Back to work

I wound up taking the weekend (mostly) off, partly because after last week I was really tired. (And now, I have the to-do list from Hades to show for it. But I've already completed 2 things on it, and have four mostly-completed. And two of the things on the list are to gas up my car and go to the bank).

I finished the gift-hat Saturday afternoon (picture to come later) and started on the version for my sister-in-law. And I broke the stall on the Tea Time socks and turned the heel and started the foot of the second sock. (The pattern requires attention, so I hadn't been working on it for a while, because it always seemed that I was tired or else had little time to pick up the knitting of late).

I also cleaned up my living room and did my Christmas decorating. I know, it's still early, but I will be gone this weekend and then the last week of classes is super-hectic, so if I'm going to do it at all (and it would make me SAD not to do it), I need to do it the weekend before Thanksgiving.

I wound up having to run out to Lowe's and buy new lights...the lights I had been using for some 15 years (first, as a strand running around my bedroom walls and later on my little tree) mostly wouldn't light this year. So I went and got a new one and found one with Random Twinkle Lights. Every fifth light on the strand randomly flickers on and off, which gives the nice twinkle-light effect like on the big tree my parents always had. (We had the C7 bulbs on that tree, some were the twinkle lights, some were bubble lights, after the manufacturers started re-issuing bubble lights - my dad remembered them from his childhood and "had" to get some.)

I also found some new window candles. (The battery operated ones I got last year were junk. These are a name brand, so hopefully they're a bit better). They have LED bulbs, which should mean the batteries last longer (one of my complaints with the ones I had last year) and they have a built-in timer - so the first time you turn them on, they stay lit for six hours, then turn off for 18 hours, then light back up at the same time the next day. (And the LED bulbs are the "flickering" kind, so they actually look quite a bit - at least, from a distance - like real candles).

I admit that I looked at the bigger trees at Lowe's and contemplated it. My tree is a little, 3 1/2 foot tall or so artificial tree. I set it up on a coffee table so it looks a little more impressive. But I keep looking at the 6' tall artificial trees, especially the pre-lit ones. Maybe not this year, but someday...(as long as I can figure out a place to store it). Of course, then, I'd have to make or buy more ornaments, because the tree would be almost twice the size of what I have now....

I'm so ready for it to be the holiday season. I'm so ready to focus on things like baking cookies and decorating and Christmas music and the silly sappy movies that Hallmark Channel puts on and which I am not too sophisticated or cynical to cry over (there was one yesterday where the spirit or angel of a family's dead son (died while in military service) comes back, they don't recognize him, but he makes them happier and a "family again" and it's only at the end that it's revealed to his father who he really is). And I admit - any other time of year, or any other theme, I'd be rolling my eyes a little over the sentimentality, but somehow, for me, at Christmas, it's okay.

And now I have to get to my research work for the morning....