Week 1 - Busy New Year

After a pretty quiet Christmas, I had lots of New Year's plans. None of them would involve staying up until midnight nor booze but that's fine by me.

Before I get to the social stuff, I had an eye doctor appointment before Christmas and my Rx hadn't changed much and my glasses were from summer 2024 so I didn't get new ones. But as I sat with that decision, I felt like I hadn't gotten my money's worth out of a year of premiums so on Tuesday, the 2nd to last day of my coverage, I went across the street to the eye place (yes, it's the next block from my house) and ordered a pair of sunglasses. I told them I wanted cheap frames and nothing fancy so with single vision lenses, they were $26. Score! This will be the first time I've had sunglasses in decades. Nice.

Also, my internet had died and they had scheduled me a week out for a service call. Well, I got a call on New Year's Eve morning saying they could come that day. I had tried to get a new modem last time I had a service call but they said mine was up-to-date, which was so not true. Not only did he give me a new modem but he found that I'd been getting half the speed because of a problem at the pole, which he fixed. So now I'm going lickedy split fast for the new year. Yay!

Now for the fun....

My friend Cindy had requested to come over to hang out and relax over break so I called her on Monday and we decided on lunch on New Year's Eve. I told her I wouldn't clean but of course I did. Nothing crazy but I did the floors (even bought a new spin mop) and the bathroom between streaming, knitting and baking. I put a loaf of anadama bread (yummy bread with molasses and cornmeal - love that grit) in the bread machine and made a big pot of corn chowder. We had a lovely afternoon chatting in the sun. It had been awhile since we'd had a catch up. That was enough fun for New Year's Eve and I was in bed long before midnight.

Pre-covid, I used to host a knitters' tea on New Year's Day and loved it but the pandemic killed that. I've still done tea but for a much smaller group - usually 3 guests max. Well this year, Lori said she wanted to host and I jumped at that. I did bring some cookies I'd made but not having to do all the work made it extra special. Lori's cousin and sister were there plus Andrea and me. Some gifts were exchanged and there were even finger sandwiches. It was wonderful and the perfect way to start 2026.

My last social even of the week was tea at Lorri's (not the same one - 2 R's vs 1) that afternoon. I had one of those mornings where everything went wrong, including knocking a plant off my baker's rack, which resulted in soil everywhere - in my coffee, in everything on the rack, in the keys of my laptop - so I was happy to leave the house to enjoy tea and goodies with a friend. It turned my bad mood right around.

With all my socializing done, it was time to get busy. I started with something fun - rewinding and organizing all my sock yarn leftovers. These had been living in a couple of jars on a bookcase but had exploded out of them to cover the whole top of the bookcase. I now have 2 baskets with nicely caked leftovers 2 layers deep so they might actually get used now.

I did the cats at the animal shelter on Sunday morning, talked to my sister and a friend, tested the yarn I'd gotten in an advent and from my sister for nylon, which is what I want to make socks (mostly sock in the advent and zero sock from my sister) then put it all away. Otherwise it was regular Sunday chores and a nice meal of pork roast, mashed potatoes and butternut squash. Just like that, the first week of 2026 was in the books.

In case you're looking for something to stream, here are a few things I watched over the course of the week:

Nightsleeper (Britbox) - good
Whitstable Pearl (Hoopla) - fine
Run Away (Netflix) - good

Happy 2026!