Monday, December 31, 2012

Ring Out the Old

Once again, it's New Years Eve!  And once again I can't believe that another year is over.  What happened to my year?  How did I manage to spend 366? 

It was a busy year.  Challenging, sometimes stressful, but also wonderful. 

In January I finished my thesis, submitted, was given the nod to graduate.  I took over the books for Andre's business.  Our mixed curling team managed to finish out the year in the B division!  Started picking up the pieces that we'll need to finally renovate our kitchen.  We spent the most beautiful week ever in Newfoundland over the summer.  Andre hired his first employee!!  And we've had the best Christmas-New Year's holiday we've had in a long time.  Restful, tasty, and full of friends and family. 

Our New Year's plans are pretty simple.  We're going to cuddle up in front of the TV at some point tonight and just relax with a bottle of wine or some beer (and knitting).  At midnight we'll watch the New York ball drop, and then probably just crawl off to bed.  I think we're getting too old for this!

New Year's day used to be one of the only days that Andre and I could guarantee having off together.  The result is a carefully crafted tradition of us kicking back and just being together.  In the morning we're going to get up whenever we feel like it.  We're going to have Irish cream in our coffees.  We'll break from our tradition briefly to leave the house to feed a friends cat, we normally don't go out at all.  Then it will be home and back into the pjs.  We'll light a fire in the fire place, cuddle up again, and try and put a dent in the Big Bang Theory marathon from Boxing Day that has consumed our PVR.  At some point there will be pizza for lunch.  And that will be the only time we answer the door.  It's going to be amazing. 

I'm setting up my nest for tomorrow.  My big comfy chair has a carefully positioned table carrying a selection of key knitting paraphernalia - like a tape measure and darning needles.  At some point today I'm going to round up some of the UFOs lurking around the house (so far a pair of socks and another pair of mitts) and try and get them wrapped up.  Once they're done, I'm going to work up the nerve to start the body of my Viticetum coat from Knit Picks. 

In short, it's going to be epic. 

So I bid you a safe and happy New Year!  And we'll see you on the other side.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Holiday Love

The holidays for us are, like for so many people, a crazy time of family friends and food.  And this year was no different.  With our immediate family in town, Christmas day is a meticulously juggled time of family hopping. Breakfast with the inlaws, brunch with my mom, lunch with my dad, dinner with an extended variant of the inlaws, and drinks with the siblings-in-law. 

You'd think that it would end there.  That after the year end binge of cream and sugar topped baking and mountains of wrapping paper, that 24 hours of awesome would leave us a pair of giggling maniacs.  But no.  Along with a hopscotch work schedule for me, there is also my father's extended family dinner a few days ago - with special attention to my grandfather, who was considerate enough to be born at such a time to as not complicate his mother's Christmas dinner, nor interfere with the ever anticipated New Years Eve party.  And always the extended family passing through town.

Now we are coasting through the brief few days of recovery time between one set of over-indulgence, and the next. 

Tis also the season for travel, and while we have remained (mostly) rooted at home, the last 36 hours have been a blessing for spending time with out-of-town friends.  My dearest grade school companion in crime Jenny and her husband David, up visiting their parents from the far off land of Toronto.  And beautiful amazing Melody, a friend from grad school now in Calgary, in to spend the holidays with her mom.  And crazy Kyle from Owen Sound who taught us to curl - traveling up to discover that he is to be a best man for a friends wedding this summer.  We talked, we caught up, we laughed.  We promised that this year we'd find the time and wherewithal to get out to their neck of the woods. 

And I had to resist the urge this morning to go tearing through the stash to show my love in wooliness.  Even miles apart, there is something nice about being hugged at a distance through knit love.  Although... there is some suspiciously John Deere green sock yarn that arrived in the mail a few days ago.  And a curling bonspeil in March...

Hugs and holiday love to all!  I'm going to go and work off this food baby I've been carrying around for a few days.  And find some double points. 

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas dear blog

Dear blog,

I know it's been a while since I really paid any attention to you past the fleeting thought of "I should do that".  I'd say that life got in the way, I needed to focus to wrap up my degree, and I've been working too hard trying to make ends meet that I just haven't been able to find the time to look you up and drop in a few lines.  But that wouldn't be entirely true...

I've still had time to knit, and where there is knitting time, I should be able to steal a few minutes of that time to tell you about it.  Although that would leave less time for knitting... I do miss writing.  And I do think more frequently than I might like to admit, "I should blog that". 

So, in the spirit of the holidays, Merry Christmas dear blog.  My gift is to try and remember to take a few minutes to do something here way more often then every few years.  More actual writing, less just thinking about it. 

Just not this exact minute... the in-laws are on their way, and this will kick off another Christmas scramble around the collection of families.  14 hours of Christmas visits, presents, food, family, and love.  And in the next few days, I'll even tell you about it.  Here we go!

Love,
Jen