Merry Christmas - or if you don't celebrate Christmas - Have A Nice Day

Merry Christmas!

Channel 11's idea of classy Christmas programming:

For four hours. Just this fire and some music. They couldn't think of a single show to run. And so they did this.

Today I am taking a welcome day off for rest. I went to church this morning (and didn't sing or speak during the service) and am thawing a duck as I type. This week has been too full of too many rehearsals and performances, and my voice is very tired. It was tired last night when I had to sing Ave Maria at two different churches, but I think it went well. Everyone seemed pleased. My church is so lovely; the members always say "Thank you for sharing with us". Isn't that nice? (They also give me compliments, it's not like that's the only nice thing they could think of to say.) After roasting the duck (served with smashed potatoes and broccoli) I am going to go see a movie. I never go to the movies, and it will be a nice quiet thing to do.

My family and I revealed last weekend what we were getting for each other, but during the week I got a few boxes from Amazon, and here is my "Christmas tree" with presents underneath, waiting for Christmas for me to "open" them:
See that big one on the bottom? That's a 6-inch boning knife. Not 12 boning knives, no. That giant box is for one boning knife. It was very thoroughly wrapped.

The big blue bag was this:
I LOVE it. I swear, the tea tastes better made with it. I just want to make things with boiling water all day long. After all, there's ALWAYS room for Jello.


As of yesterday, this was the hat for my sister:

Twenty-one rows - it's old enough to drink legally. Some of the stitches are kind of wonky, but I since have done some judicious stretching (to simulate blocking) and they all straightened out. It's as soft as it looks.

And this... this is the yarn I got for Clapotis:
The colors are pretty well represented here. Can you say "Stinkin' Gorgeous"? I know I can. Thank you, Wool In the Woods, wherever you are.