Christmas Wrap up

I can't believe it's over already ! So much preparation and anticipation and then BOOM in the blink of an eye , over and done with .

This year Christmas Eve was celebrated at Casey & Chantal 's house instead of here . Jessey was sick again with pneumonia and it was better to do it there . Poor little guy was so sick on the Tuesday but by Christmas Eve he was well enough to enjoy at least a few hours with us and see what Christkind left under the tree . It was magical when he got his first look at the tree with the candles and sparklers , he couldn't take his eyes away from it . He soon got into the swing of unwrapping gifts , his and everyone else's . What was inside was irrelevant . You can't imagine how much fun a 14 month old can have with wrapping paper . When we were done he was the captain of the cleanup crew. Hilarious !Apparently he's great one to " help" with that regularly . I'm sure that will change once he's a teenager .

Christmas day was quiet but special because we visited with Shirley and her family . Jerold, Robin and Sidney were in town for the holidays . Sidney is just so darn cute! The sweater that I knit for him back in September fits perfectly and suits him to a tee . As per usual my camera was at home , but Jerold took some photos and promised to email them to me . Later on we were invited to share Christmas dinner with our next door neighbours and their families . They've become more than just neighbours , but terrific friends . Actually Mike and Dave must be long lost brothers separated at birth , they're a hoot whenever they get together and have a friendly rivalry going for the title of BBQ king.So you can bet there were lots of laughs as well as plenty of yummy food .

Mike outdid himself this Christmas as far as a gift goes . We don't usually buy each other extravagant gifts ,but this is a combination birthday gift too so I guess I can forgive him this one . It's the Kindle 2 from Amazon , just recently available to Canada . It's an ereader which can hold up to 1000+ books . I can download a book in less than a minute , anywhere , anytime . I love , love , love it more than you can imagine . The size , not heavy at all unlike the average hardcover and even a regular paperback makes it wonderful to use . I can shop Amazon anytime and the prices of books are generally cheaper . At least the new hardcovers , the prices with trade paperbacks and mass market are comparable and sometimes cheaper too . It's absolutely fantastic for someone like me who usually has a book in progress and always brings at least four books along on trips . That's not to say that I'll give up on actual books with covers and pages , the Kindle is just another option . I foresee a dilemma in the new year , reading or knitting , two passions only 24 hours in a day ...

At the gingerbread factory

I spent the afternoon baking some gingerbread cookies . I haven't baked any for years , but used to make them often when the boys were young . It smelled wonderful in the house when these were in the oven . I think having a 14 month old grandson brought on the nostalgia for these cookies . They're done , but for the decorating which I'll do tomorrow . It's late in the day and I'm tired . In my current state these might not be all that pretty if I were to do it right away .

I have been doing some knitting , a scarf and a pair of socks are off the needles . Both are Christmas gifts . There will be photos on the next post .

The Christmas preparations are coming along , the shopping's done , just need to wrap it all up . The baking is done , just need to package up what's going out as gifts . The Christmas cards are almost done , I have the stamps so it's just a matter of sitting down and actually doing them . So after those are done with pretty much all that's left is the cleaning and then we can let the celebrations begin ! After which comes more cleaning ...

Home again.

Actually , we've been back for a little over a week . Although it's nice to be back home with the family , getting back to winter is a b***h . We've had more than a foot of snow since we got home and the shovel has seen regular use . Uugh !



Mike and I had a wonderful week away . It was everything and more that I could have hoped for . We visited some beautiful places, met some wonderful people , relaxed and swam on the the beaches of the Cayman islands , snorkeled in Roatan , visited Mayan ruins on 2 of our stops . The ruins at Tulum Mexico were breathtaking beautiful , situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean . The ruins at Altun Ha in Belize were further inland , but equally amazing , surrounded by lush flora . My only complaint would be that we didn't have enough time to fully enjoy each place that we visited . A day is really only enough to give you a taste , however we now have some future destinations to plan for . Our guides were phenomenal , giving us fact filed but interesting tours of their respective countries . They were proud citizens of their homelands and wanted to give us a true picture of the people , the history and culture of the places that we visited .



Shipboard life was certainly the easy life to the nth degree .The food , the entertainment , the service was amazing . I've never been so spoiled , laughed so much and had so much fun ! Its been rough getting back to reality waiting for some one to prepare and plan the meals , do the laundry and clean the house , not happening ;-)) .

I've been baking up a storm , shopping for last minute Christmas gifts and just generally trying to get ready for the holidays . There's been very little knitting going on . I seem to have lost my knitting mojo , must have left it on the ship and its cruising the Caribbean . Thank heavens I didn't set myself a bunch of Christmas knitting . I have been reading in the evenings , I just finished the second of Steig Larssons Millenium trilogy . I loved it !!! The third and final one won't be released in Canada till late next year . Apparently its available in the UK , thanks for the heads up Monika , so I might see about trying to order it early in the new year . Would be a great birthday present , don't you think . I've just picked up Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel "The Lacuna " , she's got me hooked , and I've had a tough time choosing between baking for the holidays , knitting or reading . Reading has been winning a lot lately .

