Very Merry

It's a quiet Christmas afternoon here, and I was not at all surprised to look at my family earlier and see all of them reading. It happens every time.

I'm having a wonderful time. It's so relaxing! I felt very fortunate to have no real delays getting here, and it's been great at every point since. Here are some travel photos, and there's knitting at the end.

The toe of the second sock bids farewell to snow.


We passed over interesting landscapes:


Until we reached "that's more like it":


Of course, you could still tell who had just arrived, and who was already there:


(Yes, I wore my boots on the plane, and I was glad I did: it was freezing! They look pretty silly in the closet here, though, as I run around barefoot in shorts and sleeveless shirts. Not that I'm complaining.)

When we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts, I had to pull out my camera for this:


Would you try a "Black Rasbery" donut?

The beach yesterday:


And the beach today. Some clouds blew through, but have since passed. It's about 80. Ahh. Merry Christmas.


We all agreed that being together was the present this year ... so we only had a reasonable amount of presents, instead of the usual, almost obscene amount.


You have to have decorations--and the wreath smells wonderful.


When we stopped at the farmers market yesterday, I enjoyed the tomato towers.


And I could drink fresh-squeezed OJ every day of my life.


My family continues to amuse me.


The turkey is in the oven, smelling wonderful. It's not actually the full bird, but an enormous breast. Wow, have we been eating well. Great food, plenty of sleep, surrounded by people who understand me (and vice versa) ... this is good. I needed this.

************

Now, knitting! Looky here, and read what I wrote months ago:


I'm writing this in September, but I won't post it until after Christmas, in order to preserve the surprise. After all, my brother has been known to read here, and if he does, his cat may do so as well. I'd hate to spoil Onramp's Christmas!

This was a fun little knitting project: it didn't take long, and it's pretty cute. The pattern is from Ravelry, and was quite easy to follow. While I was working on it, I didn't see the point of the body pattern, and thought that on the next one I would stick to plain and simple stockinette, but when it was done, I actually like the patterning, so well done designer!

My bobble ears don't match. I bet that happens to real mice too.


The tail is two stitches of i-cord.


Rear elevation.


Since I inadvertently grew lemon catnip this year in the garden and my cats turned out not to like the variant, I dried it and am using it here. Hope Onramp is more open-minded!

Back to today. I gave my brother 4 mice, enough that if his roommate's cat likes them, his cat will still get to play. I tested one back in October by giving it to my grandmother's cat, and the response was very positive. Yay!

I also made one of leftover sock yarn, for my mother (stuffed with stuffing, not catnip). Photo will have to come, but it's pretty cute.

Dad did not get a mouse. It didn't seem to suit him, somehow. Instead, I remembered how, as a child, I used to "help" him (poor man) put the lights on the Christmas tree, and of course there was a pattern on Ravelry.


It turned out larger than I was expecting, but still kind of cute.

I've also finished another small project recently, but as that hasn't been gifted yet, it's still in the show no photos stage. But this is probably enough for today. I need to get back in the sunshine.

Happy merry!