Happy December!

Yep, 'tis the season. 😄

I hope your Thanksgiving was lovely, as well as the weekend afterwards. It was so nice to have The Tim at home the whole time (he may feel otherwise, LOL). We had a lovely Thanksgiving Day, just relaxing and watching the parade, the dog show, and then some other things we had recorded but never gotten around to watching. Because if you can't be a couch potato on Thanksgiving, what is the point??

Friday we were excited because our new chairs were delivered! You may recall that we had saved some money over the course of the last couple of years to buy some new chairs for the room where we watch TV. Well, the weekend before this past one, we went to a place to look, and they were having an early Black Friday sale. We found something we liked, but then ALSO found two chairs we really liked that would replace also-falling part ones in our living room. Because everything was on sale, we could actually afford to get all of it! So last Friday our new living room chairs arrived, and we are so thrilled with them!

They are actually really comfortable, which is really why we even considered buying them. Because even if we don't spend as much time using them, we want all of our furniture to be comfortable - we are not believers in "fancy" furniture being for looks only.

Of course as you can well imagine, the cats also think they are quite comfortable. And being that they are right by the garden window, they are also very popular. 🙄

And I just got a notice this morning that our other purchase is being delivered on Thursday, so all of a sudden, things will be looking pretty different, even before we get out our Christmas decorations!

I will admit that I'm always a little bit sad to see November go, since it's one of my very fave months. But December being so festive makes up for a lot, so that makes me happy. We're even having nice cold weather, which helps it feel like it should (at least in my opinion).

So that's it for the news around here. December should be a busy month, since everyone at our house enjoys all the holiday things. I hope it will be a good month for all of you as well. 

See you next time!

Thanksgiving Day 2025

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! 

May everything you have to be thankful for stay with you.

Things to Celebrate

Hello from cool, dreary, and rainy Philadelphia! The perfect kind of day to just stay inside and be cozy, and that's pretty much what I plan to do.

We have been kind of busy lately. I have been getting ready for both The Tim's birthday, and for Thanksgiving. The Tim always gets into a flurry of cleaning activity around this time of year, in preparation for holiday season, so he's been working on that. The cats are either sleeping and avoiding it (actually preferred), or busy snooper-vising. 

Yesterday was The Tim's birthday, and unlike today, it was a perfect fall day - sunny, cool, and just a touch of wind. He took the day off from work, and I swapped my volunteer shift with someone else, so we were both home for the whole day. He had asked to go out to breakfast at a place in the neighborhood, so we headed there first thing. He had one of his fave things, a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon, with tomato, onion, etc. as well. I had the tofu scramble, which is really good, and comes with fried potatoes, which we both enjoyed. We were stuffed until it was time for dinner!

The Tim had told me what he would like for his birthday, and for once, I had been ready for over a week, so that worked out really well. He requested a cheesecake for his birthday dessert, and we enjoyed that after presents, while the kitties enjoyed some kitty treats. 

We had originally planned to go out to dinner, but he said later in the afternoon that he was feeling slightly out of it, like he is getting a cold, so we decided to do that another night, and just had leftover chili and some grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. It was a lovely day, and fortunately, this morning he felt much better. A good night's sleep I'm sure helped. 😊

Over this past weekend, I put out our Thanksgiving decorations. I don't have a lot of them, but I love having them. Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday, and I feel that a lot of the time, it gets short shrift. 

I posted this photo as well as a few others on Instagram, and got so many comments from people saying they remembered these particular candles from their families growing up! I just have always loved them.

My other exciting news is that I finished the body of the cardigan I have been knitting! Here is a not-lovely bathroom selfie for you to get an idea how it looks.

This is the Fidalgo Cardigan, and it is one of the most favorite things I have ever knit. I love that as you are knitting the sweater, you are knitting the button band - no hassle having to pick up stitches after the fact! I have learned a few new-to-me skills with this pattern, and it is so well-written that I feel like it would be understandable to just about anyone. I watch the designer's podcast, and she is just one of those people that I would love to be friends with. Yesterday afternoon, I managed to knit half of the first sleeve, so I'm hoping this will be an FO before long.

