the tree

 While Joseph may be the mellowest, sweetest two year old ever, the child does not understand limits, boundaries, or the concept of "don't touch that."  "No" means nothing to him unless it's coming out of his own mouth ("No pants, mama!  No pants, no pants, no pants!"). Therefore, our Christmas/holiday/solstice/yule/winter tree is 1) tethered to the wall, and 2) only decorated with ornaments he can play with.  I love when other parents tell me that their kids don't mess with their tree because they were told not to.  It makes me feel like I'm raising a jungle beast or a sociopath.  These are the same people who manage to have table lamps, which is something I can't even imagine at this point.  Fortunately, bed rest this fall gave me plenty of time to knit up some ornaments that can be played with, chewed on, "shared" with the babies and thrown at the windows.

I've already written about these lights. 

The popcorn and cranberry garland is also from the same knitpicks ornament kit, and it makes me happy whenever I walk past the tree.

You can see that there's an infestation of tiny elves.  The pattern calls them "korknisse" which I suppose means cork people, but Joseph calls them elf men so that's what they are.  This is possibly the best stash busting project ever; it uses hardly any yarn in any weight you want.  Some of the elves have face tattoos, which I think means they've killed someone, but I feel awkward asking. 

And some stuff I made last year.

I made the tree skirt (wool felt; the leaves are machine appliqued) when Joseph was a newborn, a fact that blows my mind and makes me think that having one baby must have been like a vacation compared to how thing's are now, even though I keep telling people that having twin babies isn't all that different from having one.  I must be delirious with fatigue.

Happy holidays, people!