Christmas Meme

I saw this on both Kay's and Carolyn's blogs and really liked it. Here's my version.

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1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I like both. Hot Chocolate when it’s really cold and Braum’s Egg Nog at some point iduring the holiday season.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just leave them under the tree? When I was growing up, Santa always left presents under the tree. The wrapped ones were from family.

3. Colored or white lights on the tree? Colored, the more the better (I’d like a 747 to be able to land by the lights on the tree)

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No need. I can get a kiss whenever I want one.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Well, we haven’t put up a tree for a few years now, but our new tradition as of next year (assuming I’m more mobile) is to put it up the day after Thanksgiving, and the rest of the decorations the day after that.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? We have the same thing every Christmas – roasted cornish game hens. It’s the only time during the year we have them and they are delicious.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child – Hearing Santa walking on our roof on Christmas Eve with jingling bells. I found out when I was older, my dad would climb up on the roof and walk around while shaking jingle bells. And mind you, this was in a state where we usually had a fair amount of snow by Christmas.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don’t remember. I was the oldest and I remember being sworn to secrecy not to tell my little sister or brother, but I don’t remember how old I was.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes. We got to open one mom-approved gift.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? With the exeption of three boxes of regular Christmas balls, most of our ornaments are handmade. We also buy a dated ornament every year. We started this the year before we were married (we got married in January). As of this Christmas we have 22 ornaments.

11. Snow! Love it or leave it? LEAVE IT!! I hate being cold. My fair-weather atttitude does put a bit of a damper on knitting wool sweaters.

12. Can you ice skate? I used to ice skate when I was growing up. I doubt I could to it now.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Absolutely! I was in 6th or 7th grade and I wanted to be a writer. I begged my parents for a typewriter, any kind of typewriter. I wanted one so much my stomach hurt from anxiety. And do you know what Santa brought me? A beautiful aqua blue kid sized typewriter. I loved it and used it constantly! The sight of that typewriter under the tree is blazed into my memory and is wreathed in so much emotion - excitement, wonder, surprise and gratitude. I should ask my Mom if she knows what happened to it. I probably wore it out.

14. What is your favorite thing about the holidays? Turning off the phone for three days (well, it meant a lot more when I was actually working).

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? .Pumpkin pie or lemon merengue pie, or buttermilk pie.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Christmas Eve Jim and I sit by the fire with a cup of Jim’s special Christmas tea and he reads the story of Jesus’ birth, then we talk about how God has blessed us during the year.

17. What do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving because I try hard to match the gift to the person.

18. What tops your tree? An 8” tall angel I thread crocheted years ago. It’s amazing it’s lasted so long!

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? I don’t have a favorite, I love most of them from the silly “I’m Getting Nuthin’ For Christmas” to the beautiful hyms.

20. Candy canes, yuck or yum? One is okay for eating; after that they need to be decorations.

May you have a peaceful and blessed Christmas!

Lots of Knitting

But, as usual, no pictures. I even carry my camera in my knitting bag and only to discover it AFTER the events are over. DUH!

On Saturday I went to Knitty Committee. It was a smaller group than normal but still had plenty of great knitting and visiting. Gloria brought some wonderful holiday bread WHICH I COULD EAT. It was delicious and she sent the rest of it home with me since there are so few things I can eat right now. I was able to enjoy the bread for a couple of days and then my taste changed and I couldn't eat it. But I really enjoyed the couple of days it tasted good!

Anyway, KC was fun. Bette showed off her round pink baby blanket (and a picture of it would be right here if I had remembered to take one). The blanket is done in wedges with short rowing. She used three different colors of pink and it turned out great. It's on my list of patterns I want to try. Right now I have a list of projects to finish before it. I need to make Jim a shadow scarf (Yarn Roadie), a BIL needs a warm wool scarf, and I am working on a hat and scarf set for my SIL Eileen. Plus there is always charity knitting on the needles.

I also made it to the Guild meeting on Sunday. It was a lot of fun and we had about 23 people show up. We had lots of great food and played Dirty Santa". I ended up with a commemerative Christmas ormament which is gorgeous. We had at least one new person who had just started knitting and was making a sweater out of really fuzzy yarn. Pretty impressive!

