'Tis the season

Having grown up celebrating only Hanukkah, having a Christmas tree is still a novelty for me.  For the past several years we have cut down our tree at Butler's Orchard in Germantown, MD, and this year we carried on that tradition.  I like that it makes the occasion a little more of an adventure and that we are supporting a local farm in the process.  Every year, I marvel at the rows and rows of trees to pick from.

In past years, we easily spent an hour wandering through the rows--we would find a tree we liked, decide to look a little further and eventually decide we liked the first tree best and now couldn't find it.  Usually it was around the third tree we found that we would actually start sawing. This year we were more efficient and cut down the first tree we decided on.  I admit, Mike did most of the hard work while I stood over him supervising and snapping pictures and being generally pretty unhelpful.

Soon the tree was on the car and we were headed home to start decorating.  Awhile back, I started my own little holiday tradition--each year I add a new ornament that reminds me of something that makes me smile.  I love that we are slowly accumulating a collection of ornaments with some sort of personal significance.  Each time I pull one of these from the box, I remember some happy experience or trip. I was thrilled when I was in a running store and found this year's perfect addition. 

I'm still really proud of finishing my first half-marathon (13.1 miles) this year.  No matter how many more races I do, I love that every time I pull out this little green ball, I will think about how wonderful it felt to finish that race and how much fun we had that whole trip.  This simple 13.1, therefore, became my "special" ornament for 2010. 

Another great thing about the trip to the farm is that it's about a 45 minute drive away.  Knitting time!!  The Leyfi pullover was my priority last week, and on the way to and from the farm, I eagerly worked away on the second sleeve.

 
Leyfi is now finished.  I'm quite happy with it--more so than I expected to be.  I haven't had great light to take pictures so hopefully this weekend Leyfi will get a photo shoot and I'll post all the details then.  Finishing Leyfi brings me down to seven WIPs.  I ripped out one fingerless mitten project since the cuff was too snug, so that brings me to six.  From fourteen to six in less than a month!  Now is when it starts to get a little harder though since most of the projects I'm trying to tackle are not very far along.  I've moved onto the Chelsea skirt, and I can honestly say I hate knitting this project.  Luckily, I still have a sock to work on when I need a break, but I fear finished projects might be few and far between for a bit.