We Made It!

We survived the family Christmas gatherings this weekend. YAY! They were actually fun, believe it or not. I just don't care for crowds or "obligatory" anything, so that was part of the whole dread factor surrounding this past weekend.

We visited with husband's side of the family on Saturday. I can't believe how many people were crammed into that house! Try 15...unless I left someone out. MIL and FIL have a tiny little house, and it was wall to wall family. Thank goodness we all like each other. The nieces and nephews were well behaved which made it a lot nicer for all of us. There's never any fun when little kids don't behave! Husband's baby brother's little boy (age 4) was so cute! After we'd opened gifts, he got his things into a gift bag and kept walking around saying "I's ready to go home now." Yep, got my presents and a full tummy. Take me home! :)

Yesterday, my side of the family (mom, grandma, brother, and brother's GF) came to see us. We had a nice time, and I was sad to see them leave. I had a ton of food cooked, and they brought more. We hardly made a dent in it, so I've frozen away some things for next weekend.

We had our first fire in the fireplace here at our new house yesterday. Once husband got the logs positioned so that the smoke went up the chimney rather than into the room, it was nice! :) I'm surprised at how well the fire warmed the whole upstairs. Tomorrow, our new woodstove is being installed in the fireplace downstairs. I can't wait! We have enough wood to last us through the rest of the winter and possibly beyond, so we hope the stove will warm the whole house.

On Saturday, we paid a visit to Hook 'n Needle on the way to see the in laws. Some people drink to survive family gatherings, we buy yarn. We got some Nature Spun and Cascade 220 for felted slippers for husband and me. I picked up a skein of Opal Petticoat. I had no idea it was a hard to find yarn until I read that on Liz's blog. I just thought it was pretty and decided to get it! I also found Opal Handpaint yarn in the clearance bin for $5 a skein. I got three skeins with plans to make a shawl with it. The color that was on sale is number 21, the yellow and brown mingled color. It reminds me of an over ripe banana, but I thought it was cool!

The best part about the visit to Hook 'n Needle was seeing Beverly! It's been so long! We also go to see her beautiful little felted ballet slipper pictured in her December 11 blog post. It was even more gorgeous in person!

Daughter has her second two exams today and her last one tomorrow. Did I mention this kid has cumulative exams this year?? OMG! I hope she's done well. She gets out of school for the Christmas break tomorrow. I think she's tired and ready for some time off. I know I am!