Getting Christmasy

I got the Christmas tree out at last but I need an extension cord so it won't be lit until I go to the store again.  And that won't be any time soon.  I don't have anything else up except the candles I crocheted when Zach was a baby.  I don't have a lot of Christmas stuff anymore.  Attrition took care of some of it.  The rest I suspect is still here somewhere but lost in the house.  I have a Dickens village in the attic from my late father in law but I have no place to put it so it stays up there.  I would love to have it out some day.  Tom is thinking of making a shelf to run around the walls about a foot below the ceiling but that must wait until we paint the living room first.  And that's not on the queue just now. 

I noticed today when I went to let Professor out (in my bare feet) that the ceramic tiles in the foyer are ice cold and radiating that cold in the foyer so I mentioned to Tom that we might want to take them out, sand down the wood floor under it and just put a rug there.  I can't fit a rug in now because the door catches on it when you open the door halfway.  Some of the tiles are broken anyway so we're going to start working on that pretty soon.  I also need to start preparing the bathroom for painting.  The house isn't warm enough for the paint to cure but I have a space heater we can use in there if we need to.

I've been working on the scarf I'm knitting out of my handspun.  I don't remember the kind of wool it is, but my spinning wasn't great, although good for a first try, so I needed a pattern that could take a more rustic type of yarn.  The pattern is Karin's Gansey Scarf and the yarn works well with the pattern.  I've got pretty good stitch definition so far.  The color is a blue denim.

I also dug out some patterns for ornaments and such since I'm replacing some of my ornaments this year.  As it is, I seemed to have lost several anyway.  Not sure where they are as I just put the whole tree in a black garbage bag and leave all the lights and ornaments on since it's just a table-top tree.  I have enough yarn and time to knit and crochet up some ornaments.  I like the more handcrafted types anyway instead of the kind you get in the stores.

Tom caught a mouse in his trap last night so Zach got dressed and took it outside to the back hill and let it go.  There is a wood pile of branches and stuff up the hill from there that he could find shelter in and hopefully get out of the cold.  I felt sorry for him because it was so very cold last night and he was used to living in the house, but not sorry enough to let him stay.  It's a huge compromise for Tom to allow us to let him go.  He really wanted to let the pets at him, which I thought was a bit cruel.  If they catch them on their own, that's fair, but to catch them and give them to the pets...no way.

Supper needs my attention now so I'm off to finish it up, eat and then crawl into bed.  I love this time of year when it gets dark early and we cozy up in the house.  I was in my bedroom watching some tv and knitting on the scarf while occasionally looking out my window at the snow that was just flurrying a bit.  I can absolutely live with it if this is all the snow we get all winter.  I would just like a break from it.  I'll be ready for it again next year, I promise.

Hope it's warmer tomorrow so I can take Professor out for a walk.  I need to find somewhere fairly flat so I don't slip and slide all over the place.  No way can I walk in those new shoes and my old comfortable ones have little tread left to them.

TTFN