The Aftermath of Christmas

Skip and I had a wonderful Christmas. We put on the 'Crackling Fireplace' channel on the TV and had breakfast. Then we opened our stockings and gifts. Then we both had a nap.

I prepared dinner for 5 of us - Butterball boneless ball of white and dark meat (highly recommend), scalloped potatoes, rolls, steamed green beans, and Marilyn contributed a sweet potato dish, and cranberry sauce containing fresh cranberry, walnuts, and orange. Somewhere in there I set the table.

Skip took this shot just as we were sitting down to dinner. The festive sparkling wine in the champagne flutes was 'off' so we poured that down the sink. There was lots of wine to make up for it.

Marilyn and her sister, Monika, enjoyed the Irish coffee with dessert.

Everyone was a good sport and wore their gold crowns from the Christmas crackers. It was the first time I'd hauled out the good dishes in years. Last Christmas I was sick and the year before we were at sea on one of my knitting cruises.

Usually it's only Skip and me and sometimes Scooter at Christmas dinner so it was really fun to have additional folks.

The next couple of days I relaxed and have been eating the leftovers. Scooter arrived on the 27th and we exchanged our gifts with him that evening. Yesterday (the 28th) we had a leisurely morning then went to the local mall for lunch at the food court. Then we did a bit of shopping.

I had a gift card from Indigo so I picked up this knitting reference book by Kate Atherley.

There are a lot of good tips in it.

Last night I was up late finishing a little sewing project. My first attempt which I finished at 9pm, wasn't quite right so I started again and finished the second one by midnight. Then I had to set the dining room up for the next day's activities.

Today, I had the gang over for stitching. There were lots of leftover Christmas treats to share. Yum! (all our snow has melted - it's been so mild)

I've been really slack taking pictures of stuff but Jen1 got a good photobomb shot of herself, Shelley, Sue, and me.

Jeanette and Marilyn were on the other side.

I finished this little donkey piece I started last night.

I was stitched with DMC 2 over 2 on a piece of scrap 28 count Monaco cloth. Someone suggested it would look really cute 1 over 1. I may do that at some point.

Since I had the dining room more or less set up for stitching, I offered to have my Monday morning stitching group at my place when disease (possibly the flu) has plagued the home of the person who was going to host. I just added another leaf to the table and moved some things out of there to accommodate the group of 10 or so. Might as well since the house is more or less presentable and still festively decorated.

I'm kind of between projects right now but certainly have enough patterns, fabric, and floss to start a new one.