New Year's Eve

It's New Year's Eve and the party hearty couple are at it again. While Rick and the dogs snoozed on the couch before dinner, I amused myself by putting away the holiday decorations and taking down the tree. It was inevitable I'd forget something (I always do)- this time it was this little moose guy I got on the freebie table at a local consignment shop. I couldn't resist hanging ornaments on his antlers, and I even shared my very special fruitcake button with him. Normally I wait at least until New Year's Day to undeck the halls, but with the tree up, I can't sit on the radiator and toast my tush while I watch TV.
After dinner we settled down to a night of boomer bliss watching old episodes of The Twilight Zone. Now Rick and the girls are asleep on the other couch. Will I make it to midnight? It's going to be tough, but I'm going to try, if only because we can hear the fireworks from the park, and I don't want a repeat of years past- falling asleep at 11:45, to be awakened at midnight, then be unable to fall back asleep

The tree is finally up...

...and I thought I'd share some pictures.  Here is the tree, with Sweetie Pie, my ferret angel, on top. Over the past 10 or 12 years I've I made literally dozens of ferret angels and ferret fairies for a ferret shelter where my friend is the Shelter Mom. She sells them to help pay the vet bills.

  
  I'm an admitted ornament junkie. Every year I participate in an ornament swap on an online quilt group I belong to. Each year I receive a batch of awesome ornaments! About half of the ornaments visible on the tree are from the swaps. I also try to buy at least one or two new ornaments each year. This little reindeer is one of my latest acquisitions-  I love his rusted antlers and bell and his innocent smile. Saralee, who works at my bank, made it- she does adorable primitive dolls and crafts. 

    

This is not a knitting blog...

but I just had to share these. These are soooo perfect for Jody- she never grew out of her love for bright colors.  I save all my gift bags and when I finished the socks I knew I'd have to look no further for the perfect packaging. 

     The pattern is a Coats and Clark freebie I picked up at Walmart along with the yarn. I'll save you a trip- you can find the pattern here. I used the Strata yarn the pattern called for, so my socks would have the nifty stripes and patterns. This was a fun project!