There are only 15 and 1/2 hours left in 2008. I know it's traditional for people to look back and see what they've accomplished or look forward to what they'd like to accomplish in the coming year. My memory is not good enough to remember what I did this past year. I know I made several pairs of socks. I'm wearing a pair now and I often see them on the feet of my family. I learned the frustration that is lace knitting and the wonder that is blocking said lace knitting. I have completed one thrummed mitten and started another (both hands need to be warm).

I have learned to spin in a rudimentary way. It IS hypnotic and peaceful and calming, once you get the hang of it and get into a rhythmn (before that it is all about the cursing).

I have learned that I have infinite patience with people but inanimate objects piss me off easily.

I have learned that I know a lot of things and I am generally good at what I do, but, boy, do I have a lot to learn.

I have learned that getting old is not for the faint of heart.

I have learned that most people just want someone to listen to them and know that they are being heard. They don't always want you to solve their problems, just to listen to them.

I have learned to keep little bits of happiness around me so when things are tough, I can look at them and smile. Thus, the wind-up toys on my desk. I got two new ones for Christmas. A ladybug that runs around and does somersaults and a robot who walks around menacingly.

New Year's has never been one of my favorite holidays. I find it a melancholy time and used to resent being made to feel like I had to celebrate. I don't begrudge those people who want to party and drink themselves silly. I just want to opt out. The girls have plans with friends and Pk and I will probably start the Lord of the Rings marathon he traditionally likes to do this time of year. And I'll be ok with that.

I hope that 2009 brings you sharp needles, soft yarn, challenging but doable patterns and the time to sit and knit.

Happy New Year everyone!

It's Sunday night and I am trying to prepare myself mentally for the fact that I have to go to work tomorrow. My lunch is made, my clothes are chosen and my computer is downloading some books for my mp3 player. Now, if only my brain would cooperate.

This has been a relaxing 5 days. I haven't left the house so I haven't put on real clothes. Sweat clothes and slippers don't count. I haven't had shoes on since last Wednesday. (I sound like a hillbilly!) I have knitted and spun and napped and eaten about one million calories worth of cookies. It's been wonderful.

I finished the socks I was making for me. These are the Go with the Flow socks I was working on done in ArtWalk sock yarn. The colors are based on a painting by Dali called Girl at a Window and I love it. I gave them away to my Aunt Joan. She has repeatedly told me how much she likes the handknit socks I have given her so I gave her these. It was a wrench, I will admit because I loved these so much. I've started a pair for myself in a color dyed by my lys called Mahogany. I like the colors but the yarn isn't as squishy as the blue. These will definitely be mine! I've made this pattern several times and have given them away each time.

My aunt and cousin came for dinner tonight so I gave her the socks. She loved them so it's all good. We had a nice visit. Kate remarked that it felt good to see her looking so well. She is definitely getting old but she looked feisty. Always a good sign. My cousin, Cheryl, pulled out her crocheting and had a good bit of a triangle shawl done by the time they left. Crocheting is amazingly fast. I worked on the thrummed mittens. Don't know when I'll wear them, the temps are supposed to be abnormally high this week. It was nice to be able to open the windows and let in fresh air and not to have cold hands and feet.

I only have two and a half days this week so it's not too bad. They'll be busy days and will probably fly by. We have no plans for New Year's Eve. We used to get together and play board games with my brother and his wife but that stopped when they had children. We'll just hang out and play games by ourselves. Times like these remind me how important it is to be married to your friend. I not only love Pk, he is good company.

There was a good bit of spinning this week, too. I'll show you the beautiful yarn I made (it still thrills me that I can make yarn) . But not tonight. I'm tired and I have to go to work tomorrow. Sigh.

Here I am in my Who hat on Dec. 23rd right after work. Pk and I had to work a full day despite our attempts to get away early. We stopped at the grocery store to get some extra eggs and butter and then came home. We took a brief nap because he had a sinus headache and wouldn't lay down if I didn't lay down with him. It was nice to know that we had time and didn't have to hurry around.

There was dinner and then cookies. These are the blank canvases we started with. There was much laughter and creativity. We had a priest cookie

and a snowwoman in a bikini and a bunny that was hit by a falling star and was bleeding. Somehow I missed getting a photo of that one. The frosting we used this year was a little runny and we had a hard time getting definition. It was fun.

On the 24th, Pk worked from home for a few hours. Since he does all of his work on a computer, as long as he has internet access, he can work from home. Lucky for him. I spent the day baking 2 babkas, one mincemeat pie and one torte. I make this every year. It is mostly chocolate with only 2 tablespoons of flour. The rest is eggs and ground almonds. It is dense and fudgy and my family loves it. Me, not so much. I will have a small sliver and then I'm good until next year. We ate pizza and wings (our traditional Christmas Eve dinner) and then worked on the tree. Of course it's beautiful, full of the ornaments collected over 27 years of Christmases. We sat around and basked in its glow for a while just being aware of how lucky we are and how precious this time is.

