Sorry, no pictures with this entry.

I’ve had a job change recently and am now traveling a good bit for work and I’m not at home. I’m in Indianapolis, Indiana and I don’t have my camera with me. I love the new job. I’ve taken a position with a company that I worked for in the past. I always liked working for this company and saw a job posting on their website that I thought was a good fit. I applied and was hired. Last week was my first week back and I felt like I had gone “home” (even though I wasn’t home, I was in Philadelphia).

On the knitting side. I’ve been working on my Christmas grab bag gift and it is going well. I really am happy with the way it is turning out. Sorry, I won’t be able to post pictures of it until after Christmas, so you have a long wait to see it. I am working on another pair of Wendy’s toe-up socks that I’m making out of Austerman Step. The colorway is shades of brown and off white and I’m making these socks for DH. I also started a pair of Bayerische socks and only have the ribbing done on one of them. I’ll post pictures when there is something to look at. I’m making them out of Louet Gems in cream that I purchased from the Loopy Ewe. You should check out their site sometime. They have great sock yarn that I don’t see in the yarn shops that I visit. Their prices are reasonable and their shipping service is very fast. They always personalize your order and put in a nice personal note and some little freebies.

I had a nice surprise waiting for me when I arrive home last weekend. DD ordered a pair of handmade glass circular knitting needles and had them sent to my house for me. They are really lovely! I can’t wait to knit with them. I’m thinking that a lace project will need to be started this weekend so that I can try them out. We saw these needles at MDSW but I didn’t purchase a pair, I just coveted them. Now I have a pair of my very own.

DD’s birthday was Monday and she, her hubby and the girls stopped over to visit. We went to the mountains for Memorial Day weekend (a yearly occurrence) and I stopped at Reiland’s Farm and Shop to pick up some fiber as an addition to DD’s birthday gift (see my post from May 07 for the rest of the birthday present details). DS turned 21 years old yesterday (yep, their birthday’s are 2 days apart). He also received his birthday present from Reiland’s. He was with me when I went to the shop and picked out some nice llama yarn spun from the fiber of Penny and Danaka. I love the fact that you get to know the name of the llama that gave up their fiber for your knitting pleasure. He has enough off white llama to make a vest.

This past weekend my sister, daughter and I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool. It was absolutely great! The weather was perfect, it got a bit cool in the afternoon but it was dry.

(Please feel free to click on any of the pictures for a closer look.)

My sister picked me up Friday and when she arrived she had a surprise gift for me. Nope, it wasn’t my birthday or any other occasion for a gift, it was a totally impromptu gift (my favorite kind).

Here is what she brought me. I think he is absolutely adorable!

It’s a wall plaque and was the perfect thing to start off the weekend. I decided that it needed to head to Maryland with us. We left my house and picked up my daughter then headed south. When we got into our hotel room we found a place of prominence for our mascot.

On Saturday morning we went over to West Friendship to the Howard County Fairground. We got to the festival sometime around 9:30. It’s amazing how many people have a fondness for fiber. The parking lot was filling quickly when we arrived, but there seemed to be plenty of available parking. The people who run the festival certainly seem to have their act together when it comes to handling hordes of people.
There were plenty of vendors and we spent the day browsing all of the fabulous fiber, yarn and everything else. I picked up some fiber for spinning. I bought 4 ounces of a lovely sea foam colored wool, silk and angora blend. I’d love to spin this to a lace weight yarn and knit a shawl.

I bought 2 pounds of a wool/silk roving in a grape, blue, gray colorway that I am going to split with my dd; a pound for each of us. Oh, what is dd going to do with a pound of roving? I did my birthday shopping for her while we were at MDSW and she has a new Ashford Kiwi on which she can learn to spin. Happy Birthday DD!!! Her birthday is at the end of the month and I thought this would be a great way to usher in a new decade for her. I bought some sock yarn for the stash (I know, sock yarn doesn’t count as stash) and 4 balls of Jameison Cob Web weight wool in and off white color. It was a great day for a bunch of fiber enthusiasts!! Next year we have to figure out how to get Em to come with us!

DH and I went to the mountains the weekend before MDSW and DD and her girls came up to join us on Saturday. I got a good bit of spinning done on Saturday. I plyed 620 yards of the Red Swirl Colonial roving that I picked up a while ago.

It looks like a fingering weight yarn. I still have another 1/2 a pound to spin. I think it might have to be used to make a vest.

