What I Did On My Christmas Holidays :)

I am actually still enjoying my Christmas break. I do not usually have this much time off, so this is amazing. Firstly, I have been keeping my vampire hours. I love it. I sleep when I am tired, eat when I am hungry and do not have a single worry. This is a very rare treat for me.
During this time, I have been doing some serious knitting.


I also received another installment of the Travelling Scarf group of which I am a member.

This is so cool, in that it is worked sideways. I had never tried this before. I will do shortly as soon as I have a few other works in progress off the sticks.

I did a lot of work with my Naughty-Nice Scarf, from the Son of the Stitch and Bitch.

It is just so much fun. My husband cannot wait until he can wear it. I am hoping it is soon, or at least before Spring.

I had my crack team helping me pack.

Yes. There is enough room to smuggle a cat if the need should arise.


Unfortunately, Rebel was pounced upon shortly after this discovery was made.

I have been able to visit with friends and share in wonderful food.


I have been watching movies galore. We had a C. S. Lewis theme night. First we watched, Shadowlands, with Sir Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. I loved the Narnia series when I was a small child. We then watched The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. During the entire movie, I was positively tripping on who was the witch. Finally, midway through the film, the Husband recognizes her as the angel Gabriel from the movie Constantine. Her name is Tilda Swinton. What did we watch. Hmmmmm. Atonement, Devils Mercy, Runaway Bride, Logan's run, The Fifth Element, Tomb Raider, and The Ruins. There were many, many more flicks, but unfortunately, I cannot recall them all at this point.

We enjoyed our walks. There are so many homes with lights adorning their fronts. It is super cool. Some of them are lit in tune to a Christmas carol. I am not sure how cool I would find this if I was living next door to one, but it is really neat to see.
This is a sidewalk en route of our walk.


Me all bundled and snow covered:

I really love that hat!

For Christmas, we went to my parents home. We had a great time. The journey to get there however, was something else. We drove through at least two feet of water most of the way. Many areas were flooded. I was very thankful to be in my truck. It is higher than most of the other vehicles on the road that did not fare as well. Normally, it takes us at the most two hours to arrive at Moms. This trip, no word of a lie, took SIX!!!!! First time for everything I suppose.
The trip was well worth it. We had a wonderful supper with all the fixings. We were entertained by Buddy. He provided us with his Poltergeist impersonation.

Now tell me that is not three shades of creepy.

My parents always have the best light displays:



Yes. Santa s Reindeer did rest on the roof of their motor home before continuing on their long voyage.

We stayed a few days with Mom and then turned for home. I really missed my bed. At least the drive home was more manageable.
I can handle snow covered roads with more ease. I did not need my water wings for the trek home.

Lastly, Santa was very good to us. Can you guess what we were doing all week end:


We have our games, and Rebel has his:

I have no clue how he managed to stay perched on that little box for as long as he did.

That is all I have to share for now. I truly hope you all enjoyed your Christmas. I wish you all, the best, from my family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

HOLIDAYS!!!!

Today was the last day of work before my holidays commence. It took forever to get here! What a way to start my vacation time. The weather networks were forecasting lots of snow in my area. They were right. It took me an hour to get home this afternoon. Usually, it is only a 20 minute drive. Considering the obstacles I encountered, I made excellent time. I didn't drive over 40km/h. The visibility was extremely poor, and that is putting it mildly. At one point, I was just hoping that I was still on the road. It disappeared for a miles. I love those people that put up the snow fences. Those are incredibly helpful and I wish that more people would consider using them.
Since the husband will have to go to a class in the morning, we thought we would get the drop on the weather and try and clear out a path for the truck. It did not take nearly as long as I had imagined.


Now the beast is ready for more road work tomorrow.


The thing I love most about the Christmas season are the movies that are aired on television. My favourite one is showing tomorrow night. It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas. The human cast is most excellent. It includes Whoopi Goldberg, Joan Cusack, Matthew Lillard, Joe Rogan, William H. Macy, and so many more. My ultimate favourite part is Sam Eagle as a club kid in Club Dot. I did a little spit take with my rye at that point. For the life of me, I can't find an audible clip of that shot. I have found a few pictures though.

