The Race to Finish

The madwoman has been knitting like crazy!
The sweater must be finished by the end of the year!!!  Am I laboring under the Presidential Mandate, 'No Project Left Undone'?  You would think so.  Or maybe it's just a good excuse to neglect all the things I should be doing around the house.  Like that sink full of dishes....

Yesterday Zip and I drove to Lemoyne to the PA Factory outlet to get buttons for the almost finished sweater. I took a skein of yard along to match them up.  I thought these looked good when laid against the yarn, but when I put them on the sweater....Blech!!!

Now what to do???  Not another 50-mile trip back to the outlet.  I guess I could use them temporarily?

Then I looked at the back side of the button and EUREKA! they looked cool!!!

They might be wrong-side-out, but I think they look 100% better.  What do you think???

So last evening I finished the last few inches of sleeve and the sweater is done with a day to spare.

I still need to block it to stretch out the ribbing a little bit.  It is soooo nice and warm!

This is the third sweater I've done since reacquainting myself with my knitting needles last January.  Thanks to Julie at Knitting at Large, they all fit perfectly.  My faith in sweater knitting has been renewed!
Some of the important lessons I've learned are ALWAYS knit a gauge swatch, take accurate body measurements, draw a schematic and DO THE MATH!  You can have a sweater that fits your own personal shape every time.

I guess now that the excitement is all over, it's time to go to the kitchen and apply my creative talents to cleaning up the dishes.  SIGH!!!

A Tale of Two Feasts

It's over and for that, I am thankful.  All the hoopla can be stashed away for another year
All the obligations and the guilt-laden reprimands for not conforming to the demands of family will now be packed away until the next big holiday.

We (Zip and I and Brad and Kami) had decided to simply visit with Mom on Saturday afternoon so she wouldn't have to cook us dinner.  She called two days beforehand and INSISTED on making dinner.  And if *I* didn't want to eat, that was OK with her.  I am, of course, the Bad Guy here!

So we went.  She had invited my sister, Linda and her SO, which was nice.  I enjoy my sister's company though we don't often get together other than family holidays.

Things went fairly well, with only a few  little negative remarks from Mom.  As usual these revolved around cleaning your plate.  Both my sister and Kami are very thin.  They ALWAYS leave some food on their plates.  So we had the lecture!  Not quite the 'starving people in less fortunate areas of the world' speech but very close to it.  Then we went on to complaints about the price of groceries and the cost of each of the ingredients that made up the meal.  (The rest of us did bring food to add to the table) And last but not least, how some people's eyes are bigger than their stomachs.  Oh, well!  Happens every year!!!

At least Linda's laberdoodle, Simon ate well.  He's watching the table, choosing his favorites and hoping there are lots of leftovers.

Brad didn't have any trouble cleaning his plate.  Here he is having a happy moment contemplating the dessert selection.

Mom is a Christmas collector.  Her favorites are antique ornaments and vintage Santas.  She has about a half dozen feather trees in several rooms of the house, each with a different theme.  She can tell you how much each of the ornaments cost her, too!
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The curio cabinet filled with the little stuff.

I was having trouble taking good photos because of the light levels in the house.  Dark inside and bright outside with back lighting from the windows doesn't make good pictures even with a flash.

I finally got one good picture of Mom.

So that is over for another year!

Onward to the FUN feast!
On Christmas day we had dinner at Brad and Kami's.  We each made what we wanted and it all come together harmoniously.  There was no stress, no recriminations, we ate what we wanted in whatever quantities we desired.    Nothing fancy, just delicious food.  There was happy conversation and lots of laughing.

Words can hardly express how much I appreciate our son and Kami.  I could not have gotten a better daughter-in-law if I had chosen her myself.  Brad has turned out to be a good sensitive man.
And they love Cats!!!

Here is their new little rescued kitty Cosmo.  He's laying quietly at the moment, but there were a few wild leaps onto the table.  Their two older cats weren't interested in Christmas dinner.

After dinner we watched 'A Christmas Story', my favorite Christmas movie.  I guess having grown up in the fifties is why I can so relate to it.  I remember my father doing battle with the coal furnace and he probably was using some of the same language!  And the nightmare of being stuffed into the snowsuit!  The minute Mom zipped them up, we had to go to the bathroom!  LOL!!!

