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!
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