Merry Christmas to all

Santa visited our house and was very generous. We were all healthy, spent the evening with good friends, good food and had many gifts to to open. There are things to hope for next year - like my eldest son having a job. He's been out of work for a month now. It's tough. My husband is on disability from work, and we hope he gets the approval to get SS disability soon so we can stop wondering and get on with life. Our friend Steve has some health issues that need to be taken care of and I hope that there are no complications while he waits for the inner strength to do what he needs to do. Those are my wishes for next year.

On Christmas morning we opened the gifts we had saved from the night before, and then just took it easy all day. DH was cooking the roast for dinner but had time to relax and read. Reading is, aside from fishing, his favorite recreational activity. It will be so hard on him when he can't read anymore. His vision continues to deteriorate and normal vision aids depend on voice and hearing. He is mostly deaf and wears hearing aids on both sides that are somewhat helpful but just not enough.

One of my gifts was a tripod for my camera, so I played around with that for a while. I knitted and read through my new knitting books, and played with the knitting notions I received from Brian's SO. Brian LOVED his new vest, BTW. He purposely wore a shirt that he hoped would "look good under a grey vest if someone should happen to give me one". Someone did, and there were compliments all around. Compliments that included that good/bad phrase "It looks like you bought it in a store" that I never know how to respond to. LOL.



I knitted on my lace ribbon scarf mostly, because I wanted to knit on a project that I enjoyed, not one that I had to knit on to get it finished. We had a yummy beef rib roast for dinner. Bob made green beans, and we were looking for something to put in them to add to the taste in place of sliced almonds. I suggested red peppers. Bob was doubtful, but tried it and they were so good! A nice, fresh, crisp bit of flavor added to the green beans. We were so full from the roast and side dishes that we didn't even make the apple pie for dessert!

Tomorrow morning we will be headed to Southern Maryland for - you guessed it - some fishing. It is supposed to be near 60 and Bob really wants one last try. We will drive together, but I will wait for him on shore once he launches the boat. I am not interested in spending my day on the water, getting so cold that I can't even knit. We'll have the several hours each way of driving time together and that will have to be enough. I plan to bring several knitting projects with me to stay busy while waiting, and an audio book to listen to. Now that I have Brian's vest completed, I feel free to start something new, so I might be swatching tomorrow.

I purchased a Philips MP3 player the other day so I could download audiobooks through my library's free loan system, but the one I got is not compatible with the system, so I will return it and try to find an inexpensive one that is compatible. That was a disappointment, I'll tell you. I am tired of borrowing audiobooks from the library and missing entire sections of the story because the CD is scratched or the tape is mutilated. I really want this download system to work.

I woke this morning with pretty severe muscle spasms in my back. I am off now to do more stretching and maybe get another application of Icy Hot to the area. this hurts and makes it painful to do anything. Have a great day, all.