Chillin in the New Year

College Girl collects snowmen and loves to bake – so here is Frosty – just chillin! She made three of these for various holiday festivities…one for practice, one for my book club dinner and one for the first night the family was all here. He had to reside in the fridge between creation and tasting – otherwise he fell apart at the seams!

Christmas was lots of fun – but definitely package and mess overload! Oh my gosh there were a lot of packages. Included was a beautiful yarn swift (yea!!!) and some delicious Alpaca sock yarn. The colors in the yarn really match the new jacket the kids got me – so instead of socks it will become mittens for me! My yarn – my mittens. Darn - I'll have to knit a new scarf too! Pictures soon.

Having 7 extra people living here was challenging – am now just getting things put back together. The tree comes down tomorrow and the rest of the Christmas stuff gets packed away before college girl goes back to school next Sunday. I need help putting the boxes up on the high shelves. I hate to see it go – especially the tree. It smells so nice.

The kids had a lot of fun together – we are so lucky the cousins are all such good friends. They compared college adventures, played games, shopped and had a good time. I enjoyed being with my siblings – nice to have brother here to put in my new microwave – saw it on sale so cheap I had to get it for myself with my bonus from work. It matches the stove and helps to update the tired kitchen.

Started back to work full-time right after Christmas – now that was a challenge. Having to get up early and actually be ready to face the day….having almost 6 months off from going to a regularly scheduled day was a gift – but now back to the real world as I keep telling the kids!

I do have some pretty specific New Year’s resolutions – I will stick to them too! – 1) Continue to work at Weight Watchers – I’ve been successful (After Christmas clothes shopping was very satisfying – I needed work outfits!) so no reason not to keep going; 2) get more exercise – I really want to ride my bike. I ran into an old friend the other day – she had just finished a ride. I told her I’d join her when the weather got a little warmer – it was only 14 this morning so don’t think it’s an immediate thing. 3) Become a more detailed knitter – be more careful and rip out my mistakes if necessary. Learn to finish more professionally. Obviously I like the hand knit look – but not the messy hand knit part! My knitting looks nice to others – but I always find flaws that are just sloppy work – you know – you’re almost finished and you hurry through the last steps. Well no more of that for me! I also will pay more attention to the pattern and to fitting with EPS. I’ve done it before and it worked out perfectly. I just need to remind myself of that! And 4) GET OUT THERE!! Really, I need more of a life with friends, so will work at that too.

Am looking forward to having a great year, enjoying my family (I’m so glad middle daughter is living close by and comes by often to hang out! And Son is remembering to call his mom more often – love it!), enjoying my job (I do!) and staying in touch with my blogging buddies! Happy New Year to all!