Christmas Handmades

We hosted our last Christmas gathering on Saturday and I took a measley four pictures the entire party.  

Aunt Mary finally gets to meet Moses.  And vice versa!

An antlered deer shines bright.  (An after Christmas clearance sale splurge so that I could delight Andrew, my deer fanatic.)

Snowflake bread that floats down from heaven.  And a caramelized onion and brie tart.  Because it is fancy.  And Christmas deserves a bit of fancy.

  
And Ineke.   Always the first to the cookie trays.

And now that all the gifts are with their rightful owners, I can post the handmade gift photos here without spoiling anything.  Not that there were many of them this year.

~ A little care package for my Texas Twinnies.  Two dresses, two books, two headbands and two dollies that needed a couple cute crochet outfits instead of ugly ones.  A teeny tiny box of happiness, I hope.

~ A little purse to hold magnetic wooden dolls.  The zippered portion held all the little clothing and accessories pieces.  

~ A fancy flannel nightgown

(with Siamese cats!)

~ And a Knight helmet with a working face shield (I used this free pattern)

It paired nicely with a wooden sword and T.H.White's The Sword in the Stone

(model not included)

~ and another hat for Moses.   

What can I say?  Boys are much harder than girls to dress cute- hats are my feeble attempt to compensate.

It isn't the hat that is worthy of four photos~ after all, it's just a simple double crocheted rectangle, folded over.

The boy inside the hat made me do it.

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My current project:  

Fittingly finished God Rest Ye Merry on the 10th Day of Christmas and am happily back to The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon.  *Almost* done all the pieces to Moses' penguin lovey and then assembly time!  I will finish it by the weekend for sure.

Here's an excerpt from The Supper of the Lamb (pg.85) that I read this morning:

In a general way we concede that God made the world out of joy: He didn't need it; He just thought it was a good thing.  But if you confine His activity in creation the the beginning only, you lose most of the joy in the subsequent shuggle of history.  Sure, it was good back then, you say, but since then, we;ve been eating leftovers.  How much better a world it becomes when you see Him in creating at all times and at every time: when you see that the preserving of the old in being is just as much creation as the bringing of the new out of nothing.  Each thing, at every moment, becomes the delight of His hand, the apple of His eye.  Let us pause and drink to that.

To a radically, perpetually unnecessary world; to the restoration of astonishment to the heart and mystery to the mind; to wine, because it is a gift we never expected; to mushroom and artichoke, for they are incredible legacies; to improbable acids and high alcohols, since we would hardly have thought of them ourselves; and to all being, because it is superfluous.  Cheers, men and brethren.  We are free: nothing is needful, everything is for joy.  Let the bookkeepers struggle with their balance sheets; it is the tippler who sees the untipped Hand.  God is eccentric; He has loves, not reasons.  Salute!