Reports of Dasher's Demise...

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...have been greatly exaggerated.

 

He just didn't get all his bling on before Christmas. I'm going to try really hard to finish him before the new year, but there are a lotttttttttt of beeeeeeeads.... I bet I only have 1/4 of them on in this shot. I'm probably up to 1/3 now!

Pre-Christmas was very busy, then we spent Christmas Day with my parents and Boxing Day with Michael's parents--not that they celebrate Boxing Day in any way, shape, or form...it just sounds fancier than "the day after Christmas". It was fun; pictures and such are coming. I kinda threw an impromptu Christmas Eve buffet, too.

Then, Tuesday the 27th...I had to go back to work. I say "had to"...it was more like "chose to". I took off the whole week before so I'd have time to bake cookies, deliver them, wrap, take our niece to the Aquarium, and generally make the festivity happen. But I must admit that I thought I'd have at least a day or two to totally hermit...play video games, stitch, knit, maybe even finish some ornaments! (I actually have a "pile" now. I always scoffed at people who had a "pile".) Anyway, I ended the year with 2.5 days of vacation and 3 days of work. It's always so quiet and I get so much done (with so little to do), and I thought I'd get to do a long lunch at the Mall shopping crazy sales. Not so much...I actually have a lot to do, and I didn't even see the Mall. I did have lunch with my parents, which was nice, since in all the hubbub at Christmas it's hard to find time to really talk.

But boy oh boy do I just want to stay in my pajamas all day!

Taking a whole week off before meant that I actually did get to make scarves for my sister and mom for Christmas. It was a super-crazy plan, trying to make them the week before, but once I saw how EASY and QUICK the crochet version of the Berroco Lacey scarf was...I thought, why not???

 

They are a bit "bright" in this picture. They're kinda like the "potato chip" scarves but WAY fluffier. =) Why are there three? Well, I had to make myself one, didn't I? You know, to make sure it was good? Like when you have to sample at least three cookies from a batch to make sure they're fit for public consumption. (Just me? OK.) Really, though, when my sister's pink came, it was a lot darker than I thought it would be and I wasn't sure she would like it. So I made mine as well (middle) and would have given her mine and taken hers (left). Lo and behold, she showed up on Christmas morning wearing a top that was THE EXACT COLOR of her scarf! A Christmas miracle! Mom was wearing her red one at lunch on Tuesday and said she'd already had lots of compliments on it. My mom and sister are very knitworthy. =)

Here's an in-progress picture of Mom's scarf so you can see how the yarn comes. And I don't really crochet, but the knitting directions are like, "lift the next four stitches, one by one, over the first stitch on the right needle," whereas the crochet are "pull the loop through the next four loops". Yeah, I'll do that!

 

The first one took me a while because I was trying to figure out what was going on and how to pull through those loops. But the 2nd and 3rd took less than two TV shows (1.5 hours?), and that was while paying attention to Nikita. =)

I hope to do a pre-Theme-a-licious post with graphics for you all, but if I don't get around to it, or the hubby is late with the shiny graphics ("shiny," get it? I'm still hoping for Nathan!) the first post will be on the 31st. Many of you have already blogged about what's on your list (some for the whole year!), so you can just link in that post. Otherwise, share what you're working on for Jardin January! Here's a small graphic that I made that you can put on your sidebar or use in forum signatures. Sorry it's not a "blinkie" but those make my eyes cross. ;) It's also on the Theme-a-licious page.

JiffNotes
I want to be in school again so I get the long Christmas vacation!!