Anyway , that what's I've been up to ; hope you all have a good day !

PS , I uploaded a few photos of our trip on my flickr page , if anyone's interested .

I'm so excited !

It's been crazy busy since my last post as I've been trying to clear the decks for our vacation . We're flying out tomorrow , very early and we'll be in Miami tomorrow afternoon . We'll be hooking up for dinner with my SIL Saturday evening . Sunday morning we're leaving for a week of sun and sand . I'm over the moon excited , it's been a while since Mike and I had a real vacation together . Everything's packed , including some knitting , and ready to go .

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend , catch you in December ....

New socks and a resolution (maybe )

After battling a nasty bug last week , I finished the second of the Christmas knits this week . I was really down for the count , no energy and coughing so much my sides hurt, all attributed to a sinus and, can you believe it , an ear infection . My GP who was on duty at the clinic had a quiet chuckle , saying the insides of my ear resembled that of a child . Apparently it's rare for someone my age to get this, go figure . A round of antibiotics took care of the infection , but the cough still lingers . I can't figure out how I came to get this , but am extremely happy to be feeling much better . I have to be in shape for our trip on the 28 th . I was able to get the flu shot , so that's another good thing .





Back to the socks , these are for Dana , Emma's mom . I seem to have started a tradition of knitting Christmas socks for them . Dana loved last year's funky coloured socks , so I decided that this year I would mix it up and go more conservative . After some stash diving I discovered this yarn which was gifted to me by my father on one of his recent visits here from Austria . Perfect ! As usual the pattern (Waffle Rib ) comes from Sensational Knitted Socks . That pattern is a good match for self-striping sock yarn . I seem to have a lot of that kind yarn in my stash . It would appear that I went on a buying binge in my early my sock knitting days . The Internet has enabled me to expand my horizons and my stash with a greater variety of yarns .


As 2009 draws to a close I've made a resolution to knit up more of the stash before buying more yarn . Just because its been marinating in the closet for awhile and the temptations for newer , fresher yarns being ever present , doesn't make it less deserving of my attention . That being said and after looking on my ravelry projects page , I 'm finding that I have knitted mostly self-striping socks despite having so many other beautiful yarns of the non-striping variety . What gives ? Could it be that I'm in a rut ? Nah, not me ....

Christmas knitting...

...is underway. Emma's socks are done , so that's one gift done . Do you think that they're bright enough ? The orange is even brighter in real life . I'm sure she won't have any trouble finding them in the morning .

Specs : Regia Crazy Color 6 ply sock yarn Knit on 2.5mm dpns . The pattern is the baby cable rib from my usual source "Sensational knitted Socks" .

We had a bit of a scare with Jessey this week .Casey and Chantal had to go to emergency at the hospital with him with the flu which quickly turned into pneumonia . He was tested for the swine flu and given antibiotics and Tamiflu which is an anti-viral . This came on so quickly it was scary . After lots of rest and fluids and with the help of the meds he's almost back to normal . I took care of him alot this week , so I'm a little worried that I might catch this too . I tend to catch a cold most winters which inevitaby ends up in my chest and a gives me no end of coughing fits . I get the flu shot every year so I haven't had the flu , just colds . I'll be able to get the H1N1 vaccine the week of the 16th of November . I've taken all the suggested precautions and am hoping to escape this nasty virus .

We've got real November type weather here these days , cool , grey and damp . So far no snow , unlike Halifax which got blasted yesterday . Waaaay too early for that ! To escape these miserable dark days Mike and I booked a one week cruise getaway . We're leaving on Nov. 28th and coming back on Dec. 6th . I can't wait to get some sun ! This is an kind of an early 35th wedding anniversary gift to ourselves . We're looking forward to a little alone time , if you catch my drift ;-)) .

The last of the baby sweaters

At least for now ! I finished the sweater for Tara just in time for the baby shower on Sunday . The photo doesn't capture just how pretty the colour is ; it's a beautiful soft green called "Green Tea ". The yarn is Elann 's Superwash Bamboo , 65 % wool , 35 % bamboo . It was super to knit up and soft, soft , soft , perfect for a baby knit . I found some pretty buttons that remind me of those nougat candies , again you can't really see how pretty they are due to the washed out looking photos .

The Christmas knitting has begun . First up are some socks for Emma . I have lots of knits in mind but am taking it one project at a time . Whatever gets done , great , what doesn't there's always next year and birthdays coming up . I'm aiming for stress free holidays . I can hope can't I ?