The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

Another Christmas has come and gone. There were gifts under the tree.



And smiling children.





And yummy cinnamon rolls to be eaten for breakfast.



After the flurry of activity at our house on Christmas morning, we packed up and headed to Cincinnati to spend Christmas evening with my family. This year all of my siblings were together for a few moments in the evening.



The kids and I stayed at my sister's place for a few days. The kids had fun hanging with their cousins. They got to ice skate at Fountain Square, go to top of Carew Tower and view Cincinnati from the Observation Deck, and visit Krohn Conservatory.





We are back home now. I'm off work for the rest of the week and plan to relax, watch football, get my exercise routine back into gear, and knit. I have a Just Enough Ruffles scarf to finish. Other projects are waiting in the wings, including more than a few UFOs.



While watching the Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl, I will be wearing the toasty warm socks my sister made for me. They are made from her own homespun. They fit perfectly!!

Autumn Snowfall

We woke up this morning to 1-2 inches of snow. The east coast is getting blasted by the storm. I'm waiting to hear from two sisters. One is in Virginia and the other is in New Jersey. I'm sure they have much more. Here's a couple photos from the house. I took these earlier when I got up.

Out the front door:



Out the back door:



This snow is helping to put me in the Christmas spirit. It's been hard for me to get excited this year. I'm hoping the magic grabs me this week.

December began with a couple huge heartbreaks. My mom lost her last living sibling. Aunt Ann lived to 93. She lived a long, happy life, so I'm not too sad to lose her, but the timing is difficult. Also on the same day Aunt Ann died, Kristin lost a friend. Her friend was tragically struck and killed by a train while walking home from school. The boy was walking down the tracks with headphones on. He didn't even hear the train.

Dealing with this has been the hardest thing I've faced as a parent. When your kids are younger and they get hurt, you can give them a hug and kiss and within a few minutes the pain is forgotten. That doesn't work for this. Kristin seems to be coping alright, but I still worry. I told her that the only thing I can guarentee is that someday the pain will go away, but it might take a long time. As a mom,I can't stop thinking about the boy's mother. He was an only child. I pray she heals.

On the knitting front, I'm taking a class at my favorite LYS. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a wonderful day filled with love and gratitude. Be sure to count your blessings. There will be more than you realize. Here's the top of my list of blessings:



Now go eat some turkey and pumpkin pie!

It's Been A While

October was busy. Here's a few highlights:

Kristin's volleyball occupied 2 weekday evenings and an occasional Saturday per week. She was promoted up to varsity during the second half of September and played every game until the last two games of the tournaments. Her team made it to the 4th round of the tournaments, losing in the district finals.



Trisha's cross country was every Tuesday and Saturday. She improved tremendously through the season, going from 18:36 for a 2-mile run to her best time of 15:03 during the second to last meet. She has plans to run cross country in high school and will only get faster! Run like the wind, Bullseye!!



Getting ready for Blake's big #12 birthday. He wanted a small get-together this year, which was perfectly alright with me. He had a few friends come over last Friday for pizza, cake, and games. The boys had a great time playing with his new Nerf guns. Unfortunately, his cake didn't fare so well. I'm not sure what happened, but when I tried to ice it, the top layer split. Ed said it was too moist. I think I stacked the layers incorrectly. I should have inverted the bottom layer to have the 2 flat sides meet in the middle. Oh well, it still tasted good. And to a group of 11 and 12 year old boys, it was a work of art.



With all the good, there must come some bad. The leaf below was collected while taking a long walk one Sunday afternoon after a particularly stressful week. My biggest stress came from having to have a diagnostic mammogram. I have been having some issues and my doctor thought there might be a slight chance that the cause was breast cancer. Fortunately, the mammogram showed that everything was okay. The doctor feels it was just inflamation. HUGE RELIEF!!!


The second stress that week came at work. I won't chronicle the details but just say that having to work with a dictator sucks!!! This person was leveling a ton of false accusations against me and trying to get me fired. Fortunately, I weathered the storm. After things calmed down a bit, I had a little chat with the Fuhrer and let him know I didn't appreciate the way he treated me. For the moment, he's backed off. I don't know if standing up to him helped, or he's retreated and planning a more covert attack for next time. Either way, I'm laying low for a while.

Now, for the knitting portion of the show:

Some socks in either OSU or UC colors. Since UC is doing better this year in football, I think I'll honor them with this pair.



The Taize shawl. I bought the pattern and yarn during the weekend after the stressful week. Taize is a particular type of liturgical service. I thought it rather appropriate because I was saying prayers constantly that week.



The Cherie Amour sweater.