The Good, The Bad...and all the other stuff...

And another six weeks has gone by without a post from me.  I did manage to get rid of that pinky-stripey background...and I hope y'all enjoy the picture of our Christmas tree this year.  I want to thank everyone for your supportive messages about my situation.  It was a huge step to share this...still can't believe I did it...but just putting it out in the world has helped so much.  Sadly, you'll have to just enjoy the tree picture a while longer, as I am still in technohell.  Update below...

The Good!
Despite everything you'll read below, we had a wonderful Christmas.  I (barely!) survived the three weeks of Choral Madness, loving every exhausting minute of it.  Pete got me several lovely, thoughtful knitterly gifts this year (including that snazzy red Namaste circular needle case.  I then had to buy a second one because...well...after 30 years of knitting, I have more circs than will fit in one case.

We had another Christmas with Wilbur.  If you've read my blog from the beginning, you know that he was a very sick doggy for several months last year.  In fact, this time last year, I never believed he would still be with us at Christmas.  And, since he has lost his hearing and become more confused this year, we really didn't know if he would remember Christmas.  He remembered.  Even if he no longer can hear the word "presents", he knows what they are, he knows when they are for him, and he still "unwraps" them with glee - and tries to help with ours, too!  

My cousin, Carole, hosted a lovely Christmas Eve buffet at her new condo.  It was great seeing my cousins!  We also spent time with Pete's two daughters and many wonderful friends. 

I have finished several knitting projects and can't wait to be able to share photos!

After years of searching, I believe I have finally found a spiritual home.  This has been an issue that I have struggled with for many years.  For the past few years, I have sung in the choir at a lovely church, however, I couldn't help but feel I need a more spiritual experience and did not want to give up singing with a wonderful group of people.  About a month ago, my search led me to a small congregation whose beliefs and values fit me perfectly.  Best of all, their services are on Sunday evenings, so I'm still free to sing in the choir at the other church.  I could not have asked for a more perfect solution!

The Bad...
Pete and I have jokingly referred to this as "The Christmas from Hell".  A week before Christmas, in the midst of Choral Madness, I woke at 3am with the most blinding headache I've ever had.  When I got up to take something, the room started spinning.  Enter Sinus Infection From Hell...and about a month of recovery time.  My holiday consisted of looking at the endless list of stuff to cook, people to entertain, places to go, and figure out what I could cross off or make easier.  No one got my special gingerbreads this year.  I didn't do any baking.  I did no entertaining - we met everyone at restaurants for our celebrations.  We didn't go out for our traditional Christmas Eve Chinese lunch because my sense of taste was so messed up that I couldn't bear the thought of Chinese food.  No coffee either - that's when you know I'm REALLY sick.  I had several great blog posts perking for the holidays which obviously went unwritten.  On Christmas Day, after getting the turkey in the oven and realizing the room was spinning much too fast and hard for me to even attempt my sausage stuffing, I sweetly asked Pete if he thought mashed potatoes might taste better this year.  When he said yes, I flopped down on the couch and said, "Oh good...would you mind making them?"  Of course he did...and they were delicious!!!

A few days after Christmas, Wilbur decided to go out in the back yard and eat...um...something he had left there a few hours (or days) earlier and got very sick.  Pete had gone to band practice and had left a peaceful scene - tree lit, Wilbur snuggled up on the couch with me while I knit, soft jazz on the stereo.  When he came home three hours later, Wilbur was virtually unresponsive on the floor, I was sobbing on the sofa...and the house, to put it mildly, reeked.  When a 50-pound dog decides to spend two hours projectile vomiting, it takes days before everyone gets back to normal - and the dog is the first to recover, as we have found.  Luckily, he missed the Christmas tree, but the rug and floor had to be heavily cleaned.  Not to mention the walls...  He slept for most of the next 15 hours, then bounced up like nothing had happened, wanting to play and eat again.  Except for this one day, the past two months have been very good for Wilbur, and we're thrilled.

Earlier in December, I figured out what was causing the problem with not being able to get my computer to recognize my camera and fixed it.  About ten days ago, more bad technojuju...my trusty laptop developed narcolepsy!!!  It would go to sleep and not wake up without rebooting.  It is now somewhere between here and Massachusetts, getting a new hard drive.  Oh joy...  I'm using Pete's MacBook, but don't much care for the keyboard.  And if you find typos, that will be why. 

The Other Stuff...
My goal for this year is to knit all the socks in the two Sock of the Month kits I bought from Knit Picks years ago.  It will actually be only 11 socks, since I knit one of them about a year ago.  I've begun the January sock and just to make things even more challenging, have taught myself to knit two two-up socks on one circular needle.  There was much swearing and flinging of yarn and needles for a few hours, but I have the hang of it now.  I'm not much enjoying the pattern, and the yarn is freakin' BLACK (there should be a law against black yarn...) so the pattern is hard to see, but I'm determined!!

My second goal is to finish all the projects I started last year, especially the lace shawls.

The due date for our first grandchild is only ten days away!  I've finished one baby blanket and am about 80% done with the second. 

My stepdaughters loved their Button Up Neckwarmers. 

Life is good.