So that's been what has been going on around here. The Tim had a lovely birthday day, even though it means that now for a few months, we'll be same age (he always loves being "the younger one" for most of the year). We're looking forward to Thanksgiving next week, not just because we both love the holiday itself, but for the first time in four years, The Tim won't have to work! He also took the Friday after off, so we will have a nice long holiday weekend together to enjoy. I'm so happy about that. Obviously, we've survived the years when he had to work on Thanksgiving Day, but it's just so much better when he can have the day off and be at home too.

I hope your week has been kind to you, and that you are enjoying any crafting projects you have. See you next time!

Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

I will likely be busy tomorrow doing nothing other than fixing food and eating said food, as well as reading, knitting, watching TV and movies. So that I don't have to interrupt my laziness plan, I wanted to send Happy Thanksgiving wishes to all of you and yours. I hope you celebrate however you most enjoy it, and that you are able to be happy for all that you have.

Enjoy your day, and thank you for being here. 💖

Cozy Season

If you are anything at all like me - and I'm guessing since a lot of us (all of us?) are knitters, makers, crafters, whatever - you love being cozy. And here in the U.S. this is peak cozy season if you ask me. And it is The. Best.

We had a lovely weekend - nothing too much of anything, but just nice. The Tim finished his flooring project (well, I think he did. At least for now ...), and I managed to switch my summer clothes for warmer, cozier cold-weather clothes. We pretty much stayed put, venturing out to go around the corner to the market, to pick up prescriptions, etc. We watched two football games where our teams won (Notre Dame! Eagles!), and just listened to music, read, knit - I'm sure you are getting the idea by now. 😊

Yesterday I spent a lot of time thinking about my dad. He died 55 years ago yesterday, and it's one of the great ironies of life that someone who was even more of a holiday person than I am died the Monday before Thanksgiving the year that he died. I still think of him all the time, but yesterday I really felt him there. He would have enjoyed the kind of weekend we had.

I think I've mentioned here at least one hundred times that I have an ongoing text chain with my friend Lisa and my niece Amanda, where we update our progress with walking and exercise, share recipes, jokes, etc., and also set the world straight. Well, in the last few years, we have all posted daily gratitudes during November. And today mine was gratitude for having my father with me for 13 years of my life. Not long in the grand scheme of things, but I'm so glad I got at least that much time. And in some ways, maybe it was for the best - we never had time to argue about things, fight over things teens and adults do, etc. I sort of feel like I got the best of our time together.

This will be a busy week, probably for most of us in the U.S. as we prepare for Thanksgiving - the coziest holiday EVER! Today I have some cleaning I want to do. Tomorrow I have my volunteer gig with the kitties in the morning, and then in the afternoon I'll finish up with putting some things away. Wednesday morning I have a haircut appt in the morning, and my last physical therapy session in the afternoon. Then in the evening, I'll put together our stuffing for Thursday. Which is of course the big day. I'm hoping that The Tim will not have to work this year. And then on Friday, I'm getting my Covid vaccine first thing in the morning. So I have plenty going on, but it's all good stuff.

What about you? I hope that all of you had a good weekend, and are ready for a good week leading to the holiday. I hope you and yours have safe travels, if you fall into that category. I know how stressful that can be - we used to travel every year for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and were fortunate because nothing really terrible ever happened. But I know until you arrive to your destination and then arrive back home, it can be exhausting. So take care, and do the best you can. 

And enjoy what I think is probably the coziest week of the year. 💖

Thanksgiving Friday

Esme decided yesterday that this turkey was not as scary as she originally thought, and was willing to let me take a picture of her next to it. She's making progress!

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving Friday, Black Friday, Finally Friday, whatever you call it. I hope for those of you in the U.S., that your Thanksgiving Day was a good one. The weather here was chilly, but very sunny, which was nice for those both marching in and going to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade.

It turned out that The Tim had to work yesterday, which was very disappointing, but we still managed to have a lovely late afternoon and evening, and a really yummy meal. And there's also plenty of leftovers, which is one of the best aspects of the holiday, if you ask me. The kitties got some special food, which they thought was a wonderful idea, so everyone at our house had a good day and evening.

Today I have been doing laundry, and finishing switching my winter clothes and summer clothes. Not the most fun day I've ever had, but a productive one. And I did manage to do some shopping for Christmas gifts online, finding a few things that were *exactly* what I wanted at a price that was reasonable to me. 

