Eve, we all get into our pjs and pile into the car to go look at the Christmas lights around town while listening to carols and drinking cocoa. I've been doing it since I was a little girl and now my little girls have the same memories!
Nutcracker ballet..every year..no matter what...I can dance it all in my head.....
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