Some Chanukah Decorating

This year my holiday decorating was a bit more haphazard at home, since I was working a holiday show and all of my time was going into painting/props/tech rehearsal. But after opening night I did finally get out the bins of Chanukah decorations, and the house looks pretty festive.

As usual, Santa Mickey is on the living room console table, which is draped in this fun Chanukah fabric my mom gave me a few years ago. We also got that lighted garland on a timer this year, so we have some magical lights even when we're not thinking about it.

The ornament tree is in it's usual spot on the dining room sideboard, next to the menorahs and lots of dreidels.

And the nutcrackers line up on the mantle, guarding all of the holiday cards we've received so far.

Quick Knitted Ear Warmer

This winter has been rather snowy here! On one of our snowy afternoons, I whipped up this quick knitted ear warmer using some leftover chenille yarn. I found this pattern, which I mostly followed. Since my chenille yarn was thicker than the yarn used in the pattern, I cast on as if I was doing the kid size, but did the length about halfway between kid and adult size since my head runs on the small size. I think I actually could have made it even shorter. If you try the pattern, I recommend measuring often!

Since I have some leftover chenille in grey I may try the pattern again and make it smaller to see if that fits me better. I do like the ear warmer for days when I don't want a full hat but need something to keep the chill off my ears when I go for a walk!

Chanukah Decorating (2015 Edition)

I had plans to post my Chanukah decor before the start of the holiday. But we were so busy with celebrations that I'm not actually getting it up until today, the last day. Oh well, better late than never!

This year, since we just finished the dining room and we were hosting a large group of friends for latkes and brisket, we did a lot of holiday decorating in the dining room.

The frames above the sideboard now have photos in them, but the package hadn't yet arrived from Shutterfly when I took these pictures.

You can never have too many dreidels!

And here's the dining table all set for 10! It was so fun to get out all of our wine glasses for a fancy party, it's not something we ever had room for in our old place!

We hung the felt menorah in the living room.

And did a little mantle decorating with nutcrackers and a glittery "Hanukkah" garland in the family room.

We also put some dreidel garland up the staircase, but with the snowy weather over the weekend I haven't had good light to take a picture. Hopefully the sun will cooperate so I can share that before December is over, but we will see.

Exploring Georgetown

Last weekend we took a day trip up into the mountains to the Victorian mining town of Georgetown. Every year Georgetown hosts a Victorian Christmas Fair, and we had a fun day exploring the small historic town. Here are some pictures from our day:

 In front of the historic Hamil House

 Hamil House

After the fair, we drove up Guanella Pass into Arapahoe National Forest