A Christmas Star...

The star of our Christmas was undoubtedly baby E. I'm unbelievably excited and proud to have a niece. She was so happy to be passed around for cuddles, she smiled at everyone from the word go. J wishes she had been born ten years earlier so that he and E could have been closer in age to her which he says would have been fun at Christmas, but I just believe in fate and think it will be nice for baby E to have big cousins looking out for her.

In between eating, drinking and playing games like Scattegories, Balderdash and Charades I managed to get a crochet fix using supplies in Mum's small crochet basket (she really needs to retire and accumulate a bigger stash!). The headbands took no time at all and baby E was happy to pose for photographs in them! Yes the butterfly is a bit on the large side but as cousin E said, 'go large or go home!'

Both the flower and the butterfly were in my new crochet book, one of two books M bought for my tree present. I can't believe he managed to find crochet books I don't already own! 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet is a really useful addition to my crochet library, especially now that there's a baby girl in the family. The other book was Wild Animals to Crochet by Vanessa Mooncie which has some lovely designs in, including an amazing chameleon that turns inside out and therefore changes colour. I'll probably be tackling something simpler to start with!

I was chuffed to bits that all three baby Pom Pom hats fitted E nicely. I'll have to wait until some photos get passed around via Facebook or email so I can share some with you. All grown up hats fitted too and there is, somewhere, on someone's phone or camera a whole group photo of us wearing them! Mostly it wasn't really cold enough to need them this Christmas. I walked the dogs on Boxing Day which was 15 degrees. After a mile or so I didn't feel the need for a coat at all, let alone the hat and gloves I'd brought along too. Not that the dogs are complaining, they have a prolonged season for wild swimming in the lake!