O Christmas Tree

We put up our tree last night. Last year we tried to put up the tree on Þorláksmessa (the 23rd) only to discover too late that the screws were stripped on the fake tree base. So Ingi had to go to the hardware store and get new screws, and we did it all Christmas Eve day. Which is kind of bad when you are having people over and helping to decorate the church and so on. Well, this year was better, the tree went together OK, but we did have one semi-disaster... most of the lights didn't work. (Well, half the strand would be dead, which led me to believe there was some serious electrical problem with it partway through and didn't make me feel warm and fuzzy about hanging that on my tree.) So the guys ran out to the store and bought more lights. So we have coloured LED lights, which are I guess lower power, then white regular lights, then coloured regular lights. Somehow, that seems appropriate. We also found a bunch of lighted houses that my mom gave me when she was cleaning at one point, and we didn't even know we had. So the house is quite festive.

(the angel is listing a bit, I'm too short to fix her)

I helped with making Christmas greens arrangements to decorate the church, and was given leftover greens. So I made a "kissing ball" of greens... I was googling for the history of this, I believe it comes from Victorian times and was usually made of mistletoe. It was just something I've seen in magazines that I thought was pretty. And now the house will have a little real greens smell, instead of fake tree.

And earlier in the week I finished my mom's Jaywalkers. When I was a little girl, I'd always make handmade gifts and I'd still be working on them right now. That's why I don't make too many knitted gifts.

Gleðileg jól/Merry Christmas everyone!