Week 51 - Last Full Week

It was a busy week, both at work and at home, and the last full work week before break. Needless to say, it flew by.

I started the work week with 3 zoom meetings on Monday morning. Then I got the long overdue unemployment bill so that started a flurry of allocations, which take a chunk of time. I had zoom meetings on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday on top of our 3X/week team meetings. I think everyone was trying to finish things before Christmas and lots of people would be burning vacation time next week so this week was crammed full. And I jam packed my Wednesday on campus too.

We were having another party but this one was for our door decorating contest. Cindy, Lana and I were on deck for it all again. We were doing Christmas cookies and a hot chocolate bar for most of our building. I was in charge of cookies so had recruited bakers and made 2 kinds myself on Tuesday - brownies at lunch and Scandinavian almond bars after work. I loaded up the car for another busy day on campus.

We set up the conference room in the morning then I went to lunch with Dodie at our new place - Bison Witches. The door party, which started at 3:00, was a success and after we cleaned everything up, I had to bolt because I'd scheduled a shingles shot at CVS at 5:00. $215 and a sore arm later, I headed home for the 3 hour Survivor Finale. It wa a long but fun and productive day.

We had more weather but this week it was RAIN! We're 9" short on rain this year and I can count the rain we've had since May on 1 hand so it was wonderful to hear the rain on the roof when I woke up Tuesday. It rained most of the day and we got >1/2", which we desperately needed. I had book club Thursday night, which was rescheduled because of weather last week, and we had a great discussion. The next book is my pick - The Perfume Thief by Timoth Schaffert, who teaches at UNL. I've read most of his books and am looking forward to reading this one, which takes place in Paris.

I was busy right up until the end of the day Friday and when I zoomed with Cindy, she started working on me to go with her to a funeral. Our friend Nora's mother in law had died and since Cindy is related to her, she was going and wanted company. Betty had been to a couple of my July 4th cookouts back when I hosted them and Cindy laid the guilt on thick so by the end of the day, I'd agreed to go. It was in Cedar Bluffs (a small town 15 miles north of Wahoo) at 11:00 and the deal was that I'd go if we could go to Fremont afterwards for an Aldi run. 

After my Saturday morning chats with friends, I found some corduroys to wear and Cindy picked me up. Nora was happy to see us and we chatted with her during the lunch afterwards in the church hall then headed to Fremont. Before Aldi, we hit Thriftology and they were having a $5 bag sale so I filled a bag with all kinds of goodies, including a Christmas gift for my sister for Christmas 2023. Score! Then we did our Aldi run before Cindy dropped me back home. Despite her guilting me into going, I was glad that I did.

I didn't have many chores to do and did a quick clean up first thing in case Lorri stopped after church (she didn't) so had the entire afternoon to relax, a.k.a. stream and knit. The upcoming week was a short one and Lacey had made Wednesday on campus optional so I was in for the duration. We had some frigid weather coming so I was happy to be home with a fully stock larder ready for Christmas. Less than 4 days to go and before the ever blissful winter break. I'm so ready! Here's a picture of my little tinsel tree in my front window. Happy holidays!

Week 50 - All the Packages

It was a festive week that started with a party and then it was packages, packages and more packages. It was all the Christmas hussle that's early December when I'm staying in Nebraska so have to ship all my presents. I was ready.

Monday was our office Christmas party - a brunch in a room near campus - and Lana, Cindy and I were on set up duty. I had loaded some stuff into the car on Sunday and had another pile by the door so I could get to campus on time Monday. And I did. After offloading some stuff in the office, we headed right over and got the room all set up and decorated before everyone arrived at 10:00. The party was fun and by the time we broke it all down, it was noon. I drove to UPS to drop off my sister's huge package (I'd tried before work but they weren't open yet) so my first package was on its way. Yay! I went to Aldi after work so was late to knitting but now I was home for the rest of the week. Nice.

