I Loved Having Whoopie For Breakfast

I had two big Wicked Whoopies for breakfast this morning; well actually, I shared them with DH since neither of us had ever partaken of Whoopie before. It was wonderful! The Wicked Whoopie were a hostess gifts from one of the ladies in my TNKG. She is originally from Main and still has family there that she visits often. WIcked Whoopies are made in Main http://www.wickedwhoopies.com/ and shipped all over America. Oprah Winfrey once featured them on her show thus stepping up their popularity. The cake is very tender and there's as much filling inside the two layers, as one side of the cake is thick however, it isn't overly sweet. The Whoopies we had were a deep dark chocolate and a banana, both delicious with me leaning toward the chocolate for a change. Normally I'm not a chocolate person and I love banana muffins and breads, but this chocolate reminds me of when I was a kid and more people baked with cocoa than with baking chocolate. I still prefer cocoa made fudge, pies, cakes, and icing over baking chocolate. Thank you, dear Glen, for this delicious treat.

Our holiday season has been full of joy, and touched by sadness. Amongst all the wonderful parties and gifts and visiting we've been a part of this year, I also lost my eldest sister (87 years old). She has been very ill for a long time and her death was not unexpected. Still, losing someone you love is always hard and I don't know that you are ever prepared for it. This now makes three of us ten siblings, no longer on this earth; each loss happening in December, near the Christmas holidays.

I've started the Just Enough Ruffles Scarf using some yarn from my stash given to me by my sister, Glyness, from her stash. It had no label on it so the yardage and fiber content are a guess. The fiber feels like a cotton and acrylic blend but that's just a guess. After winding it into balls, I think it would be over 400 yards. It is knitting up nicely and the colors are nice and bright. I'll have to make a photo for this blog next time I have it out and remember to do it.

With all the snow and cold weather throughout the US, we've had just the opposite. We had to turn the heat off completed several days recently, with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day being two of them. Can you imagine having Christmas without needing the heat on? Actually we had to open a couple of windows on Christmas Eve night in order to get to sleep and again on Christmas night. It doesn't seem right, it isn't seasonal, we don't live in Florida. What's going on?

Today I plan to clear out some more boxes of 'stuff'. I've been on a 'getting rid of stuff' kick these lasts couple of weeks. Its a job I hate tackling, but a necessary one. Never again do I want all the 'stuff' to accumulate that I had to deal with when we moved here. It's not easy discarding all those memories but it doesn't make sense to me to hold on to them. My children are making, their own memories and I've already given them the items they wanted from their childhood memories and family keepsakes. It isn't fair to leave all 'my stuff' for someone else to to deal with should something happened to me and/or DH. After our move ant then having to deal with helping my sister pack up and move, then watching my niece's deal with their mother's life-time accumulation of 'stuff', I will try to keep things gone through and discarded to prevent this from happening to my loved ones.

Yarn and knitting supplies seems to be a bit of a different story. I can't seem to bring myself to throw these things away. I'm going to try and persuade myself to give at least some of the stash away. I've suggested our TNKG work on squares for one another this next year and thought some of the yarn could be used for that. I have been more careful about buying yarn this past year and am pleased that I've done as well as I have. Still, once in awhile that little something in my brain seems to go haywire and I find myself with a bag of gorgeous yarn in my hand before I have thought about what can be knit with it. I'm trying to train myself to only buy yarn when I need it for a project. Actually I'm doing pretty good with this part, the bad part is, I'm buying the yarn for each project instead of using my stash. New Years resolution this year is going to be "to cut my stash".

Mrs Santa Came To My House To Party

Monday night I had all my MNKG in from the city and invited their husbands (or significant other) to come also. It was such a nice group and we really had a grand time. We had put aside one of our knitting nights earlier this year to meet for dinner bringing our husbands along to meet each other. It is surprising how a common thread of interest seems to be between us, while we wife's love to knit, our husband love to hike and camp. We all enjoy a nice glass of wine and lots of laughs, what more could one ask for? Topping off our gathering on Monday night was a couple of local ladies that use to knit with the Richmond group (remember this Monday night group is made up mostly of ladies that learned to knit when I taught a class while still working for the Commonwealth and my other knitting friends from when I worked). I invited these ladies as a surprise for the rest of the group; it really was a welcomed surprise for everyone. One of the ladies dressed as Mrs. Santa (she and her husband do this for charity each year) and brought a basketful of candies.

What a wonderful time we had.Tuesday night my LYS had our Christmas gathering. We draw names and exchange gifts around the knitting table which we fill with food and drink instead of yarn and needles on this one night each year. This extending family of knitting ladies are so dear to me. I watch as someone goes through a trying time with a husband, child, or parent and how someone in the group seems to always step up and offers help in one way or another. It is so touching to see this happen.



On Wednesday DH and I went to see our precious Dariana in her nursery school program. The children were terrific. We loved seeing how hard they have worked and how smart they are, singing in both English and Spanish. (That's Dari on the left with her polished nails.) Afterwards we took Dari to lunch at the 'fish store' (Long John Silver's) her favorite place to eat, and then brought her home with us for the afternoon. Dari loves seafood; she and I always go to the 'fish store' for fish and shrimp when we have our 'girls day' together.


My Christmas shopping is completed and the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. Stocking stuffers are ready for the stockings except for grafting the toes on three pairs of socks. I've started another pair using Opal yarn and a patterned stitch. They will probably be for DD although mom would love to keep them for herself. The Just Enough Ruffles scarf has not gotten made, just not enough time.


DS is home for the holidays (oh, joy) and today DH and I have another open house party to attend. Sometime during the next week, DS and I will find a spot of time for just the two of us to spend together and to do some baking. I always look forward to baking with my children, and now Dari too, at Christmastime. We have certain recipes that we want to make every year and we always try to add a new one or two. Tonight we will make Ding Bats, a date and nut ball filled with crisp cereal and coated in coconut. Yum!

Just Enough Ruffles

I just returned from my LYS a few minutes ago and went on Ravelry to down-load the Just Enough Ruffles Scarf by Laura Chan. Today my LYS had their Christmas sale and I had intended to run in and out quickly so I could get back home and work on some of my projects. That plan went astray; I was there more like three hours instead of a few minutes. I went in I chose my yarn and a set of Bryson's Rosewood DP needles right away, then got in line to pay for them. The Universal's Classic Tapestry yarn I had in my hands led to a discussion of the Just Enough Ruffles scarf pattern. Another lady in the shop had a bag full of the scarfs knitted up to show. She is a school teacher and she is knitting each of her female students a scarf for Christmas (that's all the details I was given). Anyway she had it knitted in several different yarns and colors and Universal Tapestry was one of them. This scarf is a really pretty and it's actually wide enough to be a shoulder wrap. The yarn I bought wasn't for the scarf but I wanted the pattern right away and will use yarn from my stash to knit it with, hopefully before Christmas. I also bought some Filatura Di Crosa 127 Print Yarn in red for knitting a hat. I had paid for my purchases but friends kept coming in and another conversation would get started. Before I knew it, half the day had been spent at the shop. What a fun way to spend a cold Saturday in December.

I've finished another pair of socks and plan to take the week-end off from knitting to get some more baking taken care of. Now that hubby and I have decided on several small gatherings in place of one big blast for the holidays, I can put my plans into action and begin getting things done. My menu for the first group is complete and I have the ingredients in the house ready for the last minute preparations. Its to be a sideboard supper (soups, salads, and Christmas sweets) for a small group of eight. It will be easy, casual, and fun with the tree and lights reflecting in the sun room windows and Christmas music playing softly. I haven't entirely decided on the other two other than they too, will be easy, casual, and fun.

Today the weather has turned really cold. The forecast is for rain in our area with snow to the northwest. Actually I'd like to see a bit of snow just to make the season feel more like Christmas. So far we haven't had anything more than a light flurry. I'm still like a child in wishing for a White Christmas to cozy-up inside and watch the snow falling and the kids outside playing.

Knitting for Christmas

I'm knitting away trying to get everyone a pair of socks knitted before Christmas. Actually, I'm doing quiet well providing nothing unexpected comes up to put a halt on things; I only have two pairs and one-and-a-half socks left to knit.

The next thing on my Christmas agenda is putting together gifts for my MNKG and TNKG. I like to have small, but useful gifts for these ladies just because I love each of them and its a small way to express it. I love being able to spend a couple of hours on Knit Nights talking about what is going on in our lives, laughing, and knitting together. We have a couple of young ladies (teenagers) that joins us sometimes and they too are great fun and great knitters; and, a three-generation family, teen, mother, and grandmother are a part of our Tuesday night group and on occasion are all there on the same night. How neat is that?

An update on my family - Little Dariana is not so little anymore, she turned four last month and we celebrated with a Princess Tea Party. Fifteen little girls dressed up like princesses (which they are) and having a real tea party together was delightful. What fun for the girls as well as the adults.

Son - home for Thanksgiving and we had a grand time baking and decorating the house together for Christmas. It would be wonderful if we could have him closer to home.

Daughter - working so hard and constantly traveling from one dialysis clinic to the next. She does and terrific job as administrator and won several awards last month for her work. She truly deserved each of them but I sometimes wonder, is all this hard work and travel really such a good thing. We support her 100% regardless.

Son-in-law - doing a terrific job of holding down the home-front and caring for our granddaughter while working forty hours and sometimes more each week. We appreciate him more than there are words to express it.

Hubby - happy in his retirement and being able to play in his iris beds everyday, or almost everyday, sometimes the weather prevents it. He is thinking he may register his first iris this year and hopes to find someone to introduce it for retail.

My siblings - a scary situation. Age is taking its toll on the older ones along with heart and cancer running a close race. Still, for the eight of us that remain on this earth, with me the youngest at 63, we're doing great. I still love to knit for each of them and each seems to enjoy the things I make for them.

Tonight is my MNKG gathering and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. I can't wait to see how Nora is coming along on her socks. She asked me to teach her on the short circular needles than I mentioned before. We call Nora our rectangular knitter because we haven't been able to convince her she is ready to move forward. This is her first attempt and I'm anxious for it to be a success. Meanwhile, I have a zillion little things to get done but I'm off to get a pedicure before I tackle anything else.