And so this is Christmas

Well, its almost Christmas here in the Southern Hemisphere - just a little over half an hour to go. I think Santa has already been to our house (we are on the start of his run you know !!).

Madison was hiding behind the tree earlier in the day, sunning herself, sleeping on someone's gift and playing with the decorations. I think she's paying us back a bit for what we did to her the other day ..

The outfit was too small for Quincy, our dog so by default, Madison scored herself a new elf suit for Christmas day. You can tell she loves it eh?

It seems like ages ago that I gave an update on my Hitchhiker scarf which I'm doing as a KAL with Teresa - it seems to be taking forever but I'm plodding along slowly. I wonder how Teresa and Kristi are getting on with theirs? Anyway, here's my progress.

As well as the Hitchhiker, I've been making a few things for one of the charities being supported this month by Knit4Charities. I had some items stored away but have added these which I've made over the past few weeks -

This is the Angel Wings pinafore from Bev's Country Cottage site but it can also be a dress or cardigan, depending on whether you leave the front open or not. As you can see, I've chosen to make this a little cardi which I think would look nice over a jumpsuit.  Next is a little all-in-one knitted baby top which is one of my favourite patterns from Marianna's Lazy Daisy Days blog.  Her patterns are very well written and easy to follow. Yarn is "dy choice" Baby Joy DK.

To make up the 500g post pack, I made this little newborn hat this afternoon -

No pattern for this - I just started with 12dc into magic ring, then the usual increases for the next 3 rounds, straight dc for a total of 13 rounds then after the join, TURN and work another 3 rounds for the turn-up (US terminology). I used Patons Big Baby 8ply with a 3.50mm hook.

Well its been an absolute pleasure finishing off my Christmas shopping over the past week or so. When the school holidays start, just about everyone takes off either interstate or to the coast, and our city is very quiet. This was where I did my final gift buying - its at Majura Park near the Canberra Airport - a big complex with lots of shops plus Costco and the newly opened IKEA.  I took this photo at about 3.45pm on a Tuesday.

I do hope you have a lovely Christmas and as a special treat, if you overeat during the festive season, this diet might help.

BREAKFAST
half grapefruit
1 slice wholemeal toast
250ml skim milk

LUNCH
125g lean grilled fish
1 cup steamed zucchini
1 Tim Tam biscuit
herb tea

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK
rest of packed of Tim Tams
2 litres chocolate ice cream
1 bottle Ice Magic topping

DINNER
2 loaves garlic bread
1 large pepperoni and mushroom pizza
1 large jug beer
3 Milky Way bars
1 entire frozen cheesecake eater directly from freezer.

Merry Christmas everyone