One of the things I was most excited to find is a gift for my great-nephew Parker who lives in San Francisco. He is about 11 years old, and completely obsessed with history. He wanted to dress up as Genghis Khan for Halloween, but his mother talked him into some other costume. So imagine how happy I was when I found this t-shirt to send him:

It cracked me up, and I have a feeling he will be quite seriously pleased with it. (He's a somewhat serious kiddo.) The right gift for the right person at the right price - win-win!

I just hope I get lucky with the rest of my ideas.

*****

This is my last Gratitude Friday for this year, and as some of you who have read along for a while may recall, today is also the anniversary of my father's death. My dad and the holidays are inextricably linked for me, and I decided that my gratitude for today is for my parents. I truly think that I was lucky to grow up with them as my mother and father. They were - as is most of the family - batshit crazy in their own way, but they were also good people who did the best they could with circumstances that were not always the best. But oh did we always have fun! It was truly one of those cases where we were a family with very little money at all, but we had each other, and seldom were surrounded by any real kind of sadness. So many of our family stories are ridiculous and/or hilarious, rather than full of woe. And I know that is lucky, because I have met and know so many people who seemed to grow up with so little joy in their lives. I truly believe that my dad would enjoy the way we "do" holidays, and would join right in if he could.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, finishing off Thanksgiving and all that surrounds it. I have a few small things to do tomorrow, and also have to clean the bathrooms (I ran out of energy today), but most of the day is mine to do what I like. Sunday is a work day, and I'm sure we'll be busy since there is a special promotion going on (a holiday project bag) that seems to bring people out of the woodwork, both in person and online. That's sure to make the day fly by!

Take care, and I'll see you next week.😊

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Quick, Call the Pope!

You know how you read/hear news stories about people who see amazing and miraculous things in everyday objects? You know, someone will see the face of the Virgin Mary in a random cracker from a box? Well, I'm always intrigued by those stories, but to be honest, never give them much credence. 

And then my friends, it happened to me. Yesterday on my lunch break at work, I pulled out my peanut butter and jelly sandwich* that I had packed, and unwrapped it, and lo and behold, my sandwich had the stigmata!

Do you see that? It's clearly a sign. Well, OK, it's just jelly seeping through the bread, but for a moment there, I was sure that I was destined for modern sainthood. But I was also hungry, so I ate the sandwich. I may be a believer, but I am also practical and hate to waste food ... 😊

*****

I'm guessing that like most people in the U.S., a lot of you are busy getting ready for, or getting ready to travel for, Thanksgiving, particularly since it's Thanksgiving Eve (right, Kym?). I have a dr appt, and then plan to come home and get the stuffing started for tomorrow, which means that I will not be up until late this evening making it after dinner and cleaning up, etc. Are there other things - ahem, cleaning? - I could do today? Why yes there are, but I knew yesterday I wasn't going to do any of them. But I do want to make the stuffing, and enjoy that part of the holiday so much, so that's what I'm going to do. Which also means that the house is really going to smell good for the rest of the day. Win-win!

I am keeping my fingers crossed that The Tim will not have to work tomorrow, like he did last year. But he won't find out until sometime today, and it's out of our control, so it's just a waiting game. (Hm. I'll bet if I hadn't eaten my sandwich, I could have had some power over all of this. I really didn't think ahead ... 😉)

In any case, have a very enjoyable Thanksgiving Eve, if you celebrate, and if not, have a good Wednesday. It's stopped raining here, so things are looking up!

*Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are also known at the yarn store as the "Bridget special." Apparently one of my co-workers finds it highly amusing that I have that for lunch on a regular basis, and named it as such. 

And Now It's November

November came to Philadelphia feeling like November should! It's been cold and sunny and that's fine with me. 😊

This past week has gotten away from me. I've been kind of out of it, and though for the most part, I was able to do what I needed to do, I just felt exhausted as a result. Then on Wednesday, I got my RSV vaccine, and I didn't sleep well that night because of chills, and yesterday I just felt awful. Which is not surprising, but it meant it was kind of a lost day. I managed to get one load of laundry done, and it felt like I'd done it on a washboard down by the river, I was so wiped out! 

This year we had zero trick-or-treaters. Zero. Sigh.

