Well, Christmas is over. All the preparing, the knitting, the choosing of gifts, the cooking, the decorating, the wrapping, the mailing, the month and then some of preparation and POOF. 24 hours later, it's gone.
But wasn't it wonderful? I was for me, I hope it was for you as well! And of course if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you enjoyed a relaxing day doing something you like!
We started out with a Christmas eve dinner of Sausage and White bean gratin, of course I didn't remember to take pictures of any of the food to share. DH and I exchanged a portion of presents xmas eve because we had to be out of the house bright and early in the a.m. (bright and early for Christmas day, not for a regular day)
He gave me an ipod nano, in red, which I wanted but is one of those (product red) things so it was a little more expensive and I never would have forked over the extra cash for it myself. He even had it engraved on the back "As You Wish." Seriously. I cried. (from the Princess Bride, in case you are unfamiliar)
So cute! And now I won't have fight with my phone anymore. I have been using it for podcasts on the way to work, but it loses my place, randomly restarts episodes, and in general makes me want to scream at it's ineffectiveness - none of which is good for anyone when this happens before I've had coffee.
Christmas morning we exchanged the rest of our gifts - dh completely shocked me with two of the Yarn Harlot's Christmas recommendations - the knit klips to clip things together while you are seaming, and a sweater bag for the laundry. I had been forwarding those to him for fun, but I didn't really expect to get any of those. I do love him.
Another huge surprise was the complete series of both Angel AND Buffy. Holy crap! He knew I was going through them one disc at a time on Netflix, of course, and that I would check my amazon gold box to see if someone the price had miraculously dropped to $25 a set or something, but I never expected this!
I am EXCITED!! I can watch them whenever I want, as much as I want, without having to wait 4 days for the next disc. Hooray! Again I say - sweetest man ever.
Last but not least, the glaring red background of the nano shot.
A kindle!!! Hooray! I went back and forth and forth and back between the kindle and the nook and I finally settled on the kindle - for two reasons - 1. if I wanted it for xmas that was my only option and 2. it's not a new product, amazon has been doing this for a while and I trust them. Not to say that barnes and noble can't do it or that the nook won't be awesome, just that right now it's all promises and sweet talk and I wasn't willing to jump on the wagon yet.
It's super fun, I have downloaded a book, loaded up some pdfs and I am good to go!
Knitting pdfs on my kindle! When I travel I will have a back up of my pattern! That makes me happy. As does the ability to read while I knit.
So basically, I got a nano to listen to while I knit, dvds to watch while I knit, and a kindle to read while I knit. Either that or I'm a little delusional thinking it's all about the knitting.
Anyway. We were off to my grandmother's bright and early to arrive there in time to visit for a while before dinner. It was wonderful to see her and we had a wonderful time chatting with her and the other family we sat with. We don't get down to see her enough, it's hard sometimes to fit those visits in, but we need to do it more.
After lunch there we were flying back home to prep the house for my mother's visit, she arrived mid-afternoon. More gifting commenced!
A DellaQ DPN case, I have been in desperate need of DPN storage and this is perfect! Also, the Knit Kit which will be perfect for travel (I think maybe I don't travel as much as I think I do, but it's good to be prepared at any rate). Also there was some china to go with my set, but that's not very exciting for the blog, so I didn't take pictures.
And on the other side I believe all of my gifts were well received and will be enjoyed, which makes me even happier than getting such awesome stuff!
After that, dinner commenced, involving some appetizers (shrimp cocktail, antipasti), homemade bread with proscuitto, parmesan and rosemary, (here is where the salad would be if we hadn't decided we didn't have room for salad), some pork braciole browned and then baked in marinara sauce served with pasta. All of which would have been delicious if the braciole hadn't been stuffed with 50% salt. I couldn't even eat them, the sauce they had been cooked in was almost too salty to eat. Oh well, I guess I've learned my lesson there, I will have to learn to stuff my own braciole if I want to know for sure that they will be good.
But who cares? A wonderful 24 hours with family and (mostly) good food, I couldn't be happier!
In knitting news, I am making progress on the back of Sprossling, the test knit for Anne, I am not as far along as I would like to be, but it's coming.
I also picked up the pi shawl that I started months ago and that I intend to have done for our trip to belgium in May. I really better get moving on it if I intend to be able to bring it with me! I don't even remember what I got sidetracked on the last time, but I will try not to let that happen again.
And now, back to our regular programming. (Except that I'm not going back to work until NEXT monday and OH BOY am I thrilled about that!)
wow! so glad you had a great Christmas! I've heard the Kindle is great! and I didn't even think about uploading patterns. How cool is that!
Posted by: Emily | December 27, 2009 at 05:07 PM
Hello, I enjoy your blog. I have a red Sony touch reader, and until you posted your Kindle, I didn't know that you could put pdfs on the reader. Mine was lacking much in the way of instructions. I put a shawl pattern on mine..Thanks for the heads up.
And it's nice to meet someone who loves Buffy and Angel like I do. I have the seasons to. I would buy a season as each one ended, so I don't have them in a neat set like you do.
Have a good week!
Posted by: Teri | December 27, 2009 at 08:30 PM
Yay for eReaders! FYI, The nook is awesome too and I feel very lucky to have gotten it by xmas! Bummer about the braciole - that just sucks! next time your at WF, complain to any team leader/store leader. That really is unacceptable! Glad you had a great Xmas!!
Posted by: Heather | December 28, 2009 at 08:30 AM
Wow! I think I am now exhausted and need a lie down from all of the excigtement ;o)
Posted by: trek | December 28, 2009 at 10:04 AM
Ooh, so many good things! And I love the engraving on the back of the iPod -- good man. I can't wait to hear what you think of your kindle -- I've been tempted by the nook, but can't decide how I'll feel about reading something that's not on paper. I wish I could use one for a few days to see what I think, but no-one's made that possible yet, alas. All of that food sounds delicious, too, altogether a wonderful holiday!
Posted by: Jocelyn | December 28, 2009 at 01:05 PM
Well Pumpkin, Santa was certainly very good to you this year. How sweet?! The engracing is priceless. PB is one of my all time fav movies. Enjoy all of you gifts and see when you get back. Ann's piece is coming along nicely :)
Happy new year and oh yeah, we are going to our friend's house tonight. After a week of deliberation. See you and wish DH a Happy new year too :) And give the kids a pet for me.
Posted by: jennygirl | December 31, 2009 at 01:44 PM