you know it's winter when...

you've used up the last of the freezer jam.  Or so the saying goes.  Or something like that.

You also know it's winter when, nine days before Christmas, you have a bunch of presents that have to be sewn, painted, and glued, and all you want to do is knit.  Very cool presents, to be sure, but wouldn't it be cozier and less complicated to be toting one ball of yarn and two needles, and making one of these?

Or one of these?

Or two of these?

I feel a new year's resolution forming.  Or something like that.

Because a pictureless post is boring (I say that a lot, don't I?), and I haven't gotten up the gusto to photograph the awesome fabric I got in the mail recently (well, I guess I sort of did)...or the ten beautiful ornaments that we have been so enjoying (Alex claimed the adorable gingerbread house in an instant; I may never get it back!)...or the eleven five-minute gift card holders I made for (group) teacher gifts at preschool--just kidding, I did photograph those!--

I'm including this.  When your husband is slaving away on your basement remodel and the power has to go out in one half of the house, your child will have to watch TV since it gets dark at 4:30 these days and you can't play in the living room.  But, somehow, these two things will still have power:

 A pre-Christmas miracle.  Or something like that.