Alfie and Esme are pleased though, since we put out two new cardboard scratchers. Alfie likes the wavy kind, and destroys them big-time. He was thrilled with a new one! I got a box-style one for Esme, because I thought it might make her feel safer. I think it worked.

Don't get me wrong, the others use these and enjoy them too, but the photo above is from about 10 minutes after I opened them. 

Alfie is also quite pleased because he discovered the basket cat bed that is very near the heater on the third floor. He *just* fits into it - when others have used it, there's always been plenty of room ... just saying ...

Knitting-wise, I'm busy trying to finish The Tim's Christmas socks, since his birthday is 15 days from now. I think I'll make it, since yesterday I finished the heel and got onto the body of sock #2, but that's what I've been prioritizing at the moment, so nothing else has any progress to report.

And then in just a few weeks, it will be American Thanksgiving - whaaattt??? Don't get me wrong, I adore Thanksgiving, as it is the coziest and homiest of holidays in my opinion. But I just keep being surprised that it's well on the way to being here!

Which leads me to a Gratitude Friday, which I've decided to try and do for each week in November. And of course, I'm grateful for all of the things that I have, including just for my life, but that's kind of what we should all be grateful for, right? So I'm going to try and go beyond that level and find other things.

On this Friday, I'm grateful for a good (if twisted) sense of humor. I have to tell you, I'm not sure I would have made it to this point in one piece if I didn't have humor to keep me company. Granted, I often find things funny that shouldn't be funny, but that has its own beauty too. Being able to laugh about something, or find something funny to distract myself has helped me through some serious sad times and major lows in my life. I think having grown up in a family where everyone had a good sense of humor helped too, because no matter how awful things were, there was always something that could make all of us laugh until we cried. And then I was lucky enough to find The Tim, whose sense of humor is so ridiculously similar, it's almost scary. (His sister: "No one thinks you two are as funny as you do.")

So I hope you can find something to laugh about, or that at least makes you smile as you go about your day. And I hope your weekend has a good dose of laughter in it. I know ours will, since we are going to Baltimore after The Tim gets home from work tonight for an overnight visit, and visiting my niece and her husband is always a blast.

So happy November to all of us!

Time Is Weird

OK, well, time is weird to start with - I mean, today is the very last day of November, which I knew intellectually, but still found surprising when I thought about it. 

But specifically, it struck me on Thanksgiving. I was remembering my dad, not only because he was a crazy holiday person (I've apparently inherited that gene), but because the date of Thanksgiving this year - November 24 - fell on the anniversary of his death. The year he died, it was the Monday of Thanksgiving week, so it's always around that holiday, but there have only been a few times it falls on the same day.

Then I was thinking about how he was only 53 years old when he died. And how, from my perspective now, that's so young. (As a kid of course, I always thought my parents were REALLY old.) I was gifted with 13 of those years, and though I would have loved more, I'm glad I was given at least that much of a sliver of his existence on earth.

But what really put me on the "Time Is Weird" train was when I realized that he has been dead for 53 years. So he has been dead for as long as he was alive, and I have to be honest, that kind of blew my mind.

But then you know what was really nice? I was pointing this out to The Tim, who agreed with me that yes, it was a weird thing to think about. But then he said to me "But he is well served by your memories of him."

I think that is one of the nicest things he's ever said to me.

A Different Kind of Thanksgiving

Hello all, and if you celebrated Thanksgiving last Thursday, I hope you had a good day and a wonderful meal. And if you traveled, I hope it was as uneventful as possible, though I realize that is asking a lot these days.

Our Thanksgiving was a little bit different this year. On Wednesday, The Tim found out that he would have to work the 7-3 shift on Thursday. Since he is lower on the seniority list, he had no choice. So it was disappointing, but it's not like he could do anything about it.

We usually spend the day lazing together, watching the parade, the Dog Show, some movies or whatever, and snacking on treats. There's usually a walk involved (unless it's pouring rain or worse) and we work on the meal together. But I was on my own with the kitties for most of the day, and it was fine, but lonely and not nearly as much fun. I managed to get most of the dinner ready, and he had time to make the yummy gravy he makes once he got home. We had a good meal and a nice evening, but I don't think it was the best day for either one of us. He said things were extremely slow at work, so it's not even like the day moved by quickly. We survived, obviously, but I hope that doesn't happen again anytime soon. 😊

The Tim was at work again on Friday, and I had a dr appt, so not much happened otherwise. Saturday we both had some extra energy and spent time working on some projects around the house. He made pizza for dinner, which was a wonderful treat, since Pizza a la The Tim is amazing!

