The End of the Year

The week between Christmas and New Year's is one of my favorite times of the year. Not only is it REALLY Christmas - as opposed to Advent - during which there is a bit of tension between 'celebrating Christmas' and 'observing Advent' in my head - but there is such a wonderful opportunity to organize. There's a year to wrap up, and a year to plan for.  My happy spot.

Yum!

We spend Christmas Day at my mom's house.  We spend Christmas Eve there, too -- so after a wonderful Christmas Eve service, we opened up the box of Jólabókaflóð bon bons (all soft centres this year), made up a tray of sausage and cheese and crackers (a present from the family I dog-sit for), and curled up with our books.  I had picked Americanah, to mostly finish off my 2018 Reading Challenge categories  Mom dipped her toes into the waters of Agatha Christie with Murder on the Orient Express, while Filia read about Lucy's Bones and Filius started off in a thick tome but ended up re-reading Murder on the Orient Express and checking in with mom every 5 minutes or so to get her latest thoughts on Who Done It. 

Vir et Filius

The next day held a Lessons and Carols service at church (with harp prelude and piano for the first half of the service provided by me, and the second half by our other pianist, so we can BOTH enjoy sitting and absorbing the service.  Pianists can't typically just absorb a service, as that can lead to awkward silences when a hymn is  supposed to be starting and the pianist is contemplating what was just said.)  And it also held a second December kidney stone for Vir.  A few aspirin, and he was ready to continue with the day.  Ouch.

Mater et Filia

The Filius returned to his flat, and the rest of us returned home, and we settled in to enjoy Christmas week.  Our corn stove is behaving and I discovered that Corn Stove Glass Cleaner is a Thing.  It's a wonderful thing, and works as advertised.  No baking soda, scouring pads,  razor blades, dish soap, and elbow grease needed.  It's a thing of beauty.

Currently on top of the stove is a pair of drying gloves. Can I call them my first project of 2019?

Today I have plans for Christmas baking (stollen),  Christmas letter-writing (a letter a day will get all my Christmas letters answered), pattern editing, work on Demosthenes: Research Project for Classical Writing, some time of the bike (indoors, while finishing square #58 on the counterpane), and other miscellaneous things.

My last year's goals were to publish 6 patterns on Ravelry, and knit 20 or 24 counterpane squares.  At #58, I can say I met the last goal with room to spare.  The first goal, well, didn't happen.  I started to, really I did ... but the yarn for the first pattern I'd selected was discontinued, and one of the mittens had vanished so I would have needed to reknit them in new yarn, and then  I got busy, and ... my heart just isn't in self-publishing.  I did design two items for Cast On -- but that doesn't count as meeting the goal.  I read books in all the categories I laid out for myself, except 'Nominated for an Award in 2017.'  (Unless you count Americanah being selected as a book for the city of New York to read?).  Arabella of Mars has been requested from the library to fulfill that category, and if it gets here by Monday, I will be sure to finish it this year. 

I'd be nice to finish the counterpane in 2019.  I have SO MANY THINGS on my knitting wishlist.  We'll see how it goes!  I'm planning to read by categories again, from the Modern Mrs. Darcy reading list. 

How are you wrapping up 2018?

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Do you ever feel like you're in a season of transition or upheaval ... and then, when you step back and look at life around you, wonder why it feels that way?  I'm somewhere between that state and wondering why it doesn't feel MORE upheavally. 

Our pellet stove, courtesy of someone who knows more about pellet stoves than I do and his trusty grinder, is now working again.  True, it's not been 48 hours yet, so it may still go Crrrrunch in the night and come to an auger-jammed halt, but all signs are that a little metal surgery on the auger flighting has done the trick. If practice makes perfect, I'm four steps closer to being perfect in disassembling the pellet stove.  

Just today, I have NOTHING on my computer to-do list.  That means I can knit all day! (So I'm writing a blog post.) 

I can knit all day, that is, except for when I'm talking with the AAA tow truck driver.  Because our faithful minivan failed to start this morning (Grandma to the rescue for getting Filia to work) and our wonderful auto shop from Amboy was pretty sure that a jump start would do nothing towards keeping the van running long enough to drive to the shop.  Again, I thank God that the minivan is having issues at a nice convenient location, rather that somewhere awkward.  (Two weeks ago, it failed to start at the auto shop.)

Filius has signed a lease on an apartment and is gradually transitioning over.  It's much closer to work for him, which will be wonderful.  I'll miss him and will have to re-shoulder the mantle of being Chief On-Site IT Personnelle. 

My favorite harp concert of the year (tomorrow!) has been cancelled (not tomorrow) due to the bronchitis of the harpist.  It's an excellent reason, but I will miss the inspiration to Practice Harder (so maybe, when I grow up, I can play beautifully too.) 

Yesterday, we also transitioned from the Large Christmas Tree Era to the Smaller Christmas Tree Era.  Filius wasn't available to help pick the fattest and closest-to-a-9-ft-ceiling tree on the lot, so I picked something skinny that I could carry.  My, does it look different! 

And I've got three projects on the knitting needles. 

So is this upheaval and transition, or not? 

Not. 

My week in pictures

I'm sure I could turn this into a haiku, but not today. Today is too nice and sunny to spend staring at a computer screen, coming up with just the right words for a clever blog post. And so I present some pictures of what I've been looking at of late.

This last one is one of my favorites, and also covers where perhaps 30 hours of my life has gone since my last blog post.  I imagine that Excel is trying its hand at a winter landscape.  (Well, winter portrait, given the orientation of my crop),  Snow, clouds and patches of blue.  Trees silhoutted against the sky.  Frozen.

That job is DONE and I have life beyond Excel, at least until Monday, when I will be ready to tackle anything once again.