Beginning to look like Christmas

So I'm knee deep in Christmas crafting, so I can't show you everything I've been up to. No shopping has been done (eek!) and there's still much to be crafted and cleaned (double eek!) before next week. I foresee a very busy weekend.

But the tree is up, and now fully decorated. The progression:
Notice anything different this year? Yeah, it's not a white pine! I guess that's what happens when we send the parentals out on their own. And yeah, I upgraded to LED lights - for the first time in I don't know how long, all of the lights on the tree match. Craziness.

It was getting a bit late on Wednesday by the time Ellie and I were finished, which means that there was a little bit of silliness:
As always, right? I assure you, she didn't actually eat the tree, that is reserved for Paul.
Mom even stayed up with us to the end. Now to clean and decorate the rest of the house....

Sunday night, Mom and I went to Country Lights with the Perry Fam. It was wicked cold and windy (the storm that gave us not one but two snow/inclement weather days this week) so I didn't manage to get any decent photos of the light displays, but here you go:
Things we learned that night:
- Aubrey is good at going catatonic when in the presence of strangers
- Mason will freak out when a siren and lights sound off inside
- Mason will however meet and give hugs to the large furry mascots
- Aubrey will not
- Elliott will maintain stone cold seriousness when you want him to smile for a picture
- All three would like a pony
- It is near impossible to get a group photo with all three looking at the camera, let alone smiling
But we tried anyway. It was fun, the kids liked it, and we made sure to get a ride on the wagon that was horse drawn, not tractor drawn (what's up with that anyway?).

Now for a little bit of knitting, not much that I can show you, but oh well.
My Vaila. Now that my finger isn't sore anymore I put a little bit of time in on it the other night. If it weren't the holidays I would probably be farther, but my time needs to be spent elsewhere. Right now it's at the point where you put the body aside, and knit the sleeves. Woohoo.

I was bad a couple of weeks ago and started these for me:
The Snapdragon Mitts. I've been wanting to make them for ages, and I had the yarn that matches one of my coats, so I gave in. The first one worked up really quickly, as did the hand of the second one, but it's been put aside for holiday stuff (story of my life right now).
See how tricksy they are? Flip tops! Awesome. I plan to spin up some yarn to make the matching tam, sometime in the new year.

Last thing that I can show, I made a sweet little hat for Kaylee.
Reminds me of cotton candy. There's matching mittens too, but forgot the photo, and I need to get ready for work.

Have a great weekend!