Jim had to drop me off early to go do an open house so I rolled around the library looking at books and killing time. Right now my wig is still a little tight across my incisons so I was being festive by wearing my green fun fur hat. A young man (aabout 15 or 16 yrs old) walked by me. Under his breath I just barely heard him say "I like your hair." Quite a complement coming from a teenage boy!

Next guild meeting (Jan 28th) we vote for new officers. I have really enjoyed being President this last year. It gave me something else to think about outside of health issues. I'm really proud and grateful to the Guild members for making the dream of the guild come true.

Health Update - I have PT three times a week so I'm worn out most of the time. ;-) But my leg is gettting stronger. My taste buds are in constant flux, and my eyesight is not changing for the better yet. I have no doubt all these things will get in line at some point. In the meantime it's a good excuse not to work very hard!

I feel good. I think the worst I've felt thru this whole thing was when I had to do chemotheapy - nasty stuff! And speaking of nasty stuff - I will be done with taking steroids on Saturday. This Friday is my last day. I can hardly wait!

May each and everyone of you have a wonderful, blessed Christmas!

And Some Pictures

Here are some of the charity hats I've been knitting. I can make one of these in about 2 hours and they are just SO cute.

This isn't a very good picture but I have one of the two fuzzy hats on the end:

While I was in rehab at the hopital, one of the nurses brought me two balls of the short eyelash yarn specifically for charity knitting. I'm just sorry she didn't get to see these, they are really cute.

This will be a super knitting weekend - tomorrow is KC (Kitty Committee) and Sunday is the Guild meeting. I feel like I haven't been to either group in months and am really looking forward to both of them.

And as usual, I make plans and my body goes on strike. I keep forgetting how tired I get with just a modest amount of activity. I thought I was doing pretty good today, until I was standing up in the kitchen to chop vegtables for dinner. I have been sitting ever since. Other than that, I feel great and am REALLY looking forward to seeing fellow knitters in knitting circumstances (rather than the prone position of a hospital bed).

This post wouldn't be complete without a cat update. Rimsky is still going strong though not going as fast; Blueberry has decided she doesn't like us too much during the day but night time is a different story. She sleeps either on top of or next to or between our legs; and last but not least, Miss YI has started taking her job very seriously again. I picked up the charity yarn from Anna the other day and brought it home (first time I'd had a chance to see it). Sugar BURROWED into the box holding the scarf yarn and all you could see was her fat little head poking out. Never a camera when you need one.

Catching up

I know it's been a while since I last posted. If there is anyone still checking here, I apologize for the lenght of time.

Thought I'd post some pictures taken in Tenn at Thanksgiving:

Here is my great nephew Brody, wearing his new pumpkin hat.

This is the doting Grandmother (SIL Eileen) with her first grandchild. Look at the curly dark hair Brody has! He is SO cute.

And Grandad (BIL Joe), also enjoying the benefits of being a grandparent.

When we got back from Tennessee, my parents came out to visit. And wouldn't you know it, they arrived at the same time as our blizzard!

We had a great visit, snow or not. Wayne and Kathy even invited us to their house for dinner one night! It was great and 5 year old Ryan and my Mom struck up a friendship immediately.

Apeaking of striking up an immediate friendship, guess which cat took an instant liking to my Mom - Blueberry! The ghost cat, the invisible cat - YES. She was touching noses with her, she would come when Mom called her, whe would lie next to her on the sofa. OH BROTHER! I just recently got Blue to sit on my lap. I offered to send her home in a suitcase but my folks seemed less than enthused.

I'm doing physical therapy three times a week. I am resolved to be walking as soon as possible so I am also doing exercises at home. My p.t. therapist has okayed me to walk using a walker without supervision - YEAH! Sugar must have really missed the wheel chair because she insists on riding when it's moving and she sleeps in it when it's parked.

Enough for tonight, I'll try to get some of my charity knitting pics up tomorrow.