Geese and Grass

"Christmas is Coming" is coming along.  I now have a goose girl, an apple tree, various critters, three fat geese, and the grass behind them.

I've been thinking of taking a few stitches out and redoing the shadow on the goose on the right, but taking out stitches over 40 count is not the most fun. And from across the room it isn't bothersome. Dearly Beloved believes once the ornament is on the tree, no one will notice it. As he tends to notice the pickiest of details, I'm inclined to believe him.

Or he's saying this so I won't keep belaboring the point.

In other news, we now have a decorated tree. I had to go to a volunteer thing yesterday, but other than that, we spent the day working on the tree.  As usual, the tree looked much smaller in the lot than it does in the corner of the living room.  Dearly Beloved had to use more lights than he wanted to--actually, he would be happy with no lights at all, but this year it became a challenge to light up the tree. And I've used ornaments I haven't used in years to fill in all the spaces. 

At some point I need to pull out the Christmas dishes and go to the grocery store, but other than that and stitching and finishing more ornaments, I'm ready for Christmas this year. This is, I have declared, my minimal Christmas. There will be other years to go berserk--this year I'm taking a deep breath and relaxing.

And listening to Christmas music and watching old movies and thinking about what I want to stitch during my last vacation days of 2014. I am taking off the week after Christmas and doing only what I want to do for nine days straight.

That's the best Christmas present of them all!