Yesterday was one of my work days. And boy, was it busy! One person who visited the shop bought over $700 of yarn - she said she was knitting *all* of her gifts, so I guess that added up quickly. The day sped by, since there was seriously not a single minute when we were not doing something for/with customers. (Though I would rather have days like that, than the kind like The Tim had on Thursday.) 

I do have some wisdom to pass along though: I would suggest that, if you decide you would like to knit a sweater, and want the yarn store staff to a) suggest a pattern, and b) suggest the yarn to use, that you not decide to show up at the start of the busiest time of year. Two separate individuals showed up yesterday, wanting us to help  them find a sweater pattern and yarn to knit a sweater. And I mean, they had only vague ideas of what they wanted - "Something dressy," or "Easy but with texture." Even when it's not the holiday season, that takes a lot of our time to help you, even if you are an easy person to help. But when it's holiday time, and there are tons of people in the shop, ready to either check out, or with seriously quick questions, it's a problem. So maybe either do some homework on your own, or wait until January, OK?

This week should be busy, and I have three - count 'em, three! - dr appts at the end of the week. Well, one is a dentist appt, but that still counts as a dr appt to me. I'm just hoping to get them done with hopefully a minimum of drama. 

In some happy and exciting news, my Christmas cactus is ready for the holidays!

I've had this plant for about three years, and though it was blooming when I bought it, since then I've never even seen it thinking about blooming again. But now it has this beautiful flower, and about four other buds ready to show up! I'm so excited, but of course could not tell you what I did/did not do that resulted in blooms ... 

Let's hope that the coming week will show up with some good surprises like that for all of us. Have a good one!

A Lovely Story

Knitting Girl by the Window, by Albert Anker

I have a lovely story to share with you and thought it would be nice to share today, the day before Thanksgiving.

About a month ago, one day at work, we got a call from a teacher at a local school. The school has a Knitting Club, and he wanted to bring them on a field trip to the yarn shop, since most of them had never been to one. They were originally meant to visit last week, but had to reschedule to Monday of this week.

So they arrived on Monday, around 1:30 in the afternoon - about 30 kids, grades 4 to 6. The group was a mix of boys and girls, and the teacher in charge of the group was a really wonderful young man. Laura, the manager of the shop, talked to them for a few minutes, telling them about the shop and briefly about running a yarn store, and then they all had a chance to buy a skein of yarn, which their teacher would pay for (!!!) before they went back to school.

As you can imagine, they were very excited to choose yarn, and fascinated by seeing it wound into cakes. But these kids were wonderful - they were truly nice kids, you could tell - not just kids being nice because they knew they would be in trouble otherwise, you know what I mean? They had no problem talking to adults, and they had lots of really great questions. 

After they left, it was agreed that the entire experience was a positive one - and face it, you can't always say that after a group visits anywhere, whether they are kids or adults, right??

But one thing was especially lovely to me. There was a young girl waiting to have her yarn wound, and she just looked so very familiar to me. I finally said to her, "I think I know you, have you come in here before?" and she said, "No, but you look familiar to me, too. Aren't you Hamlet's mom?" I realized then that I did in fact know her, but she was out of context, just like I was for her! I said, "Oh you're Isabelle, who I always see walking your dog Wilbur along with your mom Clare!" And she was *thrilled* that I knew her! I think it was not only because we figured out who each other were, but also because she was singled out from her classmates. I heard one boy say to her that it was cool she knew one of the people at the yarn store. 😀

I will admit that it was bittersweet, because our Hammy isn't still here with us, but I was so glad that someone who knew him still thought about him as well.

It seemed like a wonderful way to start the week of Thanksgiving.

Celebrations and Plans

Before I go any further, I want to tell all of you who sent birthday wishes to The Tim how much he appreciated them. He was really touched, and also surprised that so many of you took time to write a Happy Birthday note.

Our birthday celebration was really enjoyable. We went to dinner early, because the place we were headed doesn't take reservations, and it was a Friday night, so we knew it could get ridiculously crowded. And I have to say we timed it just right - as we were leaving the restaurant, the line was out the door! 

The meal was yummy, and in a coincidental twist, our server was someone who worked with The Tim back when they both worked at the bookstore! It was one of those "what are the chances moments." Then we came home for presents and cake, all of which were a success. (Though my ganache was not as yummy as when The Tim makes it, but at least it worked, you know?) The TIm had bought a couple of things a few months ago, and gave them to me to wrap for his birthday, and I had bought a few things for him otherwise, and happily everything was something he liked and that fit. 

I had said I wondered what Alfie would think of our celebration. He was both mystified and cautious. Pip and Milo are of course old hands, and they know that the candles on the cake + singing = TREATS, ribbons, and boxes, so they are always on board. Alfie kind of stayed back at the beginning, but when the treats came out, he joined the gang, and then found a ribbon to chase. I think he enjoyed it, but it was clear he was more interested in watching everyone else to see what they did than he was in joining the fray. 

The rest of the weekend was relaxing and quiet, which is nice because we are now in the thick of Thanksgiving preparations. And things are picking up at work, with people coming in for yarn on Sunday so they could work on a project during their travels to see family and friends.

I finally decided what I wanted to knit for The Tim as a Christmas gift - I found some leftover Plucky Knitter yarn from the sweater I knit last year and got started on the Antler Toque (Ravelry link) for him. Last Thursday, in between loads of laundry, I got the brim started, while the Crazy Sock Lady kept me company. 😊 

I think it will be an enjoyable knit, as I really like knitting cables, and since it's worsted weight, it will likely move along quickly.

And that's what's happening around here. I hope if you are preparing, traveling, or whatever for the Thanksgiving holiday, that everything goes smoothly and that you can enjoy it all. And for the rest of you, I hope your week has started out on a good note and continues that way.

That's it for now, have a good one!

The Start Of It All

As advertised in previous posts, today is The Tim's birthday - which is also the start of the holiday season in our house. So it's off and running around here!

But today is devoted to The Birthday. The cake is baked, so it needs to be frosted. The Tim asked for a chocolate ganache filling in the middle (it's a layer cake) and since on your birthday, all wishes are granted, it means I actually have to make a small effort with something - who does he think he is???  😉

Once that is done, I have to pick up a couple of things for gifts. I ordered them online a couple of weeks ago, and had them sent to the store, thinking that would be convenient, because I could just pick them up when I was out doing other stuff. So of course they didn't arrive until today, so I'll have to retrieve them. Then I will have to wrap them up and we'll be all set. We're going out to dinner tonight, which both of us are looking forward to. It's a place we haven't been to for a long time, and they have wonderful mussels cooked in white wine, which is what he wants to get. I would like to get that, but in my old age have developed a severe allergy to mussels, so I will see what else is on the menu. Then we'll come home and do cake and presents with the kitties. We're curious to see how/what Alfie does, since this is the first "big" event he's been around to celebrate with us.

Then this weekend, I'll take a look at the gift list for Christmas and my nieces' birthdays, and see how we're doing. I think we're covered for the most part, but anything that still needs to be bought/made/organized will want to be take care of now rather than in a couple of weeks. When I do it this way, or even a week or so earlier, it usually means we have an enjoyable, stress-free time during the holiday season, which is the whole point, right??

The Tim is baking some bread this weekend, because he likes to cut a loaf into croutons and let it get stale so we can use it for stuffing. (To me, this is too much work just to get stale bread for croutons, etc. But I'm not the one doing it, and I must admit that that bread he makes (olive/rosemary bread) does add something to the stuffing in the end.) 

So I'd better move along and get started with the things I want to accomplish today. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is next Thursday? For some reason, I always think I have more time before it arrives - or maybe I want it to take its time getting here so I can enjoy it ...

In any case, it's time to sign off. I hope your weekend is enjoyable in whatever way you'd like it to be. I'll "see" you next week!

 

Friday: Feeling Full and a Small FO

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!  I hope yours went well, and that you were able to spend it as you wished.  Ours got a bit derailed when The Tim got a phone call on Wednesday afternoon from his work, calling him in on Thanksgiving Day from 7-3.  So that was disappointing, but at least he could be home for dinner and for an evening together.  

