Pajama Pants

It's all about balance.

As the mother of six children (three boys & three girls; how cool is that!), Christmas can be a tremendous balancing act! Sometimes I balance across all six children, and sometimes I just have to make sure the boys balance (or just the girls).

Enter a pair of pajama pants.

Really, I promise it will all make sense.

You see, I knitted a dragon scarf for one boy. And a handmade gift for one boy means the other two need something handmade...and Christmas was drawing ever closer! I finished a pair of fingerless gloves (see my boys' gifts here). Then I was out of time!!

In a desperate search for something to make up the difference, I came across some delightful "Toy Story" flannel, and a pair of pajama pants was born!

Boy #3 looks happy, don't you think??

And look....he balances!!

Featured!

My cedar chest (one of them, anyway) has been featured on Remodelaholic!

See it here!

My other hobby

When the snow started to fly, I gave up on the furniture refinishing for a little while, and moved indoors. That gave me a chance to pick up my other hobby, which is....

knitting!!

I learned to knit about four or five years ago. I taught myself to crochet from an instructional book, but knitting was different. I just didn't get it until I could watch someone do it. I walked into a yarn store in Ogden Utah (The Needlepoint Joint, if you're in the area), and one of the nice employees sat down with me and taught me what to do with those pointy sticks! I have been a fan ever since.

So here are some of my wintertime projects!

My baby turned three years old a couple of weeks ago. I finished her sweater about 1 a.m. on the morning of! That is, if you don't count the buttons! (I don't.)

Pattern: Tuckernuck by Elinor Brown

Then there was a Dragon Scarf for one son:

Pattern: Enchanted Dragon by Mary Triplett

And a pair of fingerless gloves for another son (suitable for playing basketball!). Please notice the tough-guy poses!

No particular pattern

These last fingerless gloves are on their way to a new owner as of tomorrow. They weren't exactly a Christmas present, but I did finish them on Christmas Eve! My daughter gets to be the hand model.

Pattern: Fetching by Cheryl Niamath

If you also knit, I am RedHen6 on Ravelry!

		http://redhenhome.blogspot.com/2010/12/pajama-pants.html

“There is no better time than now,
this very Christmas season,
for all of us to rededicate ourselves
to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ.”

Thomas S. Monson

Family Tree

Some houses have elegant, themed trees.

Some houses have "family" trees.

Mine is definitely in the latter category.

It's the way I grew up...we always had a live tree, and each child had a box of ornaments that had been collected over the years, and then there was a box of family ornaments to put up as well. Then there was tinsel...remember tinsel?

My mother started the tradition of giving each grandchild a new ornament for Christmas. There is no rhyme or reason to it...it just happens to be whatever caught her eye at the after-Christmas sales! My kids love opening their ornament boxes each year and seeing old friends! Then there are the ornaments I have collected, and I love seeing them emerge every year as well.

There's a little bit of everything... from the Precious Moments "new baby" ornaments I have for each child (and these I also claim as mine, along with their stockings)...


To the paper reindeer my daughter made from her handprints...


And for now...I wouldn't have it any other way!