Week 51 - Packages and Socks

It was another package day on Monday. My last package was picked up and four arrived. How's that for a great way to start a week? As if that wasn't enough, I got an email from Tracie of Grocery Girls (my favorite knitting podcast) saying I'd won a prize. I don't know what it will be but I'm sure it'll be fun.

One of the packages that arrived was the skein of advent sock yarn I'd ordered. Advent skeins are designed with 24 different colors so you can knit one stripe each day and have new socks by Christmas. But I bought mine late so figured I'd knit 2 stripes/day and have a pair by epiphany. Then I started knitting and was having so much fun that I decided to do 4/day to get them done by Christmas. By Saturday night the first sock was done. Yay! I also finished 3 other pairs of socks, including the Christmas socks I'd started on the cruise. That deserves another Yay!

We had weird weather on Wednesday but since it was in the 70's, as troublesome as that is, I took advantage of it and met Lorri in the park for lunch. The sun wasn't out so it wasn't exactly balmy but still warm enough and I do enjoy our lunches in the park - one good thing that came out of Covid. Say what? But lunch was the calm before the storm. Literally. I taught from 1:30-3:00 and shortly thereafter, the weather changed for the worse. Tornado sirens went off and I was in the basement with the cats. We never lost power and the storm was over in 5 minutes. The temp dropped 20 degrees and the sky was an ominous yellow but it was over. At least for us. I saw a few trees down in the neighborhood the next morning but poor Kentucky. And so close to Christmas.

I had my neck lump removal scheduled Thursday at 11:30 WAY down south in Lincoln. I had considered going into the office but didn't so headed to the dermatologist after our 10:00 zoom. The surgery was super quick and after the first 2 jabs, I didn't feel anything. I left just after noon, stopped at Aldi and and HyVee, where I scored a cheap turkey. Then it was on to Anne's to eat the Panera salad I'd picked up. After that yummy lunch, I helped Anne do the heel on another Christmas stocking. I'd helped her on the cruise but she needed help again, which I was glad to give. I had considered running more errands but instead headed home for a cup of tea as the sun went down. Nice.

Friday was Ben and Brook's last day since they were both taking Monday and Tuesday off. The day didn't drag, which is a good thing for a Friday and I had no commitments on the weekend so would be staying in and getting things done.

I had a big to do list but spent most of Saturday sitting in the sun knitting. Oh well. I made up for it on Sunday, getting a few chores done but mostly baking cookies while listening to Christmas music. Cindy and I are hosting lunch on Tuesday for the few people who are coming in and cookies and homemade bread are my contribution. I made peanut butter blossoms, brownies and almond fingers. I had a bit of a snafu with the first batch of brownies, stumped with figuring out the equivalent to "2 squares" of baking chocolate when they're not squares anymore. The first batch had half the chocolate so was super sweet and not chocolaty enough but the 2nd batch was fine. I ended the day watching Elf, which I'd never seen before. Totally cute.

I'm heading into a two day work week so made a list of potential projects to do over break. I had decided to cook the turkey on Wednesday instead of this weekend so that'll be a fun way to start my break. I'm excited for break, as always. I hope your Christmas prep is going well now that we're in the home stretch. Have a Merry Christmas.