The rest of the week was packages. Every. Single. Day. My aim was to be done by the weekend so it was all about wrapping, packing, printing postage and a mix of post office drop offs and scheduling pick ups. The smaller ones were easy (socks in an envelope mostly) but my last big one went out on Saturday and like that, I was done!

The rest of the week was fine. I trained 2 afternoons, which always makes those days fly, and we had some weather on Thursday - rain that froze when the sun went down so we had to postpone book club. Better safe then sorry. Then somehow I pulled a muscle in my back while pouring coffee on Friday morning. It was near my left shoulder blade and was pretty uncomfortable. My boss told me to take the afternoon off and not to feel guilty so I did. I spent 3.5 hours on a heating pad and it made a big difference. I was adult about it and declined to go to Fremont with Andrea that afternoon. Bummer but I didn't want to make it worse because I had things to do on the weekend.

With my last package waiting at the back door for pick up that afternoon, I started Saturday morning chatting with 2 friends, ran some errands and got BK for lunch and then it was time to decorate my tree, which had been up but naked all week. I always watch It's a Wonderful Life so got that streaming and then decorated my tree. After some light issues, the ornaments didn't take long so I knitted through the rest of the movie and then enjoyed some eggnog in the dark with the tree lights on, which is one of my favorite things at Christmas.

The next day being Sunday, I had chores and cooking to do. I made a pie, meatballs and cabbage casserole so was all set for food for the coming week. Clearly it was time to knit and I did, getting up and down all day to fiddle with the tree. 

I was feeling good about things and with the packages all sent and everything decorated, it was time to start my not going to Rhode Island pre-Christmas relaxation mode. There would be lots of knitting and watching vlogmas videos on YouTube (these are daily podcasts by knitters showing their holiday prep and knitting and I totally love them) to get me in the spirit. Ho ho ho!

Week 49 - Brimming with Festivity

The week started in November but somehow I was already feeling pressure to get Christmas stuff done. Probably because I'm not going to Rhode Island, yet again - 3rd year, and so I have to get packages shipped early and it felt like Christmas was coming fast.

Getting the parking cut down on Sunday was a good thing because by Tuesday morning, it was flurrying. It didn't amount to anything but made it feel extra cozy when I made a blackberry/apple pie and potato ham puff (using up the last Thanksgiving potatoes) that night.

Wednesday was an on campus day and our mission was to decorate our doors for the 2nd annual door decorating contest. Our plan was to tape over our door, with a socially acceptable decoration on the outside with a hole in the middle to stick your head through. This is what you saw on the non-PC inside view. We called our door Christmas in the Rear View.

The festivity continued after work when I met Darla for dinner of hot beef sandwiches at Virginia's Cafe before heading to Menard's. They had more trees and smaller ones too. I was able to get a nice 5' Fraser fir for <$50. Yay! Then I got home to find a package of the Christmas yarn I'd ordered and I immediately cast on fun socks. Are you surprised? 

On Thursday, all my fave knitting YouTubers started their vlogmas posts. If you aren't familiar with this, starting on December 1st, it's a daily video of their life and knitting as they prepare for Christmas. I started watching these in 2020 (my first pandemic Christmas) and it's become a tradition. I watch a few at lunch and a few more after work each day. I get a peek at other knitters' Christmas prep and it's especially fun to see the British ones.

There was one downer in the week and that was at work. We'd heard that there would be a return to work announcement mid-November and we got a heads up that it would be coming out on Monday (early December - fail!) and the gist of it was that everyone had to come back to campus 50% of the time. Damn! Not 40%, not 60% but 50%. Of course I was cranky since I'd happily never set foot on campus again but I guess I should just be thankful that I got to work mostly at home for 3 years. We won't need to do the 50% until spring and after stewing for a bit, I decided I would do Monday, Wednesday and every other Friday. Any vacation time I take, and I'll have to start taking 2 days/month when I hit the max in my vacation pot in January, will be on those Fridays. Sheesh! But back to festive....

