Sunday morning I woke up and there was a beautiful dusting of snow on the ground. I thought it would be just perfect to take a walk that evening and get some pictures of the lights around town for you.

Sadly.. all the snow melted before noon, but I still went out to get some pics that night.

The pics aren’t the best quality, but they give you an idea of how lit up the town is.

This is one of the houses across the street from us. They have a whole pile of inflatables on the lawn. I’m not a huge fan of the modern inflatable decorations, but I certainly admire their Christmas spirit. They do something similar for Hallowe’en, though they don’t have quite as many for that holiday.

The house with the big wraparound porch I love kept it simple with a few strands of lights around the whole porch. They certainly don’t need much more with a porch like that!

This is the house down the street from us that wrapped the ribbons around the porch poles. I love how they’ve done the upper roofline in lights. I’d love to do that with our place, but it’s too high for me, and Dave doesn’t like Christmas enough to go to all the work of getting them up there.

I’ve learned that the local Optimist club has a contest for the best lights in town, which explains why there are so many houses that go all out. I wouldn’t be surprised if the above house wins. The picture does not so their lights justice. It’s amazing. But what I really love are their trees

I dont know how they’ve done it – but these HUGE trees (like really mature maples) are covered in these tiny little lights. They aren’t super bright like a normal string of lights… and there are literally thousands of them. I wish you could see it in person. I’ve ever seen anything like it. I have to take a stroll by in the day and see if I can figure it out. (If you have an ideas, please let me know!)

Speaking of tall trees, the large pine in the park downtown is light up. When Dave and I came back from Mom and Dad’s a couple of weekend’s ago, we drove by just before the lighting ceremony. There were quite a few families gathered to see it.

And here’s how those lights on the poles look lit up. The whole main street has them on every pole, so it looks really nice as you walk or drive through.

I like how the United Church made their nativity scene with lighted silhouettes. I love the creative placement of the angels and star.

And last… I apologize for the blur… but here’s the welding shop all lit up. I love how he made use of the flag pole. It’s so nice to see this bright, beautiful place on the corner whenever I come home from my errands.

This will be the last Walkabout post for the year. Things are pretty busy, so I’m not sure if I’ll get out for many walks. But Walkabout Wednesday will return in the new year!

It’s been a while since I’ve had a tiny needle post, as I’ve put off cross-stitching until after Christmas. But, my gnomes require blanket-stitching around all the applique, so I figure it qualifies for TNT.

Like Dad’s sweater, I’ve been trying to put some hours into it every evening. Burton has been keeping me on track.

Cross-stitching aside, I’ve never been great at any sort of embroidery – and blanket stitch is no exception. But I think my wonky stitches give it a rather “primitive” charm.

I’ve completed the body of one gnome, and the feet, hand and antler of another. I probably won’t get this done in time for Christmas, but I hope to get it finished by the new year. Then I can pack it away with the rest of the Christmas stuff and it will be ready and easy to find next Christmas!

Well… it took less than 24 hours for Lemmy to get in trouble with the tree.

When I went to bed, I left him on the tree skirt…

The picture of innocence.

When I got up the next morning… the tree was gone. Like completely GONE!!!

Dave had gotten up before me, and I asked him how bad the scene was when he came down. Apparently, the tree was still standing, but there were several ornaments on the floor and Lemmy was happily playing with a noisy one – a big bell. That’s why Dave had gotten up – Lemmy was making quite the racket with it apparently. I didn’t hear a thing.

Dave, who does not have as much patience for kitten antics (and was probably still a little upset with the fact Lemmy had aerated his shower curtain a few days earlier) picked the tree up and put it up on the kitchen counter. I was informed that I needed to find a higher place for it. One that little ginger paws could not reach.

So I moved some plants around, and now it’s on top of the livingroom plant stand. We’ll try the floor again next year when our little Lemonhead is a little older.

Once that was taken care of, I headed up to the sewing room. I needed to catch up on my Sewcialites blocks. Happily, I was only two behind, so it didn’t take too long.

We now have seven blocks total, and it’s shaping up to be a very cheerful quilt.

Skiing sock monkey has spoken!!! Only 14 day until Christmas. Time to get the tree up.

As you can imagine, this was a VERY exciting time for a certain little ginger. It’s his first Christmas, and he didn’t waste any time checking things out.

He really wanted to help me fluff the tree. But eventually I was able to convince him he would be more help if he just sat back and watched.

We added a few new decorations to the tree this year.

For whatever reason, they don’t make a Ron Weasley ornament in this line, so it’s just Harry and Hermoine. But my favourite of all of them is Oogie Boogie!

Last year, Mom made me a Christmas tree skirt, but I didn’t see her until the end of the season so this is the first year I’ve got to use it on the tree.

Burton thoroughly approves.