Yep, there on my dusty and cluttered mantel is a small leg lamp!

Hope all of you had a Christmas to be remembered!
I still can't help breathing a sigh of relief....
IT'S OVER!!!

Celebrating the Sun

For those of us with seasonal depression and suffering from lack of light, this is a day to celebrate.
The Return of the Sun!
Today is the winter solstice and the day with the shortest number of daylight hours in the year.  Also the longest night of the year.
But tomorrow the day will be longer!  Only by minutes, but over the next few months, those minutes add up to more Light!
I realize that the coldest, and possibly snowiest part of the winter is still ahead in January and February, but it sure makes me feel better to know that the darkness is now turning the other way.
So HORAY FOR THE SUN!!!

I want to thank all of you for your supportive comments on my last post about the winter blaaaahs.
Seems like a lot of people suffer from this malady and deal with it in many ways.  Thank you all for your suggestions!

I still haven't wanted to go out much, but I'm not feeling so down in the dumps.  Most of the Christmas parties are over and I bowed out of all of them.  Zip went to his pot luck dinner with his fellow music students and to his Sunoco luncheon by himself.  He doesn't mind going out and socializing and I like the time to myself.
We have a small quiet dinner planned with Mom on Saturday and are eating with Brad and Kami on Christmas Day.  That's it!  All I really want to do.

I've been sewing and knitting.  Never did start that Santa rug.
The sweater seems to be taking a looooong time.  There are so many times when I wish I were a size 6, and this is one of them!  The first sleeve is almost done and then only the other one to do and it's finished.  I wanted to have it done by Christmas, but that isn't going to happen.
After that, I have one to knit for Mom who is a size 0 or something.  That shouldn't take long.
And I want to plan a nice big rug, something to work on for months.  Or maybe work on some quilting.
So many projects, so little time!

Here's Deiter, asking you to remember to keep your furry companions safe during the holiday season!
Poinsettias are poisonous to cats and dogs (the ones in the picture are artificial!).  Tinsel can get caught in their intestines, as can pieces of ribbon and string.  There are so many exciting new things to play with that animals can get carried away and eat stuff that they shouldn't.  But Deiter says he hopes that pet parents will be generous with the appropriate kitty and dog treats.  Wishing all the furry ones a safe and happy holiday surrounded by the humans they love.

Hope all of you have a happy and relaxed Christmas, or whatever Holiday you celebrate.
Enjoy food, family, friends, and conversation!
Peace on Earth!

The Holiday Blaaaahs

Warning!!!  This is a really depressing post!

The Happy Holiday spirit is lacking in our house.
No decorations.  Minimal parties.  Definitely NO shopping!
Is it seasonal depression???

Lately it's been a little scary.  I no longer want to go out of the house.
I Googled agoraphobia, just for my own info.  I don't have any of the symptoms.  I'm not AFRAID to go out, it's just cold and I don't want to bother.  No social anxiety.  No panic attacks.  Just don't feel like being around people right now.

The Wenger Christmas gathering has been cancelled.  I am relieved.
This past week Zip's Mom fell and cracked her hip and needed hip replacement surgery.  She's doing OK for a dear lady in her early nineties.  The family dinner is postponed until she's feeling better.

We planned on having Christmas Day dinner at Mom's.  She gets really stressed out cooking family meals so we were all going to help with the cooking.  Then I find out that she has invited twice as many people as originally intended.  Twice the cooking and ten times the stress and confusion.  She's not happy with me but I had to bow out to save what little sanity I have left.  Zip and I want a quiet, non-stressful day.

Then there's the Blue and Gray rug hooking party on Monday.  I've decided not to go to that either.
One by one I'm eliminating the situations in an attempt to make it through the season intact.

What I really want is to stay home with the kitties and work on my knitting, hooking, etc.
This is my ideal way to spend the time.  Out of the picture is a big mug of hot chocolate!

I didn't get my Santa rug started, but I've been hooking.  These standing rabbits are for a friend.  I told her that they'd be done before Easter (that was back in the summer!).  She probably thought I forgot all about them.  Am I ahead of the game or what???  Oh, they're not done yet...

We haven't taken this loom down yet so the kitties are still having fun.  Can you imagine what they'd do to a Christmas tree???



I hope the rest of you out there are having an ENJOYABLE Holiday Season.
Please don't let the Grinch bite you!!!