How disturbing is that little image eh? There is also one of Scooter as a go-go dancer. Those are healthy images eh?
hehehe

We had a lot of nice walks this past week. Lots of home decorated for Christmas. This one tree caught my eye.

I would love to know how they managed to get the lights all the way to the top of the tree.

I've been a little bit of knitting. Not as much as normal though. With all the cold, my hands have not been very co-operative. Here is a little something that I'm working on:

I'm not going to spoil it and say what it is. I'm sure you all can tell, but I will try and keep it a secret in case the young person it is being made for learns how to work a PC.

I'm off to spend quality time with my television set. I wish you all a wonderful night, er.....morning. :)

Mall Rat

I am an aging mall rat. For those of you unfamiliar with the term:
Mallrat:
-noun.
homo erectis drawn to its own ilk, who frequent establishments conducive to the obtainment of goods and services. Primary goal is consumerism or to be a voyeur in the midst of consumers. It's natural habitat is loud, colourful, filled with a multitude of consumerism. It is drawn to artificial lighting, and odours from the food courts or mid mall snacking vendors. It will lose track of time easily and readily. It can disappear easily into the abyss of shoppers and displays for hours on end only to reappear in search of nourishment. It can travel in schools or as sole individuals in a never-ending quest for the next unique article. It's superior knowledge of trends and cult lore is bottomless and fueled by those in it's school. It's lifespan is usually from that of 12 to 18 years of age, however it has been known to start at an earlier age and extend well into senior years.
-made popular by the movie, Mallrats, directed and written by Kevin Smith, released October 20, 1995.

You what I noticed today at the mall? Well too bad. I'm going to share regardless :). The senior citizens and the teen age groups wear very similar clothing. Have I mentioned this before? Both groups are prone to wear plaid and baggy clothing; Both have ear devices, albeit for different reasons; Both linger at the food court well past the allotted pointed time on the signage; Both appear to be there everyday. I could probably go on about the similarities, but I worry about revealing too much of myself.
Today was the day the husband and I designated as "shopping for the Christmas festivities". I won't lie, it was an utter hell of an excursion. The lines were worse than the ones at Wonderland for Drop Zone. I have discovered that my ultimate pet peeve are those that linger in the aisle, leaving their cart unattended, talking loudly into their cell phone about a useless topic, all the while ignoring the common courtesy to let others get by for fear that the other person would steal whatever they are vainly searching. I have also discovered that colouring books are far and few between. The technology of crayons has also increased ten fold. I was way out of my element today. I was victorious. I found what I was searching for, and then some!

Okay, that sounds way too negative. Let's change topics.

Friday was a good night. We watched Cloverfield. A very minding bending, sci-fi thriller. At the start of the movie though, I thought my cable was out.

That was the image on the screen for the first few minutes. When you have gone through as many televisions as I have, you get a scooch paranoid. It had a good plot though. I liked how the viewer sees it all through a camcorder. Reminded me of Blair Witch Project. I won't say too much more. I do not wish to spoil it for those who have not seen it yet.

We also had Thai food and this to drink:

It is a Pelee wine, called fittingly: Pelee Bird, Sauvignon Blanc. not that I always select wine based on the awesome labels, but this one is cool, (and it wasn't me who picked out this one due to the cute label;) ).

First the bird sees the drink, tastes the drink, then the drink wins. I love it. It's quite tricky to take a picture of something shiny. This was the best I could do:


I also worked on some very small mittens. I found not too many patterns for mittens to fit a 3 year old hand. This was strictly improvisational.


This is the yarn I used. It was a great deal at Zeller's and according to the label, 100% wool. Now that I think of this, it will probably felt. This may prove interesting.


The yellow piece of yarn is my waste yarn holding the stitches for the thumb.

The very tiny mitten emerges:


Complete with Idiot string.

I don't mean that to be offensive. That is what we used to call the cord that attached the mittens together and ran through the sleeves of our coats so we wouldn't lose them in our efforts to build the better fort.

