Rudolph cakes and Happy Christmas

I HATE writing Christmas cards, hate it with avengence, so for my work colleagues I came up with another idea



Rudolph cakes which were a very popular and much tastier alternative




The victorian aran weight shawl is coming along nicely, I`m now part way through ball 4 (of 8) and on the third type of lace. DD thinks it looks like a forest of trees, and I can see her point - quite seasonal (or they would be if they were green with tinsel and baubles!)
And because the rows are getting rather long, and I`m still having trouble memorising the pattern I have started a piece of `I-don`t-want-to-have-to-think-about-it` knitting in the form of the babies shawl from February in Elizabeth Zimmermann`s Knitter`s Almanac - though you could be forgiven for thinking that I am knitting a beret!


Just lovely mindless knitting, with the odd yarnover for shaping, so I can chill out when the festivities get a bit much.

Happy Christmas to you all.

What shall we have for dinner?

A question I often ask myself - I do dislike having to keep thinking of what to cook. But inspiration can come from the strangest sources, for example I spotted this little chap in the corner of the garage.

So what did we have for dinner?



Toad in the hole, of course!

They can forget any time.

My lovely team mates at work suddenly realised they had missed my birthday which was a few weeks ago, and so they bought me these beautiful flowers. I was really pleased (and slightly embaressed so my cheeks blended nicely with the flowers) The company may have got things wrong, but I count myself lucky to be working in the team that I do, we are mostly a little more mature and we all care and look out for each other - sadly, the same can`t be said for many teams across the floor.


And then, I came home to find a small parcel from an old school friend who I kept in contact with but over the last few years our letter writing had dwindled to a christmas card and round robin letters. And in the parcel was this bright and cheerful bag which she had made for me as a belated birthday present! Now I think this is just begging to be used as a knitting bag, so I may just have to start another project to keep in it!
and having received these shade cards from The New Lanark Shop especially with their prices, I may just have to go shopping.

And after all, I do need something to cheer me up this evening - visiting the freezer for inspiration for our evening meal, I realised that something was wrong - it took a while to dawn on me that at some point during the last week the whole lot had thawed and then refrozen into one solid lump of meat, fish and poultry - including the christmas turkey :-(