Wool & Words

We're safely ensconsed in Louisiana, enjoying very mild temps and Christmas cheer. Steve is out right now fishing with my dad, while I'm working on my dissertation. My nephew, Trey, and I will be watching something on the tele later--not entirely sure what, but my money's on The Polar Express which my mom purchased recently and neither of us has seen.

The Trip So Far

We drove to New Iberia Friday night/Saturday morning. Needless to say, after driving all night, we were both tired. Steve, wise man that he is, went straight to bed when we got in at 7:30 a.m. I stayed awake, had coffee and chatted with my dad (who is a pretty cool guy), then went shopping for some last minute stuff with my youngest brother, Mike (who is just freakin' awesome). The last errand we had to run required driving about 20 miles to pick up pies and turkey rolls (mmmm) for my mom. About halfway there, Mike, recognizing that I was not long for the conscious world (I'd been dozing all day), brought me home (thereby lengthening his journey) so that I could sleep. Very sweet indeed.

After an all-too-brief nap, I got ready for my sister-in-love's annual Christmas Eve party. We had a blast (the gumbo was just delicious) and played a fun Christmas unwrapping game. I won the adult game (!!!!), which was a real bonus to the fun.

We went home, intent on getting to bed, but changed our minds when Mike called to ask if we wanted to go to Midnight Mass. Since we were both mostly awake, I figured that would be a good idea (because we could sleep in the next morning!), so we headed out to mass. It was nice--the choir did some lovely music before the service, and the service itself was good old traditional Catholic mass with heavy incense and all. At the end, the priest called up the kids in the church (very few--it was midnight, after all), and asked this one little girl (she looked 3 or 4) whose birthday we were celebrating. She said something about her Aunt's birthday (very cute), and Father told her we were also celebrating Jesus's birthday, which she seemed to take in stride. He then asked her if she had left cookies for Santa; she said "no", so he said--much to the chagrin of her mother, I'm sure--that she needed to get home and bake some. The whole exchange was very cute, and at the end of the mass the children walked out with Father in the recession to get some candy that the parishioners had for the kids.

On Sunday, we woke late (ah, sleep!) and then did the annual Visiting of the Grandparents. Steve really enjoys visiting since he largely grew up without grandparents. Mine are still pretty spry, so he gets lots of stories and grandparent-ly conversation. Of course, we were also doing the "we're engaged" thing, so there was Ring Showing (I really need to do my nails today), and lots of questions about dates and places (which I couldn't really answer since we haven't set all that yet).

After the visits, we returned home for my mom's dinner (we always have to eat a few dinners on holidays) and the gift opening. Steve and I had saved our gift exchange for that night (we may rethink this next year), so I got lots of goodies:

2 of the Fullmetal Alchemist DVDs I wanted (Vols. 1 & 3)
A Getting Married playset (very cheesy, but cute)
A box of Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool (mmmm...)
A set of salt & pepper shakers (the Pilgrim Pair from Publix, for those of you that live where that chain is--I love those ads!)

Knitting

One yarn shopping trip planned for the week. Mindy, my brother's fiancee, and I will likely head out to the Yarn Nook, a new knitting shop in Lafayette, to check out the goodies. I have no need of new yarn, but one must visit yarn shops while one can (Gather ye skeins while ye may?).

Minor Gripe

The university library here in Lafayette is closed for the entire week. I don't know why I expected different, but I was hoping that I could get there in case I needed something. Sigh.

Other than that, we're having fun.