How do you follow up on a reindeer?

I'm still very impressed that I met a real reindeer - can you tell?

Well if you have the reindeer and the outside landing lights ready for Father Christmas you really do need somewhere to put your stocking. We don't have a fireplace or a chimney of any kind so our stockings go under the tree - ergo we need a tree.

Last year was the first year that we were together for Christmas and H's friends recommended a farm shop near Stoneleigh - the tree was wonderful so we trotted back again this year for another blue spruce:

size - anything that fits in the car!!

H is a firm believer in traditional Christmas roles for the modern family. This means that it's my job to hug the rather prickly tree and hold it upright while he (a) screws it into the base and (b) takes a whole load of pictures for the blog (I'm getting him well trained but even I was surprised by how many Carie+tree pictures were on the camera this evening!)

Then we add a few lights:

And the odd ornament or two:

All of our main ornaments are souvenirs of places we have been or special occasions - we have a star from our honeymoon, a bauble from Germany that Zee brought for us, one from Rome, one to mark our first Christmas together, and this year:

The Eiffel Tower from Paris

This year's ornament is still waiting to be made - pictures in due course!

Before you despair of my ever having done anything crafty to tell you about, I am still on H's last Christmas present and knitting furiously whenever the opportunity presents itself. In the meantime I have a diagonal cross rib sock sorely in need of a mate - soon my little Tuscan sock, soon!

And, well you didn't seriously think I was going to hold out against Kid Silk Haze for that long did you:

My other crafty for the weekend is a non-knitting project - a present for my friend E - cookies in a jar. The recipe is from here - basically you layer up the ingredients in a glass jar and add a tag to give the quantities of butter and egg to mix it with - yummy!

Here you can see the different layers

And with the finishing touches:

The fabric is covered with red gingerbread men - part of a bundle of fat quarters I bought in the US when we were in New England a few years ago and just perfect as a jar topper - plus E and her mum make quilts so I expect I will see it again some day!

I have wrapped it in all the bubble wrap we could find in the house and entrusted it to the post office with all my fingers and toes crossed - send it good thoughts for me.

And finally (assuming anyone made it this far) - a little bit of quiet reflection for Advent. Mary and Joseph from our church crib travel round the village in the run up to Christmas and tonight they are with us:

so I'm going to go and sit with them for a bit