Easter Sunday

My husband was an Aries.

My daughter is a Gemini.

My son is a Libra.

Today would have been my husband's 65th birthday.

January and Goals

I don't make New Year's Resolutions.  I've never had a life Plan, Five-Year or otherwise.  My life has always just sort of happened.  Not entirely, of course --- I did set my cap and my jaw for a few things along the way.  But mostly, I've just dealt with each day as best I could.

Still, I find myself looking back over this month as it ends and being proud of keeping some promises I made to myself.  I continued with the Alphabetical Authors run, knocking out "R," "S," "T," and beginning "U."

And, I took myself out of town.  For the last couple of years, I've been aching to travel.  Big, airplane-y, meet people I only know online travel.  But, still unemployed, Travel has to be smaller, smarter.  One place a month.  The bed and breakfast I began with was ideal, and a wondrous start that made me want to keep going all year.  In fact, my February destination may already be chosen.

But that's for another month.

Baby Steps

My self-promise to take myself on a trip each month has begun a scant 20 minutes from Athens, at a Bed and Breakfast.

Only for two nights, but away, and comfortable, and, perhaps most indulgently:

a noise machine that can make it sound like I'm by the ocean.  ABSOLUTE HEAVEN.

This is the room I'm in:

However, I'm the only guest in the house, so I've wandered around and looked at all the rooms.  Already picked out the one I want when/if I come back.

The bed is so, so comfortable --- I've knit in the parlor and read on one of the porches --- I've taken as much advantage of being alone while meeting my three goals: napping, knitting, reading.  It's been a good couple of days.

Tradition

When my parents were alive, my mother cooked black-eyed pears, hog jowl and collard greens every New Year's Day.  Daddy was extraordinarily superstitious, and wouldn't have it any other way.  No one in my family now eats hog jowls or collards, though my daughter does love black-eyed peas, so we  just throw caution to the culinary winds and eat what we want at the beginning of the year.  This year, it was stir-fry at Genghis Grill for the two of us.  My son went to Atlanta to pick his girlfriend up at the airport;  she's been in Australia the last three weeks.

Also, whatever you do on New Year's Day is supposed to be the template for what you are going to do the rest of the year.  If that's so, I'm going to drive in cold rain a lot, shop at Barnes & Noble, eat stir-fry often and cast on new knitting projects.

You?

In Brief (With Pictures)

New favorite book.  Wish I weren't working on two things already.

A couple more Christmas pictures:

The traditional top-of-the-stairs-before-opening-presents photo.

Hannah wasn't having any luck explaining Christmas to Klunk, so she turned the job over to the big brothers.  (Note Klunk's Fair Isle turtleneck.)

GET IT?

Finn's favorite toy.  He has scarcely let go of it, save for an adventure or two with the "baked potato" on the left.

Visual Christmas Story

Eve

Yes, casting on before Christmas.  Actually, none of my gifts this year were handmade.  Mostly because most of my gifts were bought for Briton and Hannah, and they look on handknits the same way most people look on a beautifully wrapped boxed that turns out to contain underwear.

I am using knits in my 26 Acts campaign.  So far, I've been leaving things on people's cars in parking lots, so that it will be both a true surprise and a real mystery.  I haven't made an etsy sale this year, so I've got plenty of items from which to choose.  The other day, when I had my car serviced, I left a cat I had made in the children's waiting room, with a note attached that said he could be taken home.

It's a cold, rainy Christmas Eve here, which makes huddling up inside with some knitting and "Mystery Science Theater 3000" just perfect.  Hannah is working today --- when she's done, we're going to IHOP to eat, then our annual visit to a live Nativity scene.  When we get home, we each open one gift, then watch "Muppet Christmas Carol."  Traditions are rather soothing, don't you think?