As Good As It's Going To Get

Well, my house is as Christmassy as it's going to get.  I got up yesterday and put out the rest of my decorations, and hauled the storage boxes back out to the shed.  I'm not going to bombard you with photos of everything, but I will show you this.  It's a new old thing I put out for the first time...in a long time.

Not the village.  I've had it for a few years -- Beverly gave it to me when they moved back to Texas.  I'm talking about the gigantic, totally out of scale nativity scene beside the church.

If you're thinking, "Hey, that looks like a Fontanini,"  you would be correct.  When I was stationed in Italy, I bought a tree topper that was a glass dome looking thing with a spire on top.  In the dome, there was a little Fontanini nativity scene.  This is that scene.  It had survived the trip from Italy, and I'd kept it packed so carefully to keep it safe for so long. 

"But what happened to it," you may ask?  Well, I'll tell you. Back in 2005, there was this hurricane.  His name was Dennis.  Most people don't even remember him, even though he was a cat 4 when he made landfall, because he was overshadowed by Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.  Though his track passed to the east of us, we got enough wind and rain to cause some damage.  My storage shed -- and many of the things inside -- were part of that damage. 

Along with many other things ruined, the glass part of the topper was broken.  I threw the whole thing away, then thought better of it and got it back out of the trash.  By the way, I still have a scar on my hand from doing that. 

I knew I couldn't glue the glass part bsck together, so I pulled the figures off and kept them.  In all that time, I'd never done anything with them, but this year, on a whim, I added them to my Christmas village.  I think they look right nice there.

You know what else looks right nice?  My red Christmas cactus in full bloom.

All righty then, moving right along...

In knitting news, I started a scarf with the one lonely skein of the Lion Brand Scarfie I still had. 

I'm liking the way the colors are blending in this one.  Now, I wish I'd bought a second skein, so I could make a slightly longer scarf and matching hat.  Alas, I didn't, and now Walmart isn't carrying it any more.  Not the local store, at least.  I looked online, and the cheapest I've found it is $7 a skein.  I ain't paying all that for it.  I haven't checked Ebay yet.  If they don't have any, or it's not reasonably priced, this one will just end up being a stole type thingy. 

OK, I just went and checked Joann's, Michael's, and Ebay.  They all want $9 or more per skein.  So, that's a no from me.

Also, I got the button sewn onto my Calorimetry. 

It's all ready for next year's blessing bags. 

And finally, I was watching a cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie, when a boy walked into the scene wearing this: 

Now, I feel like I've made the big time.  Why?  Because I have the exact same sweatshirt:

I've had it since 1993, the year Cody was born.  I used to wear it to all the family Christmas gatherings until it began to get a bit tattered around the neck and sleeves.  Now it just hangs in my closet, awaiting its moment of glory.  Which it just had.  Because it was featured in a Hallmark Christmas movie!

See? I was Hallmark before Hallmark was cool!