Celebrating the Holidays (Part 1 of 2)

Greetings and best wishes on this festive season! My apologies for not being on time with my entries, but I really have been busy with family events and work. Throw in my holiday knitting, and out pops out a happy knitter with very sore wrists. Unsure of where to begin, the easiest would be sequential sentences dotted with photos.

Sunday, December 24th:
Spent the day at Barnes and Noble in Warwick, RI. Why? I was wrapping presents to get donations for Sweet Binks Rabbit Rescue. Afterwards, since Rich and I had to pick up a family-sized salad/breadsticks for tomorrow’s lunch with Mom Reynolds, we had a late lunch (early dinner) at the Olive Garden across the street. Later that night, Rich stayed upstairs wrapping presents for Mom and me while I did the same downstairs. When we were done, we did our annual tradition and watched “White Christmas” and “A Christmas Story.” No presents were opened for the first time ever!



Monday, December 25th:
Presents were unwrapped and we both received much wanted goodies on our wish lists. 🙂 Rich surprised me with the ring that I had been paying off on layaway at my favorite jewelry store, Concannon Jewelers. It took over two years, but I finally have it. (Cheers roar from the crowd…) Along with the requested DVDs of “Family Guy” and “Pirates on the Caribbean 2,” I had given him more memory for his computer. He was pleasantly surprised with the last item and before the day was over, had already installed and tested it!

At noon, we had Christmas lunch with Mom, bringing my cheesy meat lasagna and the salad/breadsticks to match the presents. Mom’s generous heart was apparent with her gifts. The dessert platter she selected was perfect in its variety. Interestingly enough, not sure why but I did not take any photos.

After a great morning and fabulous lunch, I drove down to Connecticut to attend the annual Christmas gathering at Cousin Tess’ Mom’s home. Auntie Nita (years ago had divorced my Mother’s brother, so is technically an “ex-Aunt” in the family relationship department) and her sisters always have a holiday feast with lots of Filipino foods. I had missed last year’s bash, which was at her DIL’s parents’ home and was with great Indian dishes. This year, the classic Filipino potluck presented pansit (noodle dish), stuffed de-boned chicken (not easy to do!), leg of lamb, Indian curry/rice with chicken, lumpia (springrolls), and so much more that I cannot list. Again I made my leche flan, and it was welcomed and complimented. I caught up with my cousin’s family once again, and had a blast! Because it was so late when everything started ending, I did not to drive back to Rhode Island by myself (Rich did not feel like going and would not accompany me) and stayed with Tess and her daughter. We chatted even later into the early morning, then finally slept.




Tuesday, December 26th:
Woke well-rested from sleeping on my cousin’s massage table. Yup, I said massage table. My cousin is a massage therapist with her own business. Immediately, I began working on Tess’ scarf that is based on the Horizontal Herringbone pattern in the “365 Stitches a Year” perpetual calendar (October 30th for those interested). The “My So-called Scarf” is the popular design that utilizes the pattern. On US-35 needles, I combined Fiesta Yarn’s Chinchilla in Amazon, Brown Sheep’s Lamb’s Pride Bulky in Blue, and a boucle blue mohair that I found at the FAB-u-lous “Manmade by Jonne” weaving/spinning/yarn shop. Feel free to click on the yarn to see the result.


After finishing the scarf, I left to spend my weekly evening with the bunnies. Little Ms. Pepper (left-side photo) was more than willing to show how adoptable she is! Her son Jasper (right-side photo) is also a real cutie. He has the biggest brown eyes that beg to be loved.








Wednesday, December 27th:
Worked in the office. After chatting with my co-workers in Denmark and St. Louis, found out that everyone was going to be working from home for the rest of the week. None of my managers or team leads were around and I cannot even push out code anyway, so it is a really slooooooow week! Saw Bond after dinner at Uncle Sushi’s. In agreement with Ellen from the “Knit Sisters” and others, the movie was nicely done, but I must express a bit of disappointment on Daniel Craig’s lack of cut abs. (AHEM…) However, if I were single and he was made available to me, I would be an idiot to turn him down. 😉

Now before I forget, here is my Saturday Sky at 9AM this morning from my sister’s back yard. Because I do not want to make this a bigger post than it already is, I will continue tomorrow. Promise! Have a good night, and I do hope you all had a great Christmas week with lots of shopping on Boxing Day! =:8