As promised, photos galore!

Okay, lets get back on track, shall we? First , let's do Christmas.
It was a great year yarnwise for me. I got cash and gift certificates to Knitorious, my LYS. Take a look. Let's start with this Noro Kureyon. I bought three skiens for my beginning of Lizard Ridge, which I have been wanting to make for the sprout since I first saw it. I plan to get a skein or two at a time, and have the blanket finished before sprout's arrival. Let's see how that works out. I may be setting myself up for a crash and burn, but oh well. If I don't finish it before the sprout gets here I'll have something to work on during all those sleepless nights I'll be having.

Here is a skein of trekking xxl color 109. I'm calling it smoky heather, since trekking only numbers their colors. It is much more purply-grey than it looks on my monitor. This yarn is intended for socks for Mom. She picked it out, I just have to choose a pattern. I am open to suggestions. I was thinking something along the lines of Broadripple or the ubiqutious Jaywalkers. You know. Lacy, but not too lacy. She plans to wear them with her clogs and jeans. I love that my mom is planning an outfit around the potential of hand knit socks. I love that she is as excited about having hand knit socks as I am about making them. Mom, you are the kind of person a knitter loves to have around. I promise to make your socks by your birthday. (That gives me about five months, which I think is a fair goal, considering that in three months I'll be all busy with the whole breastfeeding routine.)

Here are two skiens of sock yarn, the blue colorway is Cherry Tree Hill's "Green Mountain Madness," the purple colorway is Bearfoot Mountain Colors (my favorite sock yarn) in "Wildflower." These are seen here posing with two of my other Christmas presents. I'm loving "I like you: Hospitality under the influence" by Amy Sedaris. I've been itching to try some of the recipes in this book, "Lemon Chess Tarts" in particular. The teapot belonged to my great grandmother. Aunt Darlene gave me the teapot, along with the family highchair for Christmas. I do not have a photo of the highchair. My mom is refinishing it. I am very excited about having this highchair. My Grandfather built the highchair before my Uncle Marty was born. By the time the sprout uses it, it will be seventy years old and have held, at least 17 children in the family, and countless others who stopped in for a bite. The teapot is considerably older, it sat on my great grandmother's kitchen table for as long as anyone can remember. I am lucky to have it. It will sit on my kitchen table now.

Here's my haul of knitting books from Christmas. I have been on a hat kick as of late, and quite a few friends and family members got either a hat or gloves or a set of hat and gloves from me. I am thrilled with the "Folk Hats" book and I actually plan to make the crazy Samurai Kabuto as soon as I can get Mattie to agree to wear it. When asked, he said "Um, oh wow. I'd wear it at some point." The itty-bitty hats book is chock full of cute baby hats, most of which I will be making asap. I figure between the sprout and all the other babies I know, there will be no cold heads in St. Louis next winter.
The Domiknitrix book was from the Ingley clan. Alan has asked for the mohawk hat already and there is a beautiful "Mod Coat" that I am really wanting to make, but I am balking at the prospect of shelling out the cash for 35 skeins of bulky weight merino yarn. I mean, it's the middle of January already and by the time I finished a merino coat, it would probably be August. I'm being realistic. Please understand that I still may make this coat. I did vow to refuse to go on a yarn diet in a public forum not too long ago.

Here's the sprout's haul from Christmas.
A super soft blanket from Grandma and Grandpa Thenhaus; the much coveted sushi outfit from Psychobaby, courtsey of Princess Anne; The Night Before Christmas with classic illustrations from Aunt Patti; finger puppets form Nonna and Buck; and a stuffed dog from the Hel-Kat. Not too shabby for someone who hasn't even been born yet. I can't even begin to imagine what kind of haul this kid is going to get once it is born. I realize that I am in for one spoiled child.

This is Penny the peanut, or, the dog formerly known as Dolly.
She is the same pug seen on the blog before, but now she is all plumped up. Annie is in love, and Miss Penny has managed to charm the entire family with her cuteness and snuggly tendencies. We were all sad to see her go when Annie took her back to Chicago. The reports I 've been getting state that she had become the ultimate city dog. I am working on a sweater for this city dog.
So that's all for now. Hope it can hold you over until I have more time.