DD and I got some knitting done in the evening. I finished knitting my Early Spring socks that I made out of Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in Periwinkle.

Pap-Pap took Anna outside to swing for a while. It was a bit chilly out on Saturday for Claire to play outside.

On Sunday it was warmer out, thee weather was gorgeous, and we went for a walk to a place where they are digging for fill. There were a lot of rocks to climb on!!

We all hung out for a while to enjoy the nice weather……

Then we packed up and left for home.

A good time was had by all!

We were watching PBS a while back and saw this on Nature. I thought it was pretty amazing and hilarious. I found this video of the PBS Nature show on You Tube and thought I’d share. Enjoy !

How did you like the Flamingo Mating Dance?

On the knitting front …
I’m still working on the socks I started last week. I ran into a little problem with them. I never swatch socks and when I tried one almost finished sock on, it was too tight. I frogged it and started over on a slightly larger sock. I should have known better. They are Jaywalkers and the pattern is stated that they are not as stretchy as other patterns. I just look at it this way, I get twice as much knitting pleasure from my yarn.

My yarn for my Christmas grab bag gift arrived today. I can’t wait to get started!

My son finished his first ever sock! It took him a long while but he stuck to it and finished it. The pattern is from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks, Simple Ribbed Socks, and the yarn is Lorna Laces Shephard Sock. …Now all he needs is another sock to go along with it and he’ll have a pair.

DD and her hubby purchsed a new, new to them anyhow, house yesterday. It’s an older home with a lot a character and a lot more room than their current home.

They seem pretty nervously excited about it (and I’m excited for them) They’ve listed their current home and hopefully it won’t take long to sell. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for them.

The house needs some work but it’s not nearly as rough as our house was when we moved into it. It’s a structurly sound house with lots of space and a large yard for the girls to play in. It’s close to a park, schools and a library and is on a cul-de-sac so there won’t be much traffic whizing past the house. I guess people in our family don’t have a problem with taking an older home and fixing it up. Remodeling must be in our blood. I also think that I have some patio furniture that would be great on that porch!

I went to visit my sister yesterday and took her a belated Birthday present, more sock yarn and a few of other sock knitting related items. She is on her second pair of socks and they look great! I’ve been enticing her with sock yarn and I think the sock addiction is taking hold.
I hope she can go to Knitter’s Fantasy with my daughter and me in April, I think it will be another great chance to inhance the stash (I’m sure we will be able to find sock yarn there).

The sun is shinning, the birds are singing and I can hear children riding big wheels down the street (I think it’s big wheels, do kids still ride those?) I think I’ll go outside and enjoy some fresh air.

I logged in to Blogger to catch you up on what has been going went on in February and noticed a big red Warning on the top of the page. My blog has been locked by Blogger’s spam-prevention robots. I’ll be able to publish this post when/if my blog is unlocked and the kind people at Blogger have decided that I’m a real person. Ya gotta love Internet related spam … spam e-mails (I really don’t have any use for Vi@gra or Ci@llis, don’t care if they are giving it away, I still don’t want any), spam comments, spam,spam,spam,spam and eggs!

Back to the subject at hand. When I last visited here, I mentioned that I was ready to steek the two Norweigan sweaters that I was (notice the was) knitting for my Granddaughters. Well, I steeked! … and I sewed the sleeves in, knit the neck band and button bands and all of the other finishing stuff that needed done. The girls and their parents came over for dinner on the Sunday after Valentine’s day and I gave the girls their sweaters.

Here are my 2 cuties modeling their new sweaters. It’s really a blast to have little granddaughters to make cute things for! … and it’s really a blast to have grandchildren, period!
The steeking wasn’t nearly as scary to do as it was thinking about. You just have to make sure that you don’t cut through the machine stitching. I loved making these sweaters this way and would do it again. …But, the next time that I decide to make matching sweaters, I hope I pick a less time intensive pattern. My DH kept telling me that the girls would be married before their sweaters were done. Heck, they aren’t even engaged yet!

