Christmas 2019

   Christmas has come and gone for another year.  My cousin, Ed, and Jeff's sister, Sherry, joined us for Christmas dinner this year.  We did a pork loin on the Ronco with baked potatoes (in the microwave), gravy and green beans.  I even made baking powder biscuits!  For dessert I had made a sugar-free chocolate pudding pie and a sugar-free cake.  Ed went the other route and brought petite-fours and frosted brownies...definitely not sugar free!...for dessert.  Everything was delicious!!  Can't beat the Ronco for doing a piece of meat.  We put a dry rub on it the night before and left it in the refrigerator in a plastic bag over night.  Never had a roast been so tender and flavorful!  Jeff did the green beans...he calls them 'fried' actually you saute them in olive oil and butter and seasoned with garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper.  I'm not sure if he didn't put in a jigger or two of hot sauce, too.  Anyway, he opened 2 cans and they all went!  
    Dinner was suppose to be at 1-1:30 but we couldn't find all the leaves for the table.  Years ago, Dad and I had measured and cut 4 pine boards and he had drilled and put in holes and pegs to create the leaf system.  (In those days it was nothing to have 25 people or more here for Christmas Eve dinner!!)  I even had numbered the sides of the leaves (1-1,1-2, 2-3, 3-4) so we could save time putting it together!  This year we couldn't find leaf #1 and while #2, 3 and 4 fit together they would not stay put in the table because the pegs that fit into the table were in the missing leaf #1!  Finally, we just gave up and put them all away and used the table without and leaves.(There were only 4 of us so while it was cozy it wasn't that crowded!!) But the time we wasted trying to get the leaves to fit...I forgot to start the Ronco at noon so we ate a little later than we had planned...but it all worked out ok.
    Sherry went home a little after 4 pm so she wouldn't have to drive after dark but Ed stayed and we talked.  He's sold his house in E Herkimer and now lives in Sherwood Acres.  It's been a change he's still getting use to but he likes it.  It's got me thinking about all the stuff (read: junk) I've collected over the years,  what Jeff brought with him and what we've accumulated since his arrival and I'm thinking maybe we should start downsizing and not wait until it's just one of us left to do it.  We'll have to wait and see.  Jeff is a bit of a hoarder...worse than me with yarn...and I'm sure it will be difficult to get him to part with any of the old computer monitors, keyboards...just look around our living room!!
  I did get the hat that I was doing for 

Sherry finished in time.  I used Red Heart's  'with Love' in Metallic Blue on US 7's.  The pattern, A Lady's Hat by Nurcan Kaya, that I found on Ravelry called for a larger needle but Sherry prefers a snug hat.  And that's a braid not a cable around the hat with the button holding the ends together.  For Ed I made a pair of socks

using Paton's Kroy sock yarn in 'Route 66'.  It made up rather nicely, too.
(I also got a shawl/scarf finished for Maggie with Red Heart's 'with Love' in Metallic Pewter using Liz Abinante' Saroyan, another pattern I found on Ravelry.  I had it all ready to take to the Post Office to mail to her on Christmas Eve when she stopped her on the way home from her husband's PT at Little Falls Hospital.)
   Before Ed left, Zoey started playing tag with her friend, a mouse.  They'd chase each other around the TV room but never let the other one get closer than touch.  Then they'd sit and stare at each other for a few minutes and then the race was on again!  It went on for over half an hour!!  It was so cute...and sweet...and funny.  Zoey never got closer to the mouse than to kiss it's head or ass depending on which way the mouse was heading.  Suddenly it was over and the mouse headed back into it's hiding place and Zoey jumped up on a chair and went to sleep.
   Saturday Ed and I went to Cooperstown to unload my display in the shop.  The ride was nice, no snow or ice on the road...or on the hills along the way, either!  I was disappointed with my December sales in the shop so we had a lot of stock to bring home.  The parking lot of Doubleday Field is still a muddy mess!  It was dug up to replace water and electrical lines as part of the $$ renovation of Doubleday Field and won't get it repaved until Spring.  While we got new stairs up to the shop and a 
and a new wall along the big parking lot, our flower bed took a direct hit.  I don't think it will be as nice as usual next year.  And we still have to have a new railing installed.   After we finished in the shop I took Ed over to the Doubleday Cafe on Main St for lunch.  It was crowded...lots of tourists...but we got lucky and didn't have to wait long for a table.  Jeff was waiting for us at home with coffee to hear about the trip.  Now I've just got to find someplace to put all that stock until next April.  
   Last night I was working on Jeff's

Christmas socks...yes, Christmas 2019 but I was close!...and was ready to do the heel on the 2nd sock when the power went out.  There was no sense in trying to knit by flashlight and it was almost 10 pm so I just took my pills and went to bed...and the dogs went with me!  The power came back on in about an hour and woke me up because the lamp by my chair as still on and the clock on the night table started flashing!  I got up and took care of them...and the flashing clock on the stove in the kitchen...and then went back to bed.  The power went out twice more during the night and I got up to let the dogs out and stop the clocks from flashing around 5 am.  We all went back to bed after that!  You've got to remember when the power goes out around here it means no heat, water or lights so bed was the warmest place in the house...especially with 2 dogs!  Zoey even crawled under the blankets for while!!
   Jeff's got PT this afternoon...not that he's looking forward to it.  His range of motion has improved but the pain hasn't lessened.  He was evaluated last week and the recommendation was for another course of PT.  We've got to stop at the grocery store on the way home, too, and I've got a movie overdue at the library.  (I've got 12 books waiting for me at Ilion Library, too!  How do I get so many of what I order to come in at once??)  It's been raining steady all night and day but most of the ice and snow is gone.  There isn't much snow in the forecast for the next week, either.  
    I ordered some more sock yarn...this time from JoAnn Fabrics...so I can finally make myself a pair.  Ed got a pair for Christmas, and Jeff got his birthday socks...due in March but finished in December, and another pair I found that I had started for him besides these I'm doing now so the next pair is for ME!!  I usually order sock yarn from Mary Maxim but the last couple of times the color runs in the 2 skeins that were suppose to match haven't.  The socks I'm finishing now had a couple of yards of yarn wound around the skein...like an after thought...just to get the weight up to where it should be?  I ordered the same label yarn, Paton's Kroy, but this time from JoAnn Fabrics.  Let's see if it's the yarn or if Mary Maxim had gotten bad skeins.  Oh, I also joined KnitCrate, a yarn club.  Once a month they send a box with enough yarn to make...in my case a pair of socks...Sock Crate.  But I think merino and baby alpaca is too good/nice/soft to be walked all over so I'm planning to use my first skein, a beautiful green called Garland, for a shawl.  I've already found several patterns that call for only 400 yds of yarn...the amount that's in that skein.  Photo to follow!!
   Now it's time for Jeff's PT!!