Holiday Goodies

So, of course, it has been as busy as expected. But so far it's been a lovely holiday season!

I'm in Michigan at my mom's house now--but she has a fancy new laptop and high speed, so I'm trying to catch up on the blogosphere today while she's at work. :-)

I guess I'll begin at the beginning of our vacation. Stephen & I both had a "bonus" day off that we hadn't expected, so we were able to get caught up on a few things before we left town...went to the mall and did a bit of shopping, and saw a movie (Charlie Wilson's War....we enjoyed it a lot, and it's very interesting, especially in the light of current events in Pakistan). Then we went home and packed for our trip to North Carolina!

The 5 days (counting travel time) in Raleigh flew by, but it was nice to see everyone. My sister was home as well, and since we were all staying in the same house, it was the most time I've spent with her in years, I think! I also got together with several friends over the few days. We had a really nice Christmas--on Xmas Eve we decorated lots of cookies, had a nice dinner at home, and each opened something from our stockings. Then we did the rest of the presents Xmas day. I had already gotten my big gift from Stephen--my spinning wheel--but there were lots of other fun things. The general theme seemed to be that Stephen & I should plan to stay indoors all winter--I think we got 8 DVDs, and a whole bunch of games for the Wii! I've tried a few of them out so far, and it is a lot of fun. There were lots of other fun things, too.

After presents we had a nice brunch, then went for a walk. The weather there was SO NICE after all the snow we've had. (I don't think I've shared the winter photos with you yet, so here is a taste of our one really huge snowfall:
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Then there was Christmas dinner with the whole clan, at the new fancy 5-star restaurant in Cary, Herons. The hotel itself is lovely, and the service was excellent. The food was good, although I think I expected better. I have definitely had better meals, and since this is supposed to be the new ultimate dining experience in town, I had hoped for more. I think I probably could have ordered better, though...my steak was only so-so, whereas Stephen had fabulous tuna with the most amazing chorizo sausage. After dinner, we drove by the most insane display of Christmas lights in the area:
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The photo doesn't really do it justice...we got some video that really shows it off, getting almost all the displays (the spaceship, the Ferris wheel, the snow machine, the music, etc.).

Then we had to pack up and head back home on Boxing Day. Not so fun, but we survived and made it home, and Stephen went back to work the next day. After not enough time getting caught up at the house, I packed up and came here! Got in last night at dinner time, and we did Christmas part 2. I got a nice new winter jacket and lots of fun knitting things, just a taste of which you can see here:
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Now I'm off to catch up on some blog reading, and do some knitting. Hopefully later in the week I'll have a post with some great FOs to show you, because I brought a LOT of patterns, needles, and yarn here to play with for the week. We shall see! :-)

Comments

Kai said…
merry christmas a very happy new year to you!!!

lovely gifts by the way. we didn't get any snow.. :(
Anonymous said…
Glad you had a great Christmas! :) Nice goodies you've got there, and I know you'll have fun with that sock book! ;)