Santa fishes....

    I love Christmas! Not as much as my mother did and I guess I get the love and excitement from her. She would decorate the whole house.  When I say the whole house I mean EVERY single inch of the house.  I don't know if I was in awe of all the things she had or really just her absolute giddiness and love for Christmas. Either way, I would always gravite to one thing each year, whether it was the animated Santas, the Annalee dolls, the old fashion lights, or whatever else she had acquired for the Christmas season.

    What I do love about all the things she had at Christmas was her love for the old or what "appeared" old. Mom could make anything! Several months prior to the season she loved to window shop. She would go into all the stores and look at EVERYTHING! If she saw something she loved or wanted to make, well she would memorize it or just buy it so she could remake it at home. Once we moved into the age of phones, she didn't have to memorize it anymore and she just took pictures. A lot of pictures!

    This is why I love The Prairie Schooler's Christmas crossstitch patterns. Oh my, they are all screaming my mom's name! She would have loved them and I am certain she may have learned a new hobby along with getting ALL the patterns.  When I came across the St. Nicholas II (which I have a lot of the patterns) pattern I knew I had to stitch them. The first one I am digging into is this St. Nicholas who loves to fish.  

    Here is your first "window shopping" of the season. More to come as we go along!