On February 10th DD, a very good friend of mine, and I went to Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet. It was a blast! I love looking at all of the things that the vendors bring, adding to my stash, and being in good company. The friend of mine who came with me is someone that I spent a great deal of time with in Jr. High School (back then we called it Junior High School, not Middle School) and through our High School years. After High School our lives went in different directions and we lost track of each other for many years. We ran into each other a few days before Pgh K and C (at a funeral, not a good venue for catching up on too many years) we swapped contact information and made arrangements to go to Pgh K and C. She met me at my house that morning and I drove the hour to our destination. I could hardly drive for all the talking we were doing. It was hard to pay attention to the road, not to mention that I had no idea where I was going while trying to cram 30 years into an hour. Sometimes, after a long time of not seeing a childhood friend, when you see each other you don’t have much to talk about, sorta like time has made you strangers … this was definately NOT the case. It just felt (to me, anyhow) like we were still back in High School. Time had passed, but the friendship still remains. …. Besides, we’re both knitters! DD said that it was fun to be around us and watch us try to catch up with each other.

I finally finished my Icarus shawl. I don’t remember when I started it but I know it was on the needles on July 4th, 2006. I had been kinda picking at it now and then with no real deadline planned.
It doesn’t look very good with my black, red and gold skirt that I have on in the picture but that’s what I had on for church today and when we got home I got DH to take a picture of Icarus for me. This was the first lace weight yarn that I’ve used. I guess I knit lace before since the Christening gown (see Flicker badge in the side bar) was 27 inches of lace for the skirt. The lace weight yarn took a bit of getting used to and I used Addi Turbo size 3 needles. They seemed to be not quite pointy enough to do the yarn manipulations. I’m going to have to give the new Addi Lace needles a try sometime. I’ve picked up a set of Knit Picks Options and the points on them may be better to use for lace knitting. I bought 2 hanks of Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud and used them to make Icarus. This is a lovely yarn for this pattern. It didn’t look like much while I was knitting it but when I blocked it… wow! Everything fell into place and the design popped out! I was truly impressed. I bought the yarn that I used a long time ago and when I was getting to the end I really began to wonder what I would run out of first, pattern or yarn. I knew that getting more of the same yarn in the same dye lot would be impossible since I didn’t have that ball band to let me know what the dye lot was. Casting off had me watching the yarn disappear after every stitch. When I was done, I had this much yarn left…. Whew! That was close!

DH and I went up to the mountains last weekend. There was18 inches of snow up there! We kinda knew what we were getting into before we left. You don’t go north of Interstate 80 in February without watching the weather reports. We got to the cabin at 6:30 PM and spent the next hour shoveling out the driveway so that we could get the truck close enough to unpack. There were many inches of snow, then a layer of icy crust and then another 5 inches of snow on top of that. It was funny to try to walk. Sometimes I would be able to actually stay on top of the icy crust and not sink to the ground, other times… Ya just never knew what would happen when you tried to take a step.
DH shoveled a path to the wood pile and the privy. We played cards listened to the radio (no TV at the camp, and that’s not a bad thing) and I got some knitting done.

On Sat. morning we went out to get water (there’s no running water at the camp either, hence the title “camp” and the need for a privy) and it was very icy at the spring. The water was running though, which was a very good thing! It was beautiful with the sun shinning on the snow.

I worked on these socks while we were in the mountains for the weekend. They were made using Wendy’s generic Toe up pattern ( I really like this pattern, you’ve gotta check it out!) I used a skein of Austerman’s Step, mit Aloe Vera und Johoba, on size one Knit Picks dpn. They were a really fast knit. I finished them Thursday evening and DH wore them to work on Friday. He really seems to like his hand knit socks! I think it’s really cute!

Since DH’s socks are finished, I decided to start these……

The yarn is also Austerman’s Step and the colorway is from a very pale green to a mossy green to a brighter minty green with little purple flecks in it. The colorway is 07. I love the color of the yarn but don’t think I have much to wear it with. That’s okay, I’ll wear them anyhow (or find a top to go with them). I’ve rented a movie for this evening and these should be perfect to go along with it.

I haven’t updated for a while so I thought I’d catch up. Not a lot has been going on. I figure it must be the good old winter slow time. I finally finished

knitting all of the sleeves, all 4 of them for the Norwegian sweaters that I’ve been knitting for my grand daughters. I have the ends woven in on all but 1 of the sleeves. I’m planning to have them finished for Valentine’s Day. That gives me a date to shoot for. This is the last picture I’ll take of the sweaters before I steek them. I’ve never done this before and I have to admit, It REALLY makes me nervous to think about taking scissors to them. I keep telling myself the I really don’t have a choice if I ever hope to see the sweaters on the girls. Sorry for the dark pictures but I had to take them inside at night. There’s not a lot of daylight around here after I get home from work.

