Christmas Week to the Max

Hello Dear Readers,

For the first time in what seems like a while I had no work this weekend!  I had a nice lie-in on Saturday, and did a bit of knitting on Chickadee (working on the boarder) and some other crafty things.

I inherited some old bleached sweaters from a previous roommate, and cut up the back into a new hat I sewed for my beautiful roommate Monica, who is modeling it splendidly to the left.  She moved from Australia earlier this year, so I'm helping augment her wardrobe for winter, what a great opportunity for experimentation!

Saturday evening I went to the birthday party of a friend from Kew, and managed to sleep in till 11 on Sunday.  More crafting, knitting and watching the new Jane Eyre again (mmmmm, Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester...), then I went to a party at my friend Jacquie's, and today I had another party knitting hats for the cancer patients at my mother's work.   Tomorrow is my Tuesday Stitch'n'Bitch Christmas party and Secret Santa, Wednesday is my work holiday party which I am helping to organize, Thursday is dinner with my foreign friends at work (or the "League of Nations") and Friday is dinner with my team from work!!!!!

I've scheduled a massage on Saturday, I'm going to need it before I teach knitting again on Sunday!

I've been thinking a bit about New Years resolutions, I always like to set goals to try new things for the new year, not so much like, lose 10 pounds or anything like that, but just to shake up my routine.  In the past I've taken up veganism, started to learn Greek, started a compost bin etc.

This year my thoughts are:

1. Cheat less on my veganism......though that's tough in Cyprus!

2. I got the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts from my friend Jennifer.  In the style of Julie and Julia I would like to work my way through the book this year.  I would like to try to knit everything from it, I figure if I knit the gift, the recipient will come!  I'm also going to try to knit only from yarn I have in my stash for the most part, though I would like to do a sweater for Chris and I think I will have to buy yarn for that.

3. I resolve to either mend/sew/darn, or throw out (well, into the fabric pile) any clothes/socks/underwear with holes/tears in them and start the new year with a respectable wardrobe.  This one is a bit hard for me, but so far it motivated me to stitch up a hole in my Care Bear undies, darn my first hand-knit socks that I LOVE and sew down some frays on a shirt Pat scored for free from work.....I'm trying, really.

4. Take more time to relax in the year, and travel around England (especially with Chris)!  More massages, perhaps a trip to take the waters at Bath...... we'll see, Chris has applied for a job at British Airways, who know where this year could take me!

Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season and finding time to be with friends and family they don't ordinarily get to spend time with.  I know I'm going to enjoy my holiday week to the max, it's such a privilege to be invited to and involved wiht so many parties, I truly feel appreciated.