What a Holiday!

Well, it has been a memorable holiday at this household. Nathan spent Christmas Day tossing his toenails. There was a serious concern for a while that he would wind up at the hospital. He eventually stopped, and slept fitfully most of the night. Woke up today with a very bad sore throat. Kim packed them up, and drove him home. She took him to the ER at their local hospital, strep test was positive. Many thoughts of healing go his way. And that Kim doesn't get it too, as she was also under the weather.

Serena went back to Denver today, Howard and I took her to the Des Moines airport, said our goodbyes, and then went to Barnes and Noble to spend out Christmas gift card. Serena text messaged me that she was boarded, and all was well. About 15 minutes later, we noticed that her glasses were in the back seat of the car. I had dislodged them when looking for something in her backpack. I'm so glad Kinkos is now a Fed Ex participant. We found one within a few blocks of the bookstore, and dropped it off for next day delivery. Of course, they don't do Sunday pickup, so they won't be there until Tuesday. But, as she only wears them in the evening just before bed and first thing in the morning, I hope she will survive. We've both been known to walk into walls without our glasses.

HOME! Watched some football, knit some more (amazing how much I've accomplished in driving time this weekend!) Read some more, and I'm going to bed soon!

Wow, did the family surprise me this Christmas. Kim, Nathan, and Serena got together and gave me a dollhouse kit! I am to put it together, they plan to paint it on one of their visits. Howard gave me a sewing machine (which I'd somewhat guessed) and A DIGITAL CAMERA! WOW! I cried on both the dollhouse and the camera! I've wanted a dollhouse for years. The camera -- pure indulgence. I'll show you updates as I get things accomplished.

My neat knit buddy Dianne sent me some yummy alpaca yarn (in MY colors) that wants to be a shawl for me and this gorgeous hand-crafted silver cross. They won't be used together, but the cross will be really useful on heavier shawls. Actually, I think the cocoon out of my handspun grey Corriedale that was one of the items I wove would be PERFECT with it. I'll experiment and see if you agree. (In other words, when I get a picture of it up!)

Kim began a beautiful counted cross stitch project while she was here. She chose a marvelous adventure for her 4th project. The butterflies on it use 2 strands of different flosses, which produces a marvelous affect. I'm so proud of her!

Experimentation is going on apace. How to photograph with this camera, some progress pictures were overwhelmingly blue. Not very helpful to see what is going on! Still checking around for tools to show progress on the blog. I'd like the charts which show percent completed. We'll see. Which reminds me, I need to send someone the information on how to put details in the blog.