I’ve been working on my Icarus shawl and am on the last half of the last chart. It shouldn’t take too much time to finish it off. Since knitted lace doesn’t look like much till it’s blocked, I’ll take pictures and post them when I’m done.

I also finished a pair of socks using Knit Picks Simple Stripes and Wendy’s generic toe up sock pattern. I really like toe up socks better than top down. It took me a while to get the short rows right and Wendy’s new detailed directions are great. They describe the short rows very clearly! Knitting socks with this pattern seemed to go really qickly. I was able to do a sock in about 2 or 3 evenings after work. Yea, working does bit into your knitting time but it also helps to fund the habit. I love this colorway, I’d tell you the name of it but I can’t find the yarn band and I couldn’t find the same yarn on Knit Picks site. I think these socks will look good with jeans.

DH and I went to the mountains, Tionesta, a couple of weekends ago and of course I
visited the
Reiland Farm and Shoppe. I picked up some wool/mohair roving for my sister-in-law to try. She has a spinning wheel and hasn’t been having a lot of luck spinning. This is the same roving I used when I learned to spin and I thought the my sister-in-law might have an easier time spinning with it. I also found some 100% mohair pencil roving while I was there and picked up some to try spinning lace weight yarn. We’ll see how it goes, I’ll be sure to let you know. I’d love to knit a lace scarf out of handspun.

I’ve been spinning some Colonial Wool that I picked up a while back. The roving color
is called “Red Swirl” and has lots of colors in it. I have 1 bobin full at this point and have about 3/4 of a pound more to spin. Someday I’m going to have to knit something with my hand spun yarn. I don’t have anything planned for it yet. If you have any suggestions I’d be happy to hear them.

Welcome 2007 – a new year, a new adventure, more knitting!
I love the holidays and this year was not a disappointment. Christmas was filled with lots of family, lots of friends, lots of food and plenty to drink. A good time seemed to be had by all. I think having some little ones around always makes Christmas a good time. My granddaughters are now 1 and 3 years old and were great to share Christmas with.

Our family has a grab bag that is not mandatory to join. If you decide to join the grab bag, you choose a name on Christmas Eve and have a year to make the person a gift. Yes, all of the gifts are to be handmade. Any type of craft is acceptable except edible items (it’s not acceptable to make someone a cake and call it a handmade item). When the family all gets together on Christmas Eve we exchange our gifts for the person chosen the year before. It’s always (both years that we’ve been doing this) to see what everyone made for their grab bag person. This year we had handmade quilts, knitting needle organizers, a really cute Christmas decoration snowman made out of a glass block (the kind you use for windows), a hand knit scarf, a very masculine knitting bag for our male knitter, hand knit sweaters, and an oak stash box/ottoman. We seem to have a lot of talent in our family.

My gift for my grab bag person was the Irish Moss sweater that I blogged about earlier. I finally put the buttons on it and washed and blocked it. I loved the way it turned out. The Elsebeth Lavold silky wool created a nice, not too heavy and bulky, sweater that seemed to have a nice drape to it.

Here is a close up of the pattern. It’s all done with twisted stitches and the pattern is very easy to memorize.

I was concerned about the recipient liking the color and design of the sweater but when she opened it, it certainly looked like it was to her liking.

Here is a picture of her with her sweater. It fit! I was so excited!!
Click on the picture to enlarge it if it’s too dificult to see.

I was in a yarn shop with my DD the other day and almost bought more Elsebeth Lavold to make this sweater again for myself. I resisted though, there are a few other sweater’s I have on my wish list to knit. Maybe I’ll do Irish Moss again someday.

This is a picture of me opening my stash box. Yep, it’s the one I was gifted in the family grab bag, Maybe your family should start one too! Michael did a super job! I absolutely love it and it looks great sitting beside my spinning wheel.

I’ve been plugging along on my Norweigan sweaters . Go ahead and look if you’ve forgotten what they look like, I’ll wait. I have 3 out of 4 sleeves done and the 4th sleeve is started. I feel like I’m knitting for an octopus! The last sleeve shouldn’t take too long and then I get to figure out steeking. I hope I don’t trash the sweaters in the process. It makes me a bit nervous to consider taking scissors to 2 sweaters that took hours to knit.