Everything for our holiday dinner was delicious, and topped off with pumpkin pie later in the evening, it all added up to being a good day.  This morning for breakfast I had some raspberries that we had in the fridge and that was plenty, since I still feel full from yesterday!  I love raspberries, but I was hoping I'd feel like having pumpkin pie for breakfast, since that is one of my most favorite day-after treats of all.  😀

How lucky am I that something like that is my biggest problem??

******

Ending November, I'll show you some FOs that I knit as gifts, and finally got around to photographing.  

Project: Makeup Remover Cloths

Pattern: My own

Yarn: Leftover Knit Picks CotLin yarn from a previous project

Needles: US size 7

Comments: I had wanted to make some of these to give with a mini-sized makeup remover to four of my nieces who have birthdays in December.  I had the leftover yarn, and since it is 50% cotton and 50% linen, I knew it could go into the washer and the dryer.  (And I wanted to use the leftovers.)

So I cast on 18 stitches, and made certain that I slipped the first stitch in each row and then knit the last stitch in each row, so they would have neat sides. Then I knit for 24 rows, and did the usual bind off.  Each pad is approximately 3 inches by 3.5 inches, and though they are not necessarily "professional" looking, I'm pleased with them, and they will serve the purpose nicely.  I would say each cloth took around 25-30 minutes to knit.

I managed to get 23 cloths out of my leftover yarn - I kept the first three, since they were sort of the templates, and didn't end up looking that great.  Since I certainly don't mind, I'll use those.  But that meant I had 20 cloths left, so I managed to have 5 for each niece, which seemed very reasonable to me.  

So I'll package them like this, with a ribbon tied around the little box and the cloths, and put them into a gift bag.  This makes me very happy, because it all turned out just the way I had pictured it in my head.

Few things are more rewarding than having a plan and then being able to make it all work, don't you think?

Good wishes for a happy weekend - if you are traveling, I hope your trip will be completely uneventful.  Take care.

Happy Thanksgiving

Best wishes to you and yours for a wonderful holiday and time together.

A Word To the Wise For the Holiday ...

 

A Poem For the Tuesday Before Thanksgiving

Starfish, by Eleanor Lerman

This is what life does. It lets you walk up to

the store to buy breakfast and a paper, on a

stiff knee. It lets you choose the way you have

your eggs, your coffee. Then it sits a fisherman

down beside you at the counter who say, Last night,

the channel was full of starfish. And you wonder, 

is this a message, finally, or just another day?

Life lets you take the dog for a walk down to the

pond, where generations of biological 

processes are boiling beneath the mud. Reeds

speak to you of the natural world; they whisper,

they sing. And herons pass by. Are you old

enough to appreciate the moment? Too old?

There is movement beneath the water, but it

may be nothing. There may be nothing going on.

And then life suggests that you remember the

years you ran around, the years you developed

a shocking lifestyle, advocated careless abandon,

owned a chilly heart. Upon reflection, you are

genuinely surprised to find how quiet you have 

become. And then life lets you go home to think

about all this. Which you do, for quite a long time.

Later, you wake up beside your old love, the one

who never had any conditions, the one who waited

you out. This is life's way of letting you know that

you are lucky. (It won't give you smart or brave,

so you'll have to settle for lucky.) Because you

were born at a good time. Because you were able

to listen when people spoke to you. Because you

stopped when you should have and started again.

So life lets you have a sandwich, and pie for your

late night dessert. (And pie for the dog, as well.) And 

then life sends you back to bed, to dreamland,

while outside, the starfish drift through the channel,

with smiles on their starry faces while they head

out to deep water, to the far and boundless sea.

Pride Goeth Before a Fall

I'm trying to keep in mind the quote in the title of this post, because I have been feeling pretty proud of myself for all that I accomplished over the weekend.  Well - over my four-day weekend, since I'd taken Thursday and Friday as time off from work.  But I managed to get the four days to count, and also do plenty of nothing, to feel like I had a lovely break from the usual work days.

