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The gumbo is made, the bonfire is built (but not yet lit), the fireworks are purchased, and the Scrabble game sits patiently waiting...New Year's Eve in the Derouen house has begun!
I wish for you and yours a wonderful continuation of the Christmas season, a very lovely evening, and a Happy New Year!
I shouldn't have waited so long to update...3 whole days have passed!
Monday:
Steve & Dad went fishing--30 fish are now lifeless thanks to them. I pretty much hung around the house. There were many fish eaten when the folks got home.
Tuesday:
We went to Lafayette and visited with my grandmother after making a stop at one of the local Catholic bookstores. Then we took Trey (my nephew) to see The Chronicles of Narnia which Steve & I had seen already, but certainly didn't mind seeing again. We ate far too much popcorn, then returned home for a Scrabble match against my aunt, Mary, and her son, Nick. I won the first game at the 11th hour (it's good to be the first to go out), and Nick won the second. Round two on Saturday during the New Year's Eve festivities.
Wednesday:
The initial plan was to head to the local yarn shop and bop around the town, but those plans went awry when I felt a very nasty sharpness in my unmentionable reasons. I immediately sensed UTI, and off to a walk-in clinic we went, where we spent the better part of the day waiting.
I got a fair amount of knitting done on Steve's Trekking XL sock.
I also got some serious drugs, one of which (close your eyes if this makes you squeamish) turns your urine colors. What fun, eh? So far, I've been treated only to a very vibrant orange, but I'm hoping for blue eventually.
That done, we returned home, but only after finding and procuring a DVD of Wallace & Gromit shorts. We watched one of them last night and will likely view the remainder this evening.
Thursday:
Finally got to the shop. The Yarn Nook in Lafayette, LA is a great little shop. Given the climate of south Louisiana, I didn't expect a great deal of heavy woolens and I was correct in that assessment. The selection of novelties was quite good, with some classics (Cascade 220, Aurora 8) thrown in. A couple of nice cashemere blends, lovely rayons, some handpaints....all very nice. I bought a couple of skeins of Skacel Duo and one skein of green heathered Cascade 220.
The surprise for me at the shop was really the rest of the stock. From what I can surmise, the shop shares space with a haberdasher (or would it be a milliner?), so there were lots of lovely ladies hats about and fabulous bags. I petted a couple of them lovingly, but I really don't have the budget to become the hat and bag collector I someday could be.
After the shopping, we headed off to Dean-O's Pizza, a favorite pizza parlor (highly recommended), then did a bit more wandering. We're home now and will watch The Polar Express (again, I know, but Steve & my mom haven't seen it--good knitting time for me).
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.
You wouldn't know it to read this blog of late, but I have indeed been knitting quite a bit. Steve and I knit hats for the nieces/nephews...nothing really exciting there. I've knit some more hats, but I can't show pics yet...so no hat photos for you. I will, however, share the yarn choices:
Lamb's Pride Superwash (a personal favorite for the color shading and the washableness)
Cleckheaton Country 8 Ply (a new fave...flat color, but oh so soft!)
Plymouth Galway Heathers (soft yummy wool AND heathered colors--what's not to love?)
Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed (can we say eternal yum? I may not be able to let this hat go)
Pics to follow after the holiday madness is over.
I can, however, share pics of some other, more personal projects, with you. I'll leave you to guess what I'm knitting:
1. Knit in K1C2's Paint Box (a great Kureyon sub, if you ask me), this item is a repeat of something I've knit already. The yarn choice is a bit out of character for me (I tend to like a great deal of color control), but I think I'll like this one better than the first that I knit. Any guesses?
2. Not as much knitting here, but I'll give you a hint--this design recently appeared in a major knitting mag and has literary ties. Yarn: Jo Sharp DK Wool. This is destined to be a shop model for Main Street...for a while.
Guesses?
No offense intended by the following:
As we were driving around today, we heard the Live Aid song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?". This sparked a discussion about the nature of the song's lyrics, which led to some chat about the different "aid" concerts of the 80's. Steve suggested that if there were a British aid concert, it should be called "Limey Aid." I don't know why, but I was mightily amused. I'm a sucker for the puns.
While you're waiting, no doubt, for pics of my knitting adventures (and believe me, there are plenty!), check out:
HEJ's Beautiful Shawl
knit 'n lit's Beary Merry Christmas neighbors
You Knit WHat?'s Latest Find
I'm finishing up hat #4 (which is really hat #6--any guesses why?) and working on 2 sweater projects. Lots of lovely yarn. I promise I'll snap some shots by the Christmas tree tonight!
If you're looking for a place for charity, perhaps the earthquake victims could be considered.
Knitting update tomorrow. I'm a hat making machine.