Right after Christmas my granddaughters both had birthdays. The youngest turned 1 on December 29th and the oldest turned 3 on January 3rd. Happy Birthday Girls!! They enjoyed a joint birthday party at Chez Capers on New Year’s Day. It was a great way to start out the year.

The birthday girlies!

I’ve been doing some more spinning and finished the gray wool/mohair that I purchased at Reiland’s Shop. It looks very much like the first skein I plyed except it’s thinner and more consistent. I’m getting better but there is still room for improvement. I think it just takes practice. I made 544 yards of 2 ply yarn that weighs 6 7/8 ounces. I’m not sure what the wpi are or what weight you would consider it to be, I’m thinking somwhere around a DK. I’ll keep working on it! I love spinning! It seems to be very relaxing but I have a hard time deciding between knitting and spinning when I have the time for either. Working full time certainly puts a bite into your fiber arts time.

Well, I’ve got one more sleeve to finish so I’d better get to it. Hopefully it won’t be 3 months before I blog again. Till then, take care and happy knitting!

I got the Christmas cards ready to go into the mail this evening. I’m trying to get at least 1 Christmas related task finished each evening so that I don’t get into the “hurry up and finish” mode that usually sets in every year. DH and I spent the weekend scrubbing down rooms to prepare the house for the holidays. The outside decorations are up and I’ll decorate the inside this weekend. I have the shopping nearly done. All that’s left is baking and present wrapping. I hope I decide to wrap the presents before Christmas Eve this year. On many most Christmas Eves I’ve locked myself in my bedroom all afternoon and wrapped all of the presents. I keep trying to convince myself to wrap gifts as I purchase them but I must be a tough cookie. I can’t even convince myself to do it. Procrastination is my strong suit.

Yep, I still need to sew the buttons on a sweater that I’m gifting for Christmas. I’ve had the knitting all done since September but haven’t totally finished it. I think I picked up the buttons in October. I’d hate to ruin my reputation and have something done months in advance.

I’m still working on the sleeves for the Norewegian sweaters for my granddaughters. I’m almost half way up the 2nd of 4. I knit another 1 1/2 baby Jaywalker socks. The same yarn and the same colorway as the previous pair. I’d like to start another pair of socks for myself but don’t allow myself to cast on ’till I finish the baby Jaywalkers. I’ve gotten to the last partial repeat before the lace of the Icarus shawl, another project without a deadline so I work on it when the spirit moves me. I’d get more knitting done if it weren’t for working and getting ready for the holiday.

I purchased some of Knit Picks double pointed needles in size 0 and size 1 for myself and my son to use when knitting socks. It seems like we’re both hard on wooden needles of these sizes. I got some for me and purchased 2 sets for him. It’s had to share knitting needles. I haven’t tried them yet but they look really nice. I like the points on them. I also ordered a set of Size 3 Circulars (24 inch). I think they’ll be nice for lace knitting. The points seem sharp for doing yarn overs and the cables seem flexible. Nope, haven’t actually tried them yet either. While I was browsing around Knit Picks needles, I thought I try some of the Options. I got 24 inch and 32 inch cable and needle tips in sizes 5,6, and 7. I thought I’d give them a try and see how I like them. I’ll let you know when I give them a go.

Well, off to work on a sleeve for the rest of the evening.

I knew that there was something else that I knit and forgot to mention. I started this sweater after I finished the Christening gown for my granddaughter (See the Flicker badge in the sidebar). I decided to knit a sweater for DH and give it to him for his birthday in September.

My DD asked how I was going to be able to knit a sweater without him seeing it. I told her, “Since I’ve been making things for years, he’s kinda gotten used to seeing me make things and doesn’t ask what I’m making or for whom I’m making it”. I told DD that I could probably sit in right in front of him and knit an entire sweater and he would never notice. I began the sweater and as I was progressing up the body, DH said “What are you making?” Ahhh… “A sweater” was my reply. Then he asked “Who’s it for?” Ahhh, he never asks!!! I told him I was making it for our son for Christmas. Okay, I lied! So, when I got the sweater nearly finished I told DH that our son has long arms and asked DH if he would try the sweater on so that I could see if the sleeves would be long enough. He kindly obliged. I finished the sweater, blocked it and promptly packed it in a box and put it away, that was in March. In September I gave him his birthday present. His remark, “Why did you give me Steve’s sweater?” I had to ‘fess up and explain the whole thing to him. Leson Learned: don’t think someone isn’t paying attention just because it seems like they aren’t.

