Christmas!

I have been a lazy blogger these past few weeks. After returning from Cuba, I've felt very rushed to get things ready for the holidays. We don't even do a lot of gift shopping but I still wanted to get some decorations up, cookies made, Christmas newsletter composed and sent, the few remaining snail mail cards sent, etc.

Alexa and I went to Tafelmusik's Sing Along Messiah at Toronto's Massey Hall last Sunday.

It was lots of fun sitting amidst other altos and singing our hearts out on the choruses. Herr Handel himself conducted us and the orchestra.

After it was done, we got to sing the "Halleluja Chorus" one more time. This time, Herr Handel brought out his light sabre.

At the end, he had the soloists pose for a 'zelfie' taken with his 'zelfie schtick'.

And this is the photo that was posted on Facebook.

It was a lovely way to celebrate the season.

I knit a couple of mittens from the Mitten Garland Advent on Ravelry, inserting the date on the cuff.

I loved that they had Latvian braid on the cuff.

I still may knit a bunch to use as garland.

One of the gifts I crafted was a shawl pin frame similar to ones I had seen at Rhinebeck.

I used a cable knit sweater from a thrift shop, backed with a couple of layers of poly quilt batting and framed in an 8" x 10" frame with the glass removed. It's great for holding shawl pins and decorative as well. I can also pin other pins and hook earrings onto it.

Of course, I made two - one to give and one to keep.

Christmas morning, I put on the fireplace channel on the TV.

And lit a real fire in our fireplace. It was so nice and cozy.

Dinner was a collaborative affair with Skip brining and roasting the turkey and me preparing the side-dishes.

Our table is quite spartan but I love the poinsettia theme and opted for the festive, woodland Christmas plates over my good china. Our breakfast nook is so bright with windows on three sides so at the last minute, I set the table in there because it looked so nice.

As low-carbers, we dispensed with potatoes. However, we both like turnip with our Christmas dinner - it reminds us of Christmas dinners past at Skip's mom's. I also tried a new green bean recipe where I heated olive oil and garlic in a fry pan and cooked the green beans in the mixture for about 8 minutes. They were yummy. The cranberry sauce was made from scratch substituting Splenda for sugar.

Merry Christmas everyone!