Our Christmas

I love the expectant hush of Christmas Eve night, after the children have been tucked away in their beds...



Christmas this year was scaled back a bit, simple and meaningful, with plenty of time to spend together as a family and reflect on what this day means to us.



A Christmas miracle: the children waited until almost 8AM to come into our room and wake us!




I had formed two trays of doughnut dough the night before, so I pulled them out to rise on the counter while we opened gifts.



After they were opened and the wrapping was cleared away, we baked the doughnuts, which were tasty, as always (recipe from 101 Cookbooks -- I make my dough in the bread machine, form the doughnuts, and then put them in the refrigerator overnight).






We had baked a ham the day before, inviting neighbors over to share in a Christmas Eve lunch, so we had plenty of leftovers to eat throughout the day, leaving plenty of time for relaxing and having fun together as a family.






I cast on for Greg's Christmas Gift/Hat in the afternoon, and wove in the ends and blocked it last night. Better late than never!



As soon as I saw the pattern in the most recent Knitty, I knew that the hat had to be for him. He has a thing for wildly complicated looking cables, and Knotty had his name written all over it. He's sensitive to wool, so I found some Cotton Ease in a very Greg Friendly color. I had to knit it on size 4 needles because I have challenges knitting cotton/cotton blends tightly enough, and based on my gauge swatch, Cotton Ease grew a good deal. For the rest of the project details, you can click on over to the Ravelry page.

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate), and that you have a wonderful rest of the weekend, what little of it that remains.



Our very special Dinner For Two on Christmas night, after we had put the children to bed


Tasting notes on the cured Spanish ham in this picture.

(P.S. For those of you who can't ever get enough pictures, there are plenty more of our Christmas celebration in the Flickr set: Christmas 2009.)