And now the tree is all lit and sparkley and beautiful! And so far, after a few swats at the ornaments, Lemmy has been keeping his paws off. Should we take bets on how long that will last?

With Kermit’s sweater done, and Christmas fast approaching, it was time to get back to Dad’s sweater. I laid it on the floor to do some measurements and…

A wee ginger appeared! I picked up the ginger, turned to set him aside, and when I turned back…

… a not-so-wee fluff panther appeared!

And within moments…

It delvolved into a full on wrestling match.

Eventually, I was able to extract and distract both troublemakers, get my measurements and a picture!

I’ve knit about seven inches since separating for body and arms. I need to knit to 18 inches… so I have a long way and many many rounds to go. My plan is to try to devote at least two hours each evening to it, and with a little luck, it will be done in time!

After I finally got the bed frame for the bed, I decided, in addition to needing a bigger quilt, it needed a bed skirt. The quilt is going to take a bit to make, but the bed skirt I could get on right away.

And while I’m happy with how it looks, it does come with one major… unforseen flaw….

Its the perfect landscape for a toe ambush!

If that face doesn’t say “Who me????”, I don’t know what does.

Another day, another dog sweater.

As soon as I saw the pics of Kermit in the first sweater, I knew he wasn’t going to fit into it long. So this one is bigger. Same pattern, I just upped the needle-size and added some length. This time around the yarn is some Paton’s Decor in a stylish variegate of grey, white and swampy green.

I’ve got a Christmas present to send to Wren, so I’ll pop this in the mail with it. And now I REALLY will get back to Dad’s Christmas sweater.

We haven’t had any more snow since the last dusting melted. Nevertheless, Christmas is fast-approaching. Even more decorations have been put out around town.

The township has changed the petunia planters over to festive greenery.

I love the addition of the Teasel painted silver.

I’m going to keep it in mind for next year, because it’s certainly easy to get in the fields around here. It’s one of those plants that always makes me think of my childhood, because it was plentiful where I grew up.

The town has also switched the Canada flags out to Seasonal banners, and added some star-shaped lighted decorations to the poles in the “downtown”. They look very pretty lit up at night.

The covered-up decoration I showed the other week has now been uncovered. It says Joy, as I suspected, but I didn’t know there was a little nativity scene in the centre.

The Presbyterian church has a nice simple nativity scene too.

And I love the simple directions on those big, beautiful entry doors.

This wireframe snowman is just around the corner from the post-office. I would love to get something like this for our yard.

And last, this sneaky Santa is hiding around the side of a house up the street (the house is on a corner, and this side faces the side-street. It’s not a great picture, but I think it’s a fantastic decoration.

For next week, I hope to have a post of what this town looks like lit up at night!

Last year, Mom gave me this lovely little wall-hanging quilt for Christmas.

I decided if I wanted to get it up on the wall for this Christmas, I better get moving. It’s all applique, and the pattern called for gluing down all the pieces with white glue before doing blanket stitch around them all. But I decided there was a more efficient way than fiddling with messy white glue… fusible web!

I left the beards, because I didn’t want to melt them with the iron. Now I’ve got some stitching to do, and then I’ll glue the beards on with a more traditional method.

Saturday morning, Dave and I were up before dawn and on the road to Mom and Dad’s. As you may recall, we are a major December baby family. In just the immediate family, Miss Paisley, my brother, my dad, and I, all have December birthdays.

Since Miss Pee is currently living with Mom and Dad (going to college near by… how in the HECK is she old enough for college???), and has the first birthday of us all, it was a good time to get together and distribute presents.

Dave and I got Miss Pee a CAA membership. It’s not a sexy present, but as she’s on the road a lot now (driving from Niagara to Owen Sound and back again!), it’s certainly a practical one! Her car is in decent condition, but as I told her, within my first few years of driving, I ran out of gas, locked my keys in a car, ran down the battery, and got my car stuck in a farmer’s field. Crap happens, and having CAA makes digging out of it far easier.

And it seems we weren’t the only one with the idea! She immediately texted her Mom, because Jenn had been thinking of getting it for her too! Then Jenn texted back and told her that Uncle Shaun had been contemplating it as well!

For Dad, of course, I had the pile of blow molds from our earlier adventures.

The weather was above freezing, so he took advantage of it and got to work decorating the house.

My birthday isn’t for another week, but I got a whole bag full of goodies!

Mom made me another cross-stich project keeper (with gnomes!!!!), and filled it and the bag will all kinds of cross-stitch and quilting goodies!

For the rest of the day, Mom, Miss Pee and I did a little crafting, while Dave and Dad put snow tires on Miss Pee’s vehicle.

We had left at 6 am, and got home just over 12 hours later. It was a long day, but a good day! I’ll see my brother at Christmas, so he’ll have to wait until then for his present!