Happy New Year!

Here we are, at the beginning of a new year. Seriously, remember when the year 2012 sounded so futuristic and mysterious? Remember Epcot Center in Florida predicting we'd have flying cars? Remember when the 80's were "like, totally awesome" and now the music we listened to as teenagers is considered the "Oldies but Goodies"? The year 2012 back then seemed so far away, and I remember thinking I would be OLD by the time this year rolled around.

There has been very little activity on my blog lately, and now that the holidays are drawing to a close, I'm hoping the schedule will slow down to it's usual rate of craziness.

What happened over the last couple months was a build up of projects that had to be done first, right away, top priority.

November was NaNo month, and my time was spent writing. There was a little time spent on knitting, as I had a list to get through before Christmas, which I can now share, since all gifts have been received and no one will be unduly surprised ahead of time.

I made Benjamin a cabled hat, and a neck warmer. Thankfully, those were done before NaNoWriMo hit, and were safely tucked away for Christmas. He assured me that he was smiling under it all.




Then I made my stepmother a pair of socks for her birthday. Her birthday is a few days before Christmas, but I was trying to get them done for Thanksgiving, because she and my Dad were originally planning on being here then, but that ended up not working out, so I could relax a bit, even though they WOULD have been done in time.



BTW... my stepmother reported back to me that she LOVES the socks, and they fit perfectly. So glad to have made those for her!


My panic project this year ended up being a pair of dress socks for Dale, made by moi. It was a simple enough pattern, and I made them two at a time, but that was the project that I had to scramble on. I think this was because I had to do it on the sly, and it took much longer than I anticipated.




Also in the works, was a birthday gift for my mom. She had mentioned several months ago to me in passing that she would like a cowl, big enough to flip over her head while shovelling, but not too heavy. Then she turned to me and said, "But don't bother making me one."

Yeah, right.

So, I made her this little number called the Lowell Cowl. Very easy! I used two strands of lace weight yarn. I found out that winding shanks of lace weight yarn takes F O R E V E R. It took me about 6 hours, all said and done, to get the four shanks of yarn winded by hand. I need to get one of those little gadgets KnitPicks sells. I didn't do it all in one sitting, but when we were watching a movie or during school. Anyway, the lace weight yarn isn't too heavy, and the cowl is big enough she can wear it plain, pull it up over her head, or double it around her neck. Whatever she feels like.



I think I have enough of the yarn left over to make a second one. Pity, eh?

We travelled out to Mass. on the 26th, to visit my mother and grandmother. We had a very busy week eating and visiting. :P My mom and my birthdays are on the same day, and we went to the Cheesecake Factory in Framingham for lunch. Great idea on the food, BAD idea on the day.

To the say the Mall was busy, would be like saying the sun is a little warm on its surface. It was ridiculous! We had to park across the street. I don't mind the walking, but the restaurant was totally packed. We might have just bought some cheesecake and left except we were meeting a friend of my mother's from work. She had retired this past fall, and my mom was itching to see her. I had heard quite a lot about her, and sure enough, hit it off with Colleen immediately. After waiting over half an hour for our table, we had lunch, and it was so good! And no, we didn't eat cheesecake for lunch. Colleen and my mom got salmon and steamed spinach. I got the blue cheese bacon cheeseburger. And fried onion rings. Healthy, eh? I could only eat half the burger and brought the other half home for later. We had cheesecake for dessert, though, as is our birthday tradition. I had pumpkin pecan cheesecake. It was heavenly. Again, I knew I couldn't finish it all, so I had the waiter cut it in half, and pack it up for taking home. I think he was getting very tired of all my "cut it in half and pack up" for taking home, but never said anything. All in all it was an excellent lunch, good service, worth the wait for sure.

Now, the funny thing is that we had made plans to meet up with my uncle and his family for Chinese food that nigh. Talk about a day of eating! I think I gained about 10 lbs. back in one day. I've decided vacations are lethal to my healthy eating. Well, I already knew that. But all that eating on Thursday certainly sealed the notion in my brain.

After eating, we all went back to my mom and grandmother's house to chat for a while. The cousins were downstairs having a blast, and Isaac stayed upstairs with us grownups and played nicely with Legos and charmed my aunt and uncle. My aunt had found some interesting books for the kids to share, and got some high quality type chocolates for Dale and I. Oh, good, more calories. What's a body to do? Isn't chocolate a vegetable anyway?

This book was a hit, along with a Ripley's Believe it or Not book.



It caught my grandmother's attention, and she took a good long look at it, which concerned me regarding gifts for the kids for next year.

Dale surprised me with a Kindle Fire for my present this year! I have a couple of books downloaded, and am learning my way around using it. It is a handy device, for sure!

It's funny how there is never enough time to do all the nothing you want. I brought enough yarn to do three "3 hour hats" while gone, a couple of books, and you know what? I think I read about 10 pages and knitting about 3 rounds, all together during the week. We were busy going to Barnes and Noble, and eating, and chatting, and the days went by all too quickly. The weather was such that my mom and I went for walks together, which was nice as it gave us some private talk time without all the gremlins around.

We start school later this week. I need a few days to get the decorations down, all presents put away, organize the second semester schedule, etc. I'm also finally updating my Home Management Binder. It has been needing a makeover for a couple of years. I printed up some of the pages I will need before vacation, so all I have to do now is start putting them in the binder, and getting the old stuff out. I am redoing my address book too, and that will take a bit of rewriting and whatnot. So, we are still on "vacation" for a few more days, but it is a working vacation for me.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and the that the Lord blesses each and every one of you greatly in the coming year.