Summary of the rest of the Days

Well, since the Canadians pulled away this morning and I haven't updated the blog since they arrived, I better just dump in some pictures and tell you what I remember.

Day 3: I worked 1/2 day and then came home. Everyone went and walked around downtown Newton to do some last minute shopping. The Canadians bought a super-cute chess table at Ten Thousand Villages.
We did our gift exchange that night since the weekend would be filled with family. Molly and I were overwhelmed with knitting goodies!!

JF waits patiently for prezzies. Poor guy...next year he will learn to put more onhis wish list!

Kitties got their stocking. They look totally thrilled, don't they? Two little packages of kitty treats...guess next year they should be better.

Himself's pile of loot. He pretty much scored books and gummies. Both items will probably last him about 8-10 weeks. Notice that his prezzies are sitting on the Canadian's new chess table.

LET THE OPENING BEGIN!!!!!

Molly and her new watch! Her one non-knitting gift. She is going to have to take out a couple of links out since we have freakishly skinny wrists.

Ok, I lied. She also got a pair of shoes. BUT...she bought the shoes herself a few months ago and had them shipped here. JF decided to wrap them earlier in the day and count it as his present to her. I don't know where my sis and I found them, but our guys are soooo much in common.


The Canadians brought Himself a HUGE Tim Horton's coffee mug that holds like half a gallon of coffee. Mmmmm....Tim Hortons. I guess the refills are only $4, but that is a hell of a distance to drive to fill'er up. We'll have to make sure we bring it on our next road trip to the Great North.

Molly got me some kick ass Fleece Artist sock yarn. I can't wait to find just the right pattern to knit it up.

Molly, Himself and I tried so hard on our yarn shopping for the Christmas prezzies but it was a little anti-climactic after our huge stash bust the day before. The great thing was seeing what someone else picked out for the other person. Himself got me about 6 skeins of recycled sari silk yarn..wooohooo!

The aftermath...eating, reading and vegging.

Recap of Days 1-2

Day 1
Wow. So I am having a total blast with the Canadians! They rolled up to Casa de Newton about 3:30 Wednesday afternoon. From that point Himself went into Wichita to play poker and the Canadians and I went to Applebees for some grub.

Molly and I dropped JF back at the house, grabbed our knitting, and drove to Wichita for the KIP (knit in public) meeting. Everyone always seems to have so much fun...so many projects, yarns, stories, coffee, etc. After the meeting, we went to Target to look for holiday shirts. Not finding exactly what we needed, we were strong and walked out without purchasing anything.

Day 2
Molly and I have been knitting every opportinity we can get. I'm still working ona pair of socks for Grammie (due 4 PM Saturday) and Molly found a really cool tea-cozy pattern.
We have a special treat today. We are meeting a friend whose mom's church was ready to trash a huge room of yarn that had been originally collected to start a knitting group at their church. In a way we feel we are rescuing the yarn from certain death.

(After visiting the stash): My lord....there were more boxes than I could count...some of them huge refreigerator boxes full of WOOL, mohair, silk, linen.......it was totally overwhelming....Molly and I are at a loss. What really is irritating is that churches are always looking for $$....they have no idea how many thousands of dollars they could have made if they had an enterprising parishoner that would have sold the stuff on ebay.

Here is what we made off with (and I swear, you couldn't tell we even touched anything!) We could have opened our own yarn shop had we taken it all (shit, we could have donated 1/2 the $$ back to the short-sighted church that gave it away)!The rest of the night, Molly and I divided the yarn and finally had to resort to a coin toss when it came to some hanks of Rowan and some handspun Penguin yarns. We both agreed that this was well worth the 1500 mile drive to Kansas! The guys however (after much eyerolling at our pilles of wooly bliss), said thatt if either of us purchased any yarn before next July that we would be in serious trouble!

After the yarn party we resumed our positions to finish the projects we already had started (although the new wool was calling at us...eventually we had to move the stash upstairs so it would have less influence).

JF was busy playing his "Civ 4" game. Its cool how much he an Himself are alike. If fact, JF forgot one of the disks for his game and the Guys had no problem pitching in, going to the game store, and buy a whole 'nuther copy of the game. We like yarn, they like games...we can't really bitch too much.

Pat settled in to the couch and that pretty much summed up Day 2. I have to work a half day on Day 3, but after that we plan on going to the shops in Newton, knitting, and doing our prezzie exchange before the big Family Rush on Day 4.

Just a few more hours

It must be a mothering instinct...I am so worried about the Canandians right now. I know, I know they are big kids and dive in snow all the time but its 1500 miles of driving! I'll feel better when they pull in and I hear that everything was okay.

They Are On Their Way!

Well, the Canadians are on their way to our house. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather on the roads 'cause they are pulling a 25-hour marathon drive. Hopefully they will roll into Casa de Newton in the early afternoon.

So what is planned for Day 1 of the Canadian-Newton Reunion? Knitting of course. I plan on dragging Molly to the KIP meeting at Spears for a good time involving wool and coffee and pie. JF....well, he'll probably just stay at our place and sleep. What about Himself, you might be asking? He has his poker night. We do have priorities as a couple...knitting....poker....

Day 2: I have taken this Thursday off for vacation and I have NO IDEA what Molly and I are going to do. The only thing planned is an eveing of raiding a good friend's mom's church lady's yarn stash. Confused? Don't worry about it. All you need to know is it equals free yarn.

So much to do.......so relax!

Wow...just a few more days until the holiday and Himslef and I have a ton of stuff to get done!

Knitting (To Do):

1. Albers: Father-In-Law and Ben
2. Canadians: JF (Molly is getting so much I have forgotten all that I have knitted for her)
   
3. New Zealanders: Done!
4. Dad's Family: getting conventional prezzies
5. Mom's Family: regular prezzie for T&J; need to finish socks for Grammie (that have been sitting unfinished since at least August)
6. Office: Kayd's (at least started), Doris (still yarn), Brian...SOL
   

House Cleaning:
(The Canadians will arrive on Wednesday and the house looks....."well lived in" is the term I would go for. I have cleaned the toilet anbd tub, but other stuff takes too much time from knitting. MUST DO TODAY!)

Cookies:
YEA HIMSELF! Thank goodness I married someone who likes to be in the kitchen. I almost feel guilty sitting and knitting while he is standing, slaving away over the oven. Whew....maybe I should clean the house to make up for it.
This year we will be distributing:

1. Peanut Clusters
2. Fudge
3. Sugar Cookies
4. Brown Sugar Cookies
5. Applesauce-Oatmeal Cookies
6. Butterscotch & and Choc Chip Cookies
7. Heath Cookies
8. Lace Florentines
   

See what I mean...I totally need to clean the house to make up for not having to do any of that!

Relax: Make sure to spend precious knitting time playing board games with friends and goofing off in the snow! Take time to sit in the hot tub and dare friends to roll around in snow piles made by Himself. CHECK...at least I can take that one off the list!

IT belongs in SH**!

So why no posts recently? IT. What is IT? (for those of you unfamiliar with the Yarn Harlot). IT is the dreaded holiday...the day by which all knitted prezzies must be completed. IT is what I have been spending all my time on. IT is what I do after work, on my lunch breaks, when I'm stuck at a train stop, when my friends are over, etc.

Let me give you an example of IT. This was yeaterday:

Well, yesterday we had Christmas with Himself's grandma and then on to Cheney with our godsons. I was still working on the scarf for one of the boys so I knit the whole way to the farm, back from the farm to Cheney, and wove in the ends right as we pulled in the drive. Whew. After I gave it to him, he said he wanted tassels, so I put those on while he was playing with other stuff.

So that is IT for now.