I especially like the neckline on this sweater. It actually looks much better on a person. When DH wears it I’ll take a picture and show you.

The pattern is from Alice Starmore’s Fisherman’s Sweaters and the pattern is Cornwall. I love the patterns in this book and would love to make more sweaters from it. Someday I probably will. I used Elann Peruvian Highlad wool in Celery. I love the color of this yarn! It’s slightly green but in some lighting looks tan. DH seemed to like the sweater too! I hope he gets a lot of wear out of it.

DS was home over the weekend and I convinced him to help me make Apple pies. I told him that if he helped, he could take one back to school with him. I had him peel the apples while I mixed pie dough. I figure anyone who likes to eat should learn to cook. He didn’t seem to mind helping out and around here it’s not strange to find a male person in the kitchen cooking. We ended up with 2 pies and I kept my promise and let him take one of them.

While we were making the pies, I told DS that I was going to take his picture and “blog it”. I always keep my promises!

I finished one entire sleeve for my Norwegian sweaters, 3 more to go!

Okay, so I haven’t blogged in ages. The time span gets longer between entries. I really have to do something about this, like quit procrastinating!

Where have I been? Since you’ve asked, here goes. I finished the Fiber Trends Sheep Tote for the Church picnic and filled it with goodies. The auction was held and there were bids on the bag. It went to the highest bidder, that’s how auctions work. Here is a picture of the FO and it’s contents.

And here is a picture of the contents of the bag laid out.

There is a little bit of eveything for someone with an interest in knitting.

I’ve also finished….
The Gentleman’s Fancy socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. I made these for my DH. He wore them to work one day and said that they were too warm. That might be because it’s been about 70 degrees F. around here which is not normal for November. The socks probably won’t be too warm for him when winter sets in, which I’m sure is coming soon.

Where am I on the Irish Moss Sweater? I finished knitting the sweater and still have to sew on the buttons and block it. I’ll take a picture and post it when I quit procrastinating and finish it.

I’ve also finished the socks I made from the Yarn Harlot’s sock recipe. These were made with Opal sock yarn in the Flamingo colorway. I’d definitely use this pattern again.

I’m still plugging away on Icarus but progress is slow because I decided to make Norwegian sweaters for my granddaughters. Yes, that is plural. I’m making 2 matching sweaters. I think the girls will look adorable running around in matching sweaters. I’m also taking advantage of doing this while they are still young. They may not like matching each other when they get older.
I have, as you can see, the bodies done and have started the first of 4 sleeves. The patter is from Dalegarn # 136. I’m using Baby Ull and size 0 and size 2 circular and DP needles. The sweaters will be cardigans (you can see the area for the steeks if you enlarge the picture). I have to admit, I’ve never done Fair Isle knitting before and I’ve yet to do steeks. I guess I like to jump in with both feet.

I’d love to make matching Tams to go with the sweaters. I figure I better concentrate on finishing the sweaters first.

I took a break on the sweaters, between the bodies and the start of sleeves, and made this adorable pair of socks.

I ended up using a variety of patterns to come up with them. They are based on the Jaywalking pattern by Grumperina. I looked at April’s Baby Jaywalkers pattern on and decided to use some ideas from that pattern but heavily based the sizing and shape of the sock on Marks & Kattens pattern #03115. The yarn is Marks & Kattens Clown; colorway 1787. I used size 2 DP needles.

Since I last chatted with you, my DH and I went to Las Vegas for our 30th wedding anniversary. It was the 1st week of November and the weather was terrific!
We stayed at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino. It is amazing how much “Bling” is going on in Vegas. We spent the mornings taking walks to see the strip and spent the afternoons sitting around the pool. Of course we did a bit of gambling, saw a few shows and had some great meals. I’d say a good time was had by all.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. Dinner was just DH, DS, my father and me. My daughter, son-in-law and their girls came over for the evening to share desert with us. It’s always fun when they arrive, the girls keep things entertaining. It’s not that the adults aren’t entertaining, but a 1 year old and a 3 year old are much more fun than adults. We gave the girls an Advent calendar that has doors that open for each day. Each of the doors have little treats inside. Anna thought it would be a good idea to open the all the doors on Thanksgiving day. We packed the calendar back up in its box – out of sight out of mind! As of Friday, she’s been allowd to open a door each day.

Claire certainly enjoyed the pumpkin pie! I hear it is excellent for your complexion.