Well I have rattled on for enough this evening. Actually, it is now the early hours of the morning and I still am not sleepy. I suspect I was overstimulated with my quest for the perfect colouring book and crayons. I hope you all enjoy the holiday shopping and I wish you all the strength and endurance to survive.

It's A Weird Little World Out There

It was a bit chilly out there today. This morning we had our Christmas breakfast with the drivers. It was awesome. For one hour, I get to act the goof and just be silly. I am just of the guys, there for a good time. There are no boundaries, no us versus them, just a group of people sharing a meal together. I loved every minute of it!
Now that I am home, I am relaxing and just surfing around the world wide web. OMG!! It can be a frightful place, but oh so fun.
I stumbled on this image today!
She is one brave lady. I"m terrified of the flu shot. :(
I'm not sure if I have shared this link or not, but I am willing to share again. It's my favourite part of the show to be quite honest. I always wondered how they can create so many different ideas over such a lengthy period of time. When this show first aired, I was in elementary school.
Another thing the net has taught me, no matter how bad your day was, there is always someone that is worse than yours. CAUTION: some very graphic pics, not suitable for all viewers.
There is also some self-help at our fingertips.
When all else fails, we can simply hide in the closet until the badness goes away for a while.


I'm going to try and coax Napoleon out of the front hall closet. I hope you all have a great night!

A Little of This, A Little of That

I had an excellent week end. I finally finished my curtains. It only took a few months:


I had also finally gotten around to removing my Hallowe'en decorations. I thought it best I put away the skeletons (or knit them scarves and toques so they can be festive skeletons) when I discovered this:

It would appear one has been tragically maimed.


The list of suspects is short, but confusing as both appear to have alibis and were at separate ends of the room at the time:
Suspect 1:


Suspect 2.:


We had a lovely meal tonight:
My dinner:


Husband's dinner:


I know, I know....Mine are always a bit more to the plain side. I just like meat on mine. :)

This wine went awesome with the meal.

It was also a great buy. I believe it was under $10.

After supper, we ventured out for a walk. We saw some great Christmas light displays:

This one was my favourite for the night:


I know there are no festive lights on this tree. I just liked how there were still leaves left on it when the rest of the foliage were naked.


It's hazy because my breathe got in the way of the shot. It was bloody cold out tonight.


This one threw me off a bit. It looked like the head of reindeer when I drove by. Upon closer examination, it's a trumpet blowing angel!:


This the building we live in. No, our unit is not seen from this vantage point. :)


These are my walking shoes. Surprisingly, they are quite warm. I suspect it is because they keep me off the ground a few inches.


We may look like dorks, but we are warm dorks! :)


I'm off to continue raiding tombs with Lara. I wish you all a good night and we will speak again soon!

Comfort on a Plate

The week end is almost here!! Do any of you have some awesome plans? Mine involve vacuuming and completing a certain set of curtains.

I had the most wonderful meal the other night. Actually, it may have been five nights ago. My days tend to blur together. It was a stew with dumplings. Just happiness in a bowl if you will.


This wine went splendidly with the meal.

I really do love a good meal. It just makes me feel all warm and toasty and happy. All very good things. What do you all find comfort in?

Napoleon prefers confinement and darkness.


Rebel prefers to be alone. (note: no picture of Rebel. He requested not to be in the photo shoot today)
I especially love when it is freezing outside and you come back into the warmth, get on some snugly pjs, curl up and watch a brainless movie. I think that is what I will do tonight.

We went for our walk yesterday, so I don't feel the least bit guilty about staying in tonight. We saw some very cool Christmas lights on display. This is one:



When we have more snow, I'll take more pictures. I think they look better when the light reflects off the snow.

On a completely different topic, I stumbled upon this:

You Are Boggle

You are an incredibly creative and resourceful person. You're able to dig deep and think outside the box to get things done. You are a non linear thinker. You don't like following directions You draw your inspiration from the strangest places sometimes. You're constantly inspired.

What Board Game Are You?

Give it a go. It's fun !

I hope you are all well
Be safe and stay warm.