"Twas the week after Christmas....

We had a very nice Christmas Eve. I am not sure how or why it started that way, but my family has always celebrated (guests and opening presents) Christmas on the Eve. Some good friends joined us and we had a good visit. Christmas Day is the holiday meal (standing rib roast) and a quiet day at home. Here's our tree.



Here's the outside of the house. We did less decorating than other years, but I think it's cute.



I took the day after Christmas off from work and had planned to have lunch out with Karen, and do our gift exchange. We decided on a place to eat that wasn't open for lunch, though, so we had an early dinner. The food was yummy and relativly healthy (fish) and we avoided dessert. We had tried to walk in the morning but the rain started first. It was too cold to walk wet. Instead I spent a pleasant 2 hours browsing through Karen's extensive fiber library. I made note of a half dozen books that I hope to purchase over the next few months now that I have looked them over to see whether I would really like to own them. When I got home from dinner, though, I ruined the effect of avoiding dessert by eating most of a Lindt chocolate Santa. Yum!
I received a pair of turtles earrings, imported from Vermont, bath scents, Chibi needles in a blue container and some alpaca! sock yarn. I can't wait to cast on for those.

DH gifted me with a Nikon D40X for Christmas. I love it! The package included a 18-55 mm lens and DH added a 55-200 zoom. We can also use the lenses purchased for use with his N90, though those have to be manually focused. I have everything I could need (photographically, of course) to take beautiful photos now, and to be able to share them electronically or via hard copy. "All" I have to do now is to learn how to use the camera. I mean, I can point and shoot, but there is so much more to be learned to do things the way I would like. I plan to take lots of photos and get used to the camera, then take some classes. This will be a fun winter and spring, I think. The good news is that all that practise will not cost a thing since there is no film to develop.

I have returned to work - 2 whole days this week - but I am having trouble concentrating. My mind is on that yummy sock yarn and the pair of socks I will be knitting to keep my feet warm in the house.