Merry Christmas

      Well, we survived another Christmas. 

Jeff's sister, Sherry, and my cousin, Ed, joined us for dinner and we all enjoyed Jeff's roast beef, with baked potatoes, glazed carrots, gravy and homemade biscuits.  I cut out most of the desserts in an attempt to help Jeff get his A1C level back in control, just leaving my Italian egg cookies (this year made with Stevia and for some reason they got very hard very fast.  Fanny is enjoying the last few...thinks they are fancy dog treats!).  Ed brought some castagna...roasted chestnuts...but he and I were the only ones who tried them.  I also bought some alici...anchovies...but never opened the can because I was the only one who really likes them...and never made fried dough.  But we feasted!  Our 5 1/2 lb roast drew rave reviews and there was little left over! 
   Presents were exchanged and the hi-light of them was the cap Sherry gave Jeff that has a light in the brim.  It may

be too small for Jeff and if that's the case I volunteered to wear it!  Sherry liked the cowl I had made for her...in fact, she liked the one I had

 
finished and the one I had not, so I promised to finish the 2nd one for her, too.  Ed agreed this year's socks were nice enough to wear to work and not just wear to use the snowplower!  Fanny made out the best, giftwise.  Sherry gave her a 20 lb bag of gourmet dog food, a bag of beefy treats and 2 rawhide chews! (The youngest family member always makes out the best, don't they?  Even if they are a dog.)  Jeff and I got 4 or 5 new dvd's from Sherry to share that he (and Ed) will enjoy.  Guess I'm going to have to buy my own. (I had wanted 'Florence Foster Jenkins' with Meryl Streep and Simon Helberg...Howard from Big Bang Theory.)  Sherry gave me a drying stand so I can block scarves and shawls without Fanny jumping on them, something I am looking forward to using!!

   We planned to have dinner around 2pm so

Sherry could get home before dark.  She left around 4pm and made it home OK after getting stuck in our driveway.  Ed left about 7pm and he got stuck in about the same place and ended up just backing  down the big driveway to the paved road. The big driveway turns into a speed staking rink really quick and it's easy to get stuck across it.  But they both eventually made it out and Jeff made it in and out yesterday without any trouble.  I haven't tried and don't plan on trying until tomorrow...or until we get some snow to cover that ice.
  I'm on vacation for the rest of this week, knitting what I want when I want.  The shop is closed for the season...or in hibernation, as we like to say. I still have to go to Cooperstown and gather my stock but I'm going to wait until next Friday when I have an orthopedic appointment (you know, 2 birds...1 trip).  After a slow December, sales picked up at the end and we ended up just shy of last year's sales.  Not bad.  I actually sold 3 sweaters the last day!  But the guy who worked didn't write the name of the sweater, just the generic 'sweater'.  I'll be able to tell what sold when I see what's left.  I've got a sweater order to do before I start working on my spring stock but I think I deserve a couple of days off first.  Maybe I'll actually make myself a pair of socks!  There's this skein of machine washable Peruvian
wool and alpaca sock yarn I've been saving....

     Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas!