Of snow and FOs and relaxing

"Official" Christmas was, of course, yesterday. However you spent the day, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. What did I do, you ask? I stayed home alone all day, watched movies, finished Christmas knitting, wrapped packages in preparation for tonight's gathering with extended family, napped, made myself a wonderful steak dinner with all the trimmings, watched some more movies, did some more knitting, and went to bed.

Heaven. No work in sight. Christmas knitting complete.* Time to nap and watch movies. What could top that?

Snow! Yes, we had some snow in the greater Portland area yesterday. This is a rare occurrence in Portland, especially on Christmas day. They say it's the first Christmas in something like 70 years that it's snowed.

Snow on Christmas has always been magical to me. I grew up in a small town in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and we usually had quite a bit of snow in the winter. But nothing was more magical than a fresh snowfall on Christmas morning. So when I saw the big flakes falling yesterday, it was like God had decreed that the day was, indeed, very special and had given us all one more gift. It made me smile broadly.

I don't have pictures of my last couple of FOs for you yet. The gifts have not yet been given and I know the recipients read the blog, so pics will have to wait until the end of the week when all have been gifted.

Tonight is the "offical" Christmas gathering with my extended family. I have a hyuuuge amount of gifts to bring, mostly hand knits, along with sparkling cider and a baked brie that I'll be assembling later today.

This afternoon, new furniture is arriving from IKEA. I hope it looks as good in the room as I think it will. The old stuff has been listed on Craigslist and will be relegated to the garage until it's sold, which I hope won't take long. I can't move it there myself, but I'm going to bribe the IKEA guys into helping me. :)

Pictures to come!

* In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that my brother's socks are still OTN. He's been notified that they would be late, so it's all good. I turned the heel on the second sock yesterday, so it won't be long now before the pair is complete. :)