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A Christmas pickle…crochet pattern

By on December 21, 2011 in crochet, Handmade, Handmade Christmas Challenge, Holidays

Today I am working on sugar cookies (recipe long overdo will be posted tomorrow), cooking up presents in the kitchen and working on some ornaments.

My children are big on traditions, just as the daily rhythm of our lives keeps their world feeling just as it should, the rhythm of our traditions does the same.  They however are not big on changes to our traditions but this year I am pulling a fast one on them.  For a few years I have wanted to add the tradition of hiding a Christmas pickle in the tree.   It is the last ornament to be put in the tree on Christmas Eve and the first child to find it in the morning gets a little extra surprise.  I am thinking that would be a little handmade toy or a sweet.

 The tradition of hiding a pickle is a medieval tale of two Spanish boys traveling home from boarding school for the holidays. When they stopped at an inn for the night, the innkeeper, a mean and evil man, stuffed the boys into a pickle barrel. That evening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn, became aware of the boys’ plight, tapped the pickle barrel with his staff, and the boys were magically freed.

I could not find a pattern that looked like a pickle much to me so I made this one and though it does not look exactly like a pickle it works for me.  I have not tested it so if you find any mistakes please let me know.  You can make one of these in about 20 minutes so perfect for last minute new traditions : )

Christmas pickle pattern

I used a chunky wool blend yarn and a size I crochet hook.  You also need a stitch marker to mark the beginning of each row.

Row 1: Make a magic ring, 5 sc in ring

Row 2: 2 sc in each st around

Row 3 to 8:  1 sc in each st around

Row 9:  sk 1st st, sc in next st, sk next st, sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, sc around to last st, 2 sc in last st of row

Row 10:  repeat row 9

Row 11 to 14: sc in each st around, stuff with wool or fiberfill, bits of yarn or whatever

Row 15: sk next st, sc in next, repeat around

Row 16: repeat row 15 until the hole at the top is closed, ch 8, sl st to next st.  Fasten off and weave in end.  Hide your ornament until Christmas Eve then hide is really well in the tree and don’t forget to have a little something to give the child who finds it.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)
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very thankful

By on November 28, 2011 in Holidays, Recipes, Traditions
The past week has been one big blur…  So much is going on around here, so many things to do and decide.
It seemed as though I came home from New York and three days later it was Thanksgiving.  Our Thanksgiving was wonderful, full of lots of food and music, surrounded by Poppa and our children.  Can we as mothers really ask for anything more?  I did not pull of any new Thanksgiving outfits this year but we were all together, safe and warm and enjoyed each others company for the day.  Lots of movies on the couch and casseroles, pots and pans covering every inch of counter space.
I wanted to share two little parts of our Thanksgiving celebration with all of you. 
The first is our sage sausage and berry stuffing which I promised to share with a friend.
1 pound ground pork sausage
1/2 cup total of chopped onion, celery and green bell pepper
1/2 cup dried berries (raisins, cherries, blueberries, whatever you like)
1 large Granny Smith apple
1 tbsp flour
2 tsp dried sage
1 can chicken broth
6 ounces cornbread stuffing
Preheat the oven to 450 F.  Crumble sausage into pan and sautee, add onion, celery and bell pepper and then the berries.  Cook until the sausage is well browned. (This tastes pretty good without the sausage too for my non-meat eating friends ; )  While the sausage mixture is cooking, peel and chop apple into small pieces.
Stir the flour into the sausage and cook for a few minutes.  Stir in the apple, broth and stuffing mix until all blended.  Grease your baking dish and transfer the stuffing to the baking dish.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
The second I want to share is our Thankful Jar.
The thankful jar is a little tradition that we keep from year to year.  Everyone is to write at least 5 things they were thankful for in the past year.  They each write them on a slip of paper and put them in the jar.  This year Erica decided to cut them with a fancy scissor which made it hard to keep them from jumbling up together.  At dinner we remove the previous years slips and that brings forth so many memories and little things that we may have forgotten about, then we read this years and put them in the jar.  I keep the slips of paper from all the previous years together in a box to read someday when everyone is all grown up.  You could also do this for New Years and I think it would be great.
The day after the Thanksgiving festivities were over, Poppa and I had to leave for a meeting in Miami 
(more on the tomorrow) and it was so hard leaving my kids behind but I did get to spend the night at my parents house and that was wonderful though much too short.  We got back yesterday and crashed in a bed.  I am hoping to have a much more productive week this week.  I hope to share my advent preparation sometime this week and the rest of the photos from my New York trip.
What have you all been up to?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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