Here is a knit beard I made for my son to keep his face warm in the winter.  It just buttons into the stitches in the hat.  He wore once but he hasn't worn it again.  It's a free knit pattern on Ravelry called Ginger Beard by Jessica Mounts

Yesterday was a little weird in that it felt very stop and go.  I dropped the kids off at the bus stop and was home by 8 but at 9:15 or so I had to trade the car with my husband.  I got home and could do a few thing but had to leave again to go to the kids program.  I got home from that at 2:30 and the kids get out of school at 3:30 and we had to go pick up their dad.  I did listen to some old episodes of Knitting Pipeline and work on my test crochet.  I'm about a year behind on the podcast now and I found a new podcast to listen to when I get caught up.  It's called Wild Ideas and it is a nature podcast (audio) not a knitting one.  I think it will teach me more about the nature around here.  They do broadcast out of Ohio but I think it's close enough.

I left the house yesterday at 12:30 for the 1:00 performance.  I thought that would be plenty of time since we only live about five minutes from the school.  I was wrong.  I forget because I never had family in town that some people do.  The parking lot was not filled with just mom and dad but grandparents and other extended family.  The school is not that big of a building and has had additions in the past, however the parking lot is still the same size.  So that was full and people were doing some creative parking (parking on the side where you weren't really supposed to).  There was pretty much no space left even on the side streets.  I ended up parking in a parking lot for a fitness place and felt a little bad if they had any customers that day.  The creative parking didn't really bother me but people had started parking in dangerous places (making it impossible for a fire truck to get in or anyone to get out). The gym where they were holding the performance had standing room only.  I found a corner to stand in a started crocheting.  Another parent I knew came over near me and we were chit chatting before the start.  She says in a laughing almost smug way that her husband said if they mention God or Jesus he was filing a complaint.  That kind of made me upset.  It's a public school so I don't expect them to sing Silent Night but to plan out making formal complaint over it  seems excessive and made me think less of her that she thought it was funny.  The thing that made me really irritated though is that many people leave after their kids performance.  I find it horribly rude that after the kindergarteners performs a quarter of the audience leaves.  Since this a common problem the principal asked people to use the back exit door and some people still left through the front  Rude and can't follow directions.  It peeves me but it meant that for my daughter's performance I could get a seat.

I did throw the camera in my bag but didn't use it.  From my little corner I could see my son but he was on the complete other side of the gym.  There was no way I could get a good picture of him.  I was surprised to find out later he actually saw me.  He must have some really good eyesight.  When over half the audience was gone I got a seat with a really clear view of my daughter.  I could have taken some nice pictures of her  but felt that would not be fair to her brother.  The kids did really well and the program was really cute.  They are selling DVD's for $10.  I don't feel like I need one for me but I want to talk to my husband about getting one for great grandma.

Because of the weather the school called last night and gave everyone a free pas if they wanted to keep their children home today.  After much discussion my husband and I decided to.  If we had two cars so I could drive them or the bus picked them up at the door we would have sent them.  At this minute they do not have snow pants (they are supposed to get that for Christmas) so standing in the cold blowing wind waiting for the bus seemed like a bad idea.  I'm still going to make them do some school work.

Today's crafting plan is to finish the two shepherds costumes and keep working on the test crochet.  I'm up to 12" so I am over a quarter of the way done.  I really like the look of the fabric it's making.  I really would like to get more than 4" done today but that seems to be may average.  See you tomorrow for another update. :)