It has been a very nice Christmas, all around. We slept in late, and had homemade pumpkin cornmeal pancakes for breakfast with pumpkin spice coffee, and then eventually made our way over to my parents' house, to ooh and aah over my niece's new toys. Richard and I actually opened our presents to each other on Saturday (because I am all about stretching out the present-fest as long as possible), we did the present exchange with his family yesterday, and today was the third day of present giving/getting, this time with my family. and among other things, he got me an absolutely lovely soprano recorder (I've been borrowing one of my dad's). On Christmas day, there was also a tenor recorder under the tree from my parents, so now I am all set with my own instruments, and no longer have to keep my dad's on permanent loan.

I finished the shawl for my little sister on Saturday night, and pinned it out to block on Sunday morning, so there was no early-morning frantic ironing of still-damp lace items, like there was last year. It turned out quite nice, and my sister seemed to really like it, which was what I was hoping for.

Not to say that there was not any hasty Christmas knitting at all, because while the shawl was done in plenty of time, the slippers for the kids were not. I managed to get the pink and blue striped slippers finished for my niece in time to stuff them into a gift bag and bring them over this morning (she thanked me by drawing a picture of her new slippers, which is very cute), but the boys' slippers were not even started until today. Luckily, these slippers are to be felted (shrunk to fit), which means they knit up quick on larger needles, so throughout the day, when I wasn't opening presents or taking pictures of other people opening their presents, or playing Rat-a-Tat Cat with the family, or eating, or watching small people tear madly around in the front yard, I knit. And before we left my parents house this evening, I was done.

Tis the season for Holidailies