Nicholas saw a red, child-sized shovel for sale at Menard's. We went back as a family for other things, and we swung by the shovel aisle. We picked one out and Cooper carried that red shovel through the whole store (panicking about letting go for a minute at checkout) and then managed to carry it in the truck to and from our little family pre-Christmas outing.We've since had a few snowfalls requiring shoveling, and Cooper has been able to help, though the dexterity required to operate a shovel is a little tricky when he has his mittens on...

We had two Christmas celebrations, one with each of our families. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we celebrated with Nicholas' family. My SIL gave all the girls matching pjs (organic cotton and so comfy) so we wore them on Christmas Eve. We watched online Christmas Eve service, enjoyed a dinner of biscuits and gravy, and opened stockings and played cards...

So here, listed by type and in order of completion date, are the knitting projects I finished this year. Each one is linked to either my Ravelry project page or to a blog post about that project. Either will include more photos and details about each project. Adult accessories: blue align mitts for my mom for her birthday grey align mitts, knit for my MIL for mother's day align mitts, unblogged and I never took a picture of these, but they were knit for my grandma in a beautiful green tweed yarn leftover from my second pair of Cyril socks...

As I wrote in my 2019 year in review post, "Once this is done, I can look forward, with clearer eyes, a lighter heart. I so often feel lighter from observing the heavy pieces one last time before putting them to the side, emptying my hands in order to take up the next year in our life." I still resonate with that statement. Knowing that some things are meant to be set aside before proceeding and some might need to be carried on a bit longer...

It's the week of Christmas! Advent has felt different this year, faster and slower than prior years. There are a million things to say about this year, but on the best of days, it highlighted the joys of being still, living a quieter life, being at home. Here are some other little bits of joy in the last couple of weeks: A room lit only by the tree. So beautiful...