Bingle Jells

I have decided that my favorite day of the year is December 26th. Ya know why? Because it is OVER! I really don't mean to sound like Scrooge here, but Christmas seriously stresses me out and knowing that I don't have to deal with it again for an entire year is really comforting!

It wasn't all bad. On the 23rd, I went out to dinner with an old friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in quite a while. We went to the Hampden area of Baltimore to see the 34th Street Christmas lights. I have mentioned before that I LOVE Christmas lights. I had never been to 34th Street before and it was everything I had hoped for and more! It is an entire block of houses that goes completely INSANE with lights for the holidays. I loved every excessive, tacky, glowing, electric inch of it!



For more pictures click here.

So much fun! After dinner, we drove back to Columbia and went to The Symphony of Lights which is a drive thru Christmas lighting display. My friend had never been before and we had a great time.

I spent most of Christmas Eve desperately trying to finish Icarus. I finally conceded defeat somewhere around midnight. I just couldn't get it finished. And I was doing serious damage to my hands. They were both really painful and my thumbs were getting really tingly so I knew I needed to stop. So on Christmas Day, I showed my sister the picture of the finished shawl in Interweave and then showed her my progress so far. She is extremely excited about it and was very understanding about it not being finished yet. And she LOVED the Hedera socks I made for her! I love knitting for her because she is truly appreciative.

My sister left today on vacation, so I have some time to get Icarus finished. I only have about 10 more rows of the last chart and then the edging and finishing to do. But I'm going to take my time to finish it. I don't want to screw up my hands any more than they already are! Tingly thumbs are more than a little scary.

As for Christmas, yes it was pretty damn stressful, but there were some good things. I got some really great gifts.



I have been pouring over these books ever since I got them. The Victorian Lace book is gorgeous. There are so many beautiful patterns in it. As soon as I recover from Icarus, I'm certain I will be choosing something from this book to make. Supposedly, there is another book on it's way - it was on back order, so hopefully I'll have it soon.

Christmas dinner was an event. We were supposed to go to some fancy schmancy restaurant for dinner. My sister had made a reservation over the internet. Well, when she called on Christmas day to confirm, they didn't answer the phone. (I'm sure you can see where this is going...) So, she and I drove to the restaurant and sure enough, it was closed. (my sister: "I swear I got a confirmation email!!!") So, we drove around until we found something that was open on Christmas Day. We had a very merry Malaysian Christmas dinner! It was really yummy but I'm quite certain that my parents were fairly irked at the situation. Ah well! Wouldn't be Christmas in my family if someone wasn't irked about something!

I hope all of you had a delightful holiday, no matter which one you celebrate. Hopefully your days were filled with lots of knitterly goodness!

I wish everyone a Happy New Year! I will be celebrating New Year's back at the beach for four glorious days!