Holiday Festivities

We spent the day with husband's family yesterday and had a wonderful time! Almost everyone was there--all three sons, the six grand kids, both mother-in-law's sisters. The only one missing was older brother's wife. I'm not sure why she wasn't there. They live in Virginia, so maybe she didn't want to drive all the way to SC? There was also plenty of delicious food. I heard someone comment yesterday that there was enough there for 80 people! Funny thing is that by the time everyone had lunch and then supper later in the day, there wasn't much of anything left.

The neices LOVED their little hats! My oldest neice (she's 9) wore her hat all day. The younger (she's 6) hit me up to knit her a pink scarf to match. Nephew was more interested in his trucks! That's a boy for you. I'll see our other nephew next week, and I bet you that he'll be more interested in his trucks than his hat, too.

The six year old neice was my little knitting buddy yesterday. She kept at me all day to finish the hat I was working on--the blue and black one. I got most of it done, which pleased her. She wants knitting lessons. We'll start those when her arm heals. She fell out of her tree house a while back and is recovering from a broken arm.

Speaking of hats, I have "orders" to make hats for husband's two aunts and his younger brother. I don't mind at all, because I know they'll appreciate them. They've requested the roll brim hats like I made the girls (except brother wants a ribbed one) and those work up in no time. I picked up yarn today for them.

My big job today was wrapping daughter's Christmas gifts. I really do not like gift wrapping, but that task seems to always fall to me. *sigh* Everything is now wrapped and ready to go, with the exception of the last minute items husband and daughter have gone out to buy tonight. These are gifts for me, so I get out of having to wrap them.

I did something today that combined crafts and cooking. I'm making a gift basket for some friends, and I put together some of those mix-in-a-jar things. I did one soup and one cookie bar. I'm so pleased with how they look!! The ingredients are all nicely layered in the jars. I hope the recipients like these.

One and a half more work days, and then I am off for TWELVE whole days. I need this break like you would not believe. Daughter and I are planning to spend the entire time at the beach. When I'm there, I can relax and not feel obligated to do cleaning or anything. I'm also away from my office (which is in the house). Husband is going to be back and forth seeing us, too. He's not taking a lot of time off from work, and so he'll be here to care for the pets.