Pk and I went to bed and Jim and Em wrapped presents and then crashed on the sofa bed in the living room. Emily was up early (7 am) and running around saying "wake up, wake up, wake up!!! It's Christmas!!". Yes, she is 22 years old but she has been doing this for years. We are usually already awake but her sisters are usually not. If it weren't Christmas, they'd probably clobber her.

The next few hours were filled with babka (a polish bread traditionally made with raisins but I used dried cherries, Pk's mom's recipe) and hot chocolate and presents. I think everyone was happy. Em got a spinning wheel from Jim and we spent considerable time trying to put it together. It came in this box from the Netherlands. Jim left it here last week and said he didn't want to wrap it becase he liked the box. "It says 'breekbaar' all over it". So we left it alone. Em was thrilled and we managed to get it together and I gave her a brief tutorial on getting started so she could play when she got home. Kate gave her the Amos Alden Book of Handspinning so she should be good.

I got a set of Denise interchangeable circular needles which I will try out sometime soon and some lovely sock yarn. One of the best presents came at the end of the day when my cousin came for dinner. My aunt has the stomach flu and had to stay home but we'll probably see her on Sunday. If you are old enough to remember the 70's, you've seen these. It's a ceramic tree with lights. It's hollow and sits on a base with a light bulb that makes the plastic lights glow. This one has a base that is a music box. There was a time when my aunt took ceramic classes and made everyone one of these. This one was hers. It was her pride and joy and she kept it wrapped up in a closet for the past several years because she was afraid the cats would knock it over (her daughters have over 20 cats between them). She decided to give it to me. I am touched beyond description. I know how much this means to her and she wants me to have it. It is in a place of prominence (on the sideboard) where everyone can see it. It will be one of my favorite things to bring out at Christmas every year.

We had a delicious dinner and sat around and talked and laughed and generally had a good time.

Today will be a quiet day. Pk is going to play with the computer and I am going to sit in the glow of the Christmas tree and spin and knit and probably nap. Maybe there will be some preparing of food but nothing else. It was a lovely day yesterday. And we have the weekend before we have to go back to work.

I hope you are all feeling content and full of quiet joy and wonder.

It's early Tuesday morning and I'm sitting at my desk wearing my hat that makes me look like I belong in Whoville with all the other Who folk. I am not a big fan of hats but I make an exception for this one. It never fails to elicit a smile from someone.

The Christmas plans are right on schedule. Sunday I baked three kinds of cookies (even a batch I found as a result of blog reading which turned out to be absolutely delicious). Last night Elanor and I made two more. I manned the pizelle iron and she made some molasses cookies. Tonight we traditionally make the sugar cookies. It is always a contest to see who can come up with the most bizarre cookie. Thus, we have ninja reindeer, snowmen who have been shot through the heart with arrows, and animals with two heads or three legs. Thankfully, there are enough bells and trees to put out on the cookie tray. The presents are all wrapped. Pk and I did it all last night in one marathon session.

Tomorrow I will make the chocolate torte (the one that will stop Christmas from happening at all if it doesn't make an appearance), the babka that we only eat Easter and Christmas and Kate will use the leftover egg whites and make some macaroons. We'll have some pizza and wings and decorate the tree. Emily and Jim are coming to spend the night and we will all be together for a while.

So, Merry Christmas to all of you. No matter what you celebrate or how you celebrate, I hope your holiday is filled with joy and wonder and love.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day,

their old familiar carols played

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men.

I am looking at at 5 day weekend and intend to enjoy every bit of it. I'll see you soon.

It's early Sunday morning and we dodged another bullet. On Friday when Pk and I were doing some shopping it was pouring rain. Not just raining but pouring. We decided not to try to go grocery shopping. It would have been a mess. So, we went Christmas shopping instead. We don't usually do much shopping together and this was rather enjoyable. We were grateful for the rain because it could have been snow and then we would have not been able to finish the shopping.

I did the grocery shopping on Saturday morning and then finished up the holiday shopping last night. Now I have to wrap the presents. Sigh. It takes forever and I start out with all of these beautifully wrapped and be-ribboned packages and by the end I'm lucky to get the paper and a tag.

I will be baking cookies today. I try to buy a new cookie cutter each year and this year I got train shaped ones. Pk is already planning how he can decorate them as a train wreck. We always get reindeer cookies with missing heads or fangs. It's never dull.

And despite my promise to myself that I was not going to squeeze another fiber related project into the next few days, I decided to spin some roving into yarn for my cousin. She is a crocheter and makes lap blankets for vets and people in nursing home. She is one of those people that lives their faith every day and not just on Sunday. She uses only acrylic yarns and I thought she might like some soft, beautiful wool to use for herself. Kate bought some roving that is blue/purple/pink/white and it's spinning up really beautifully. I spun it into singles and plied it with some beautiful shiny thread. I hope she likes it. I've never given anyone my handspun as a gift and I'm a little nervous as to how she'll react.

