Merry Christmas, AND

 

Our tree is a bit smaller than normal, shaped nicely.  Lots of ornaments from places we've traveled, some special ones from when our daughter was young representing her school days, and plays she performed in.  One ornament left from when hubby was a child.  So each ornament has meaning.  No designer tree here, but a rather old fashion one.  The candy canes are always the last I add as a special tribute to my Grandfather.  My Dad's Dad loved candy canes and he would sneak them to my brothers and I while Grandma would scold him about us not needing candy.  

Dining room, but I don't know if you can see the snowflakes on the window.  No need to make it look like snow now though, our rain yesterday turned to snow as the temperatures dropped mid afternoon and into the evening on Christmas Eve.  Only 17 now that it's warmed up, so the snow isn't going to melt anytime soon.  Boooooooo

There are tiny lights in my pot design that weren't on when I took the photo.  And battery motive candles inside the candles on the mantel which we only turn on at night.

I've continued to work on Coffee Latte, the afghan, but haven't taken any new pictures.  It's measuring about 19 inches now, so good headway...considering I've not had as much time to knit of late.

This is one of the books I've recently listen to as I walk.  I found it rather enlightening and recommend it for some insight into Racism in our country.    I used the library's Libby app and find the time goes quicker in my walks then it previously did.  I've found the selection for audio books to be very good.  I've read/listened to:  The Room Where it Happened (well almost all of it, need to get it again to finish), A Warning, Unhinged and both Michelle Obama's book and one of Barak's earlier books, Dreams of My Father.  Was on a political bend for awhile then switched gears to 

which I really enjoyed.  After finishing this one, I read another from the same author, Everything I Never Told You.

Then moved onto 

A fascinating read that is both sad and uplifting.  I highly recommend this book.  Next on my reading shelf is another by the same author Cilka's Journey.  But, I'm a bit boggled down as I'm using a 30 day free trial of Audible so I can listen to Obama's new book.  It's long, so hoping to get through it before my trial runs out.

****85 Days til Spring

The family and I did not get together for a family Christmas, all choosing to do our own thing and not mingle to stay safe as we await the vaccine.

Coffee Latte Afghan, The Election

 

Coffee Latte has come out of the project bag again for awhile.  It was quite skinny when last I worked on it and showed you a photo.  It's about 3 x as deep now.  It still is going to take some time I think.

Close up so you can the color better, not solid brown.  Got a curling edge problem.  Should have done several rows of garter before starting the pattern.  So, picked up stitches  and knitting 3 rows but it's still curling.  Pulled out the picked up stitches and will probably crochet an edge when all done, that and blocking hopefully will take care of the problem.  Other thought, will it matter if I pick up stitches on the back side to start instead of the front side which is what I did and you can clearly see the fold?  Thoughts??

Ern and I when we voted early.  The line was pretty long, well beyond and behind the building and doubled up.  Took about an hour and 15 minutes, but the weather wasn't too bad, another advantage of voting early.

After voting we celebrated with a little bubbly in our back yard.

Our neighborhood had only Biden signs, which was nice.  I was happy I didn't have to see lots of the orange ones signs.  Though there were some as I did my daily walks.

Two recent books I've listened to as I walk.  LOVED Little Fires Everywhere, but hated how it ended.  Anyone read or listened to it?

This book along with Bolton's, and A Warning by Anonymous which later we learned was Miles Taylor all point to how completely dysfunctional this man is and how unfit he has been since day 1.  Counting the days til we can throw him out of our house.  So frustrated he won't permit the traditional transition.  It's dangerous on several levels, certainly the national security is at stake and no doubt more people will die from Covid without a smooth and coordinated effort between the outgoing administration and the incoming administration.  He obviously doesn't even care that he's putting even his own followers at risk.  Sadly, they don't seem to understand it either.