I started wrapping presents on Saturday, while watching Die Hard (yes, it's a Christmas movie). My goal was to have Dottie's package, which is huge because it has tons of thrifted yarn along with her stocking stuffers, ready to drop at UPS on Monday. It was fun to start wrapping and I made meatloaf so the oven was on, making it toasty and warm.

Lorri stopped by after church on Sunday and presented me with a bag of bulbs to plant. Luckily it had warmed up some so I dug another 6" out from my bird's nest spruce bed in the backyard and planted them immediately. And since I was outside, I cut the bottom of the inside tree and put it up in my back room. Naked but up. I'd decorate it later. I then went downstairs and ironed the vintage tablecloths I'd washed and hung on the line (they'd be part of the decorations at our holiday party) then made a drawstring bag that Carolyn had requested. My sister Dottie called at some point so I asked about which yarns she could use from my stash because her box wasn't full with the thrifted yarn. I ended the day getting her box packed, taped up and put in the car. 

Good week, right? It was only December 4th and I already had my biggest package ready to go and all the materials ready to wrap the rest. I had vlogmasses to watch while I wrap and my tree was ready to decorate. I would have plenty to do in the coming week but it was still early enough so as not to stress. Ho ho ho!

Week 48 - Thankful for Motivation

It was a wonderful week with a only 3 work days (and those punctuated with time off), a nice Thanksgiving, a fun Omaha run and outside productivity to end the week.

I had 2 more doctor appointments - my annual physical (she didn't push statins - yay!) on Monday and my eye appointment on Tuesday. That made for quick days and then we got out early on Wednesday. I was happily baking a blueberry pie at 3:00. I had spent lunches neatizing and cleaning so was ready for Thanksgiving on the cleaning front.

I started cooking as soon as I got up on Thursday. Anne was coming early so she could get home for some game or other but I wasn't cooking a whole turkey so it wasn't bad. I made stuffing (first time outside a bird), mashed potatoes (Anne's fave), Brussels sprouts (best veg ever!) and roasted sweet potatoes. We had a nice lunch in the sun in my back room then watched Spirited, which was fun. I had just enough light after she left to get everything cleaned it and it was time to sit and knit. It was a nice, quiet Thanksgiving.

I finished slogging through all the yarn on Friday, which felt great. With the early start the weekend before, I was done with My break project 2 days to go so I called Lori and scheduled an Omaha run on Saturday. I hit Trader Joe's before meeting Lori at our favorite yarn shop, where I was such an adult - only buying the 2 things I went in for. Then we went to Lori's for an afternoon of knitting, chatting and tea. After a stop at Aldi, I stopped at Menard's, where I had planned to buy Christmas trees and had even emptied my trunk and put the seats down for easy loading. 

I only get 2 small trees - the cheapest Scotch pine for the deck and a small 4 or 5 foot fir for inside. Nope. They had no small trees and and the prices were CRAZY. It would have cost me $130 so I drove away. I went by the farm store on the way home and they had even fewer and for the same price. I drove by SunMart, our little market in Wahoo, and they had 3' pines in a stand (meant for a table top I'm sure) so I bought one for my deck and would wait to figure out an inside tree. Was it time to go artificial? Not my jam but it might be.

Saturday had been the better day for working outside but the yarn shop isn't open on Sundays so that made the decision. With colder weather coming, I was determined to work outside on Sunday despite it being gloomy and chilly. The one yard thing that had to be done before snow flies is cutting down the perennials in the strip between the sidewalk and street. If I leave them up, they act like a snow fence and snow dumps on my sidewalk. So that was first on my list. It didn't take too long and I was able to load up the brush in my car and take it to the city burn pile. I also put up my cute deck tree ($30 well spent), my holiday flag and decorated pots at my front and back door. With that all done, everything outside was ready for Christmas and winter. Nice. 

I ate the last of my Thanksgiving food on Sunday and made a big pot of soup for the next week. What a great week and Thanksgiving break! Got my last 2 medical appointments done, had some good food and time with friends plus got lots of things done. If my upcoming Christmas break is half as good, it'll be a good one. But before then, I have packages to get ready. That's next on my list. Wish me luck.