It's raining. Again. At least I don't have to go out. Pk has to finish his shopping. He complained that my christmas list didn't have any "fun" things on it. I told him the knitting needles and yarn I asked for were fun to me. Just like when he asked for clamps (He has more clamps than I have sock needles). "But I like clamps!" he says. And I remind him that I like knitting needles.

I have only two days of work this week. And only one clinic each day so the week won't be onerous. I'll probably have a full day on Tuesday and then I'm done until the 29th. I'll work three days that week and then have another long weekend. Usually, I try to take the full week between the holidays off but this year I don't have the time so I manipulated what I do have to have the best vacation time I can.

Today's buddhist inspiration seems appropriate for the holidays. It's a rerun. It's what appears at the bottom of my blog.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

~Buddha

This is one of the sayings I have on the board in front of my desk. It reminds me that while we tend to share our complaints easily, we also tend to hoard our happinesses. Joy and happiness shared are joy and happiness doubled. What a good thought to carry with us as the holidays approach .

Good Friday morning! It's 8 am and I am sitting at my desk getting ready to face the day. I have a fairly light day planned but we all know how that goes. Actually, it was a fairly easy week because the doctors were either on vacation or in training all week so no clinics. That gave me time to catch up on paperwork and just breathe for a bit.

This weekend is my big push toward holiday preparedness. I have done some shopping but will do the bulk tomorrow and finish up on Sunday. Grocery shopping first tonight and then dinner and some holiday shopping with Pk. Somewhere during the next two days, the laundry will get done and the house will get cleaned and the baking will start. I might find some time to sit and knit but then maybe not. That's ok. I don't mind a busy weekend. I have lists and lists of lists. I love a good list. I have gift lists, cookie lists, general baking lists, Christmas dinner lists, lists of which store to buy which gift in....the list is endless! (and now the word "list" sounds funny to me).

So, with a deep breath and a power bar for extra energy, here we go. Catch you on the flip side!

Today is typical winter in south jersey. It's raining/sleeting/snowing. It's not a pretty light, fluffy snow but a cold, icy wetness. The kind of wet that gets down your neck if you're not covered by a nice warm woolen scarf (which I am!). I left work early because I was feeling punky and had no real work to do. I came home and fell into a deep sleep. I feel slightly disoriented when I do that.

I brought the camera to work to take some photos of a dollhouse that they use in our Child and Family unit for play therapy. They need more and Pk wants to make some for them. Because I had the camera with me, I took a photo of the new mural in our C&F dept. A local artist, with some funding from the local Starbucks, painted it. It turned an ugly, plain spot at the end of the hall into a comfortable, friendly waiting area. I love it. I love the soft colors and the bunnies reading books on the end.

This is a shot of the hot air balloon that hangs in front of the window in my office. I made this for my girls about 20 years ago. It hung over the changing table and when they got too old for it, I brought it into my office. I like it and wish I could find the pattern but it's long gone. And what have we here? It looks like a sock. I call it Still life with sock and keys. This yarn is a merino/bamboo blend and is sooooo soft. Did I tell you how much I love this sock? I've got half of the foot done. It's probably the fastest I've ever knit anything. I started it Sunday and I'll probably finish it tomorrow. Well,maybe Wednesday. Work gets in the way.

Pk and I are going to do some holiday shopping tomorrow after work. I'm going to just say it aloud and you can all boo and hiss at me. "I like to Christmas shop". There. I said it. I like to look for presents that will make my loved ones go "ooooohhh". I don't mind the crowds too much and I like the hustle and bustle and I love looking at Christmas decorations. I like the anticipation of the holiday and the hiding of the presents and the conspiracies as we try to keep secrets. I'm not so good at the keeping of the secrets so I don't shop too early. I wish I had elves to wrap the presents but unfortunately I have to do that myself.

There have been some holidays when I was sure that life events would overshadow the joy and wonder (the year that Pk and I were separated comes to mind) but somehow the happiness that is Christmas to me has always come through. I know the world is not in an especially good place right now and the economy is in the toilet and the future is uncertain. I'm not hiding my head in the sand. I'm simply choosing, yes, choosing to make a happy holiday for myself and my family. Maybe because I don't know what is coming in the new year but I do know that things could always be worse and I'm very, very thankful for what good things I have.

I don't know if I've ever told you all about a woman I know who suffered a series of potentially devastating life events (breast cancer removed, apartment robbed, apartment burned down, father died, immigration papers stolen,diagnosed with a serious illness) all within a 2 month period. When I saw her and asked how she was coping, she said "Miss Donna, I am fine. Things can always get worse and I am alive". I keep this image of her smiling face in my mind. I can hear her tell me that things can always be worse and she reminds me to be happy and grateful for what I have. Thanks, Maria. I try to live up to you and your positive attitude!

And now I'm off to cook some dinner. I have a package of sausage waiting for me downstairs. I am not a fan of sausage but Pk loves it ("meat in a tube, gotta love it") so I cook it for him. I'll settle for some pasta and salad.

Stay safe and warm and dry! Oh, and if you happen to be vacationing in Hawaii ( Roxie) I hope you're enjoying your warm sunshine!