Thursday was of course dedicated to The Tim's birthday, and you already heard how well that went.  Friday, I spent some of the day cleaning, which was needed.  But once I was finished, not only did I still have time left in the day to relax, but I also knew I still had two days left to enjoy.  I have to tell you, that was the best feeling!  So I decided on the things I still hoped to get done, and sort of made a plan in my brain.  I do that a lot, and 99% of the time, I do absolutely nothing about it.  

Saturday morning, The Tim wanted to leave the house early and get some things of his own out of the way, so I did some laundry, and worked on switching out my shorts and sleeveless tops for sweaters and long pants.  I had started a couple of weeks ago, and just stopped, though I don't recall why ... probably because I lost interest.  It's not like I have tons of clothes to deal with, it's just that I find the whole process tedious.  Anyway, I managed to finish that, which was a true relief.  I also pulled out a few things to donate, since they either no longer fit, or I realized I haven't worn them for a long time.

Sunday morning, I *finally* got around to cleaning out the planters at the front of the house!  This particular task has been on the brain for a long time, and I decided that if I didn't do it yesterday morning, I may never ever get around to it.  It took so little time, and felt so good to finally get it out of the way, that I could only "tsk tsk" at myself for putting it off so long.

The only things I wanted to do that were left were to block the shawl I knit for my niece (so that I wouldn't be waiting until the last minute), pay a few bills, and then knit while I watched the Eagles play football.  That turned out well - though it was too gloomy of a day to successfully get a good photo of the shawl on the blocking squares, so you'll have to wait to see that.  Then, there was actually some money left after I paid the bills that were waiting, and the Eagles won their game (first home win of the season!).  To paraphrase a character from "The Simpsons" TV show, I felt like "Everything was coming  up Milhous."  😊

AND - most satisfying of all - during the game, look what I finished knitting:

This is the Musselburgh Hat I was making for my niece's husband, and though this photo does not do the colors justice (again, it was a pretty gloomy day), I just wanted to show you how much knitting this sucker took.  I promise better photos soon, but here it is in its just-completed glory. 

Today it's back to work, but only for today and tomorrow.  After today, The Tim is off until Friday, so he said he'd do the grocery store early tomorrow morning, so that we could avoid crowds at all the other times of the day.  He is also planning to bake a couple of pumpkin pies, so when I come home from work tomorrow, the house will smell sooooo good!

And that's it for now.  I hope I didn't bore you to tears, but I am just so pleased with myself for having such a productive time!  Since so often, I have lots of ideas and plans in my head which never even get started, this past four days felt like a huge win for me.

I hope your week is at least a little bit as successful.  Take care!

The Friday After A Big Day

You may or may not have noticed that I didn't post yesterday.  I meant to, but I got wrapped up in preparations for The Tim's birthday, which was yesterday.  It turned out to be a really busy day, but it all went just the way I hoped it would.

In our house when it's your birthday, you get to request what you would like for your birthday dinner, and what kind of birthday dessert you would like.  The Tim chose stuffed peppers and a cheesecake.  So yesterday morning I walked over to the market to get the green peppers, and then spent some of the morning getting the ingredients ready to go into the crockpot.  I've made stuffed peppers for a long time, but the first time I tried them in the crockpot, I decided that was my favorite way to prepare them - the peppers get softer, but not mushy, and the flavors seem to blend better.

Then it was time to get the cheesecake made and baked, and I was happy because it was one of my most successful attempts.  The Tim being the way he is, he had bought a couple of things himself for gifts, but I also had a couple of things I'd bought, so I wanted to be sure things were wrapped and ready to go.  

It was a great dinner and celebratory evening, and it was fun to have some things that he hadn't bought, and were actually surprises.  The kitties and Hamlet enjoyed the singing, the wrapping paper, and some treats, so I think it's safe to say that a good time was had by all.  😊

Now of course, for the next four months, The Tim will be dismayed because we will be the same age - he loves being able to tell people that I'm older than he is!  So for the next four months, I'll be sure to work into any conversation that I can the fact that we are the same age.  Because that's how I roll ...

*****

I hope you have a good weekend.  I'm hoping to make some significant progress on the Musselburgh Hat, and get the shawlette I knit for my niece blocked so I'm not doing it at the last minute.  Today I plan to clean up some things around the house, and get out our few but nonetheless festive Thanksgiving decorations.

Take care, and have a good weekend!