Happy New Year

Mike and I are spending a quiet New Years Eve at home . I've got a "bleepity -bleep" cold and feel about new years the way Scrooge felt about Christmas . BAH HUMBUG ! Don't you envy poor Mike with me as company . Let me just crawl under the covers and wake me up when it's all over . Okay , got that out of my system , the pity party's over...

2009 was a good year , not perfect but pretty darn close . I've never liked all the hubbub about New Years Eve in the first place . Except for the cold, this suits me just fine . We've got some good wine, a few munchies , a nice warm home and I have some knitting on the needles . Tomorrow the family will be by and on Saturday we've got the best friends a person could hope for in for a bite , so life is good . What more could anyone want !

More yarn .... psst you didn't hear me say that . I MUST use the stash , I MUST use the stash !

On that note I wish everyone a very happy , healthy & peaceful New Year ! And more yarn if at all possible ....

Christmas Wrap up

I can't believe it's over already ! So much preparation and anticipation and then BOOM in the blink of an eye , over and done with .

This year Christmas Eve was celebrated at Casey & Chantal 's house instead of here . Jessey was sick again with pneumonia and it was better to do it there . Poor little guy was so sick on the Tuesday but by Christmas Eve he was well enough to enjoy at least a few hours with us and see what Christkind left under the tree . It was magical when he got his first look at the tree with the candles and sparklers , he couldn't take his eyes away from it . He soon got into the swing of unwrapping gifts , his and everyone else's . What was inside was irrelevant . You can't imagine how much fun a 14 month old can have with wrapping paper . When we were done he was the captain of the cleanup crew. Hilarious !Apparently he's great one to " help" with that regularly . I'm sure that will change once he's a teenager .

Christmas day was quiet but special because we visited with Shirley and her family . Jerold, Robin and Sidney were in town for the holidays . Sidney is just so darn cute! The sweater that I knit for him back in September fits perfectly and suits him to a tee . As per usual my camera was at home , but Jerold took some photos and promised to email them to me . Later on we were invited to share Christmas dinner with our next door neighbours and their families . They've become more than just neighbours , but terrific friends . Actually Mike and Dave must be long lost brothers separated at birth , they're a hoot whenever they get together and have a friendly rivalry going for the title of BBQ king.So you can bet there were lots of laughs as well as plenty of yummy food .

Mike outdid himself this Christmas as far as a gift goes . We don't usually buy each other extravagant gifts ,but this is a combination birthday gift too so I guess I can forgive him this one . It's the Kindle 2 from Amazon , just recently available to Canada . It's an ereader which can hold up to 1000+ books . I can download a book in less than a minute , anywhere , anytime . I love , love , love it more than you can imagine . The size , not heavy at all unlike the average hardcover and even a regular paperback makes it wonderful to use . I can shop Amazon anytime and the prices of books are generally cheaper . At least the new hardcovers , the prices with trade paperbacks and mass market are comparable and sometimes cheaper too . It's absolutely fantastic for someone like me who usually has a book in progress and always brings at least four books along on trips . That's not to say that I'll give up on actual books with covers and pages , the Kindle is just another option . I foresee a dilemma in the new year , reading or knitting , two passions only 24 hours in a day ...

At the gingerbread factory

I spent the afternoon baking some gingerbread cookies . I haven't baked any for years , but used to make them often when the boys were young . It smelled wonderful in the house when these were in the oven . I think having a 14 month old grandson brought on the nostalgia for these cookies . They're done , but for the decorating which I'll do tomorrow . It's late in the day and I'm tired . In my current state these might not be all that pretty if I were to do it right away .

I have been doing some knitting , a scarf and a pair of socks are off the needles . Both are Christmas gifts . There will be photos on the next post .

The Christmas preparations are coming along , the shopping's done , just need to wrap it all up . The baking is done , just need to package up what's going out as gifts . The Christmas cards are almost done , I have the stamps so it's just a matter of sitting down and actually doing them . So after those are done with pretty much all that's left is the cleaning and then we can let the celebrations begin ! After which comes more cleaning ...

Home again.

Actually , we've been back for a little over a week . Although it's nice to be back home with the family , getting back to winter is a b***h . We've had more than a foot of snow since we got home and the shovel has seen regular use . Uugh !



Mike and I had a wonderful week away . It was everything and more that I could have hoped for . We visited some beautiful places, met some wonderful people , relaxed and swam on the the beaches of the Cayman islands , snorkeled in Roatan , visited Mayan ruins on 2 of our stops . The ruins at Tulum Mexico were breathtaking beautiful , situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean . The ruins at Altun Ha in Belize were further inland , but equally amazing , surrounded by lush flora . My only complaint would be that we didn't have enough time to fully enjoy each place that we visited . A day is really only enough to give you a taste , however we now have some future destinations to plan for . Our guides were phenomenal , giving us fact filed but interesting tours of their respective countries . They were proud citizens of their homelands and wanted to give us a true picture of the people , the history and culture of the places that we visited .



Shipboard life was certainly the easy life to the nth degree .The food , the entertainment , the service was amazing . I've never been so spoiled , laughed so much and had so much fun ! Its been rough getting back to reality waiting for some one to prepare and plan the meals , do the laundry and clean the house , not happening ;-)) .

I've been baking up a storm , shopping for last minute Christmas gifts and just generally trying to get ready for the holidays . There's been very little knitting going on . I seem to have lost my knitting mojo , must have left it on the ship and its cruising the Caribbean . Thank heavens I didn't set myself a bunch of Christmas knitting . I have been reading in the evenings , I just finished the second of Steig Larssons Millenium trilogy . I loved it !!! The third and final one won't be released in Canada till late next year . Apparently its available in the UK , thanks for the heads up Monika , so I might see about trying to order it early in the new year . Would be a great birthday present , don't you think . I've just picked up Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel "The Lacuna " , she's got me hooked , and I've had a tough time choosing between baking for the holidays , knitting or reading . Reading has been winning a lot lately .

Anyway , that what's I've been up to ; hope you all have a good day !

PS , I uploaded a few photos of our trip on my flickr page , if anyone's interested .