HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Our Christmas was lovely ... we got to be with all of the kids and all of the grandkids for two days! It was a unique setting, too... Jason owns a nightclub in Victoria, and of course, it's sitting empty at Christmas, so it became our Christmas venue...

 He and Kristin went to a lot of effort to make it festive, and homey, for us all!

 Our 'bedroom' was a blow-up mattress up in a corner of the stage, and he found these divider screens so we could have privacy (which was a good thing since the whole rest of the family stays up late watching Christmas movies long after I tuck in)!

He projected a fireplace on to the front wall of his tech booth: 

 

(The cat is real, though....)  :-) 

Here's Jason looking all serious (which he isn't!

 ... and Mischa and the boys....

 Can you believe River will be 14 next week....

For some reason I didn`t get any pics of Kristin or Hailey or Michael -- or Joshua, who was with us on Christmas Day for the first time ever! -- this time around.

Apart from knitting many hats (all of which were a big hit with the recipients), I also finished the Advent scarf ....

... which will be over 8`long when it`s blocked, and about 16 inches wide.

Three days before Christmas Michael and I went to `Merry Monday`in Fulford ... there is a bonfire, all the little shops stay open late, and our famous local folk-singer Valdy leads a Christmas sing-along in the Mercantile parking lot. It was fun, but really cold so we didn`t stay long... I did, however, get to see chestnuts roasting on an open fire (well, sort of) for the first time!

Hailey came back here with us for a few days, but she left day before yesterday, and we are slowly getting back into our daily routine here.

I`d like to wish everyone in my world a wonder-full 2013!
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December has completely FLOWN by in a rush of knitting, doing, going, making and ... well, you know. Just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone -- and to announce, here in writing, that one of my new year's resolutions is to get back to blogging regularly!

Having a peaceful, loving and safe Holiday Season!

IF THIS WAS MICHAEL'S BLOG ...

... he'd want me to show you this:

He took this picture of me when we were working in Vesuvius the other day -- this is for the woman who is 91 and living alone. We do some yard work for her, and her daughter had asked us to make sure she had lots of wood in the garage. (And just remember, the camera adds at least 10 lbs., right?)

I'd rather show you this.... these toadstools were growing out of the top of the splitting log in the woodshed, and they were adorable!

Michael also asked me to take a picture of this... 

This is the dinner he had ready for me the other day when I got home from four Welcome Wagon visits and a bunch of errands  -- this man I married is wonderful in so many ways, but being a cook isn't one of them -- it's a RARE occurrence for Michael to cook me dinner!

I finally got my (minimalist!) Christmas decorating done... 

... and just in time, too... when we looked outside at dark last night, this is what we saw...

That would be about an inch of snow on the sail cover of the boat next to us! It was coming down like crazy for almost an hour, but it has all washed away in rain this morning.

One last thing to show you.... I've been knitting like a fiend on a project that isn't a gift, isn't necessary and I'm totally hooked! It's called the Advent Scarf -- it's a KAL with a clue a day released from Dec. 1st to the 24th. I have barely kept up, which hasn't given me much time for the Christmas knitting I *do* need to finish, but this thing is so compelling! It's from a designer in Germany and I'm using some gorgeous plum-colored silk-and-merino I had in my stash. Each day adds 2 - 4" to the scarf with a beaded 'spacer' section in between --it's going to be about 18" wide and 8' long once it's blocked!

Here is just a few of the sections ... the bottom color is truer. 

 

Today promises to be yucky outside, so this morning I'll have a fire on and just keep knitting -- and this afternoon I'll go to Barb's Buns in Ganges and just keep knitting with anyone else who shows up! Life is good...

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ROAD TRIP

We went up to Parksville on Saturday for a special Christmas party with some old friends, and it was lovely! We spent the night with Ray and Sandy and then had breakfast with Julie and Robert on Sunday morning before heading home. And the only pictures I took were these, at the Crofton ferry terminal:

 So the tugboat is about to move the log boom, but do you see the guy with the yellow raingear on? He's standing out on the edge of the boom to make sure the cables around it are tight...

 I was so fascinated by this, I did a little movie, but at the moment I can't get Blogger to upload it -- I'll try again later.

Got lots of knitting done. Can't show you any of it.   :-)
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When I went shopping yesterday, I got out of the van and spotted this...

... and since today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, I dedicate this rose to all women who have been victims of gender-based violence, and to everyone who is working to end violence against women.

(December 6th is the anniversary of the 1989 massacre at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, where 14 women were brutally murdered and another 13 wounded by a crazed gunman simply because they were women.)

DECEMBER ALREADY!

We went to Victoria on the weekend -- we hadn't spent any time with the kids for ages, and there was lots of Christmas-y stuff going on downtown!

First up was supposed to be a 'Snow Carnival' in Centennial Square with an ice sculpture contest, etc., but it was pouring rain and miserable, so we opted to just hang out with the boys at their house until time to go to the Truck Parade. Besides River (14) and Gibson(6), we also had River's friend Max (12) and Mischa's new guy's son Gabriel (9). (We gave Mischa and Peter the night off to go out).

The truck parade is an amazing annual event that raises money for the food bank, and brings hundreds of people out along Dallas Road. I'm always SO impressed with the tremendous amount of work that goes into decorating these trucks... over eighty of them! Here's just a few examples:

(You can see an amazing slide show at the Island Equipment Owners Association website here).

Then we drove from Dallas Road around the harbour to watch the boat parade (remember to click on the pics to make them bigger)....

Then it was home for hot chocolate and warm beds!

Sunday morning we had brunch with Mischa, Jason and Kristin ...

(Hailey, that gap between River and Kristin is where you should have been!) What a motley crew we are, huh?

I finally finished the Bow Tie Hat and it is making its way to France as we speak... I got a gal at our knitting circle yesterday to model it for me:

Cute!

Ganges is 'beginning to look a lot like Christmas...'

(Didja see the reindeer?)
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME :)

This morning when I opened Google for some reason, here's what I saw....

... and I thought, 'Oh, wow, maybe some important person has a birthday today, too ... I wonder who?' and then I went to type in whatever I was about to search for, and the mouse-over I created said, 'Happy Birthday, Marilyn!' Now, how cute and clever is that little 'app'??

So apparently it's my 60th birthday today .... how did THAT happen?? I feel like I must be experiencing a time warp or something because I sure don't *feel* sixty! But since I already celebrated with that train trip, it'll be pretty much a normal day for me... Esther and Maggie and Anita are coming over from Victoria to knit with me at the Rock Salt, so that'll be fun. I'm working on the BowTie Hat for the woman who commissioned it -- pictures maybe tomorrow.

Life is good and I *am* having a happy birthday!
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Edited to add... :

(Photo thanks to Esther -- from left to right at our Rock Salt knitting circle this afternoon -- Geri, Anita, Pat, Esther, moi, Maxine, Carol and Maggie. Dona turned up at 3:30, too, but too late for the photo)!

A LOVELY DAY

I had a Welcome Wagon visit on the very northern tip of the Island today (the very northern tip of Salt Spring is called Southey Point -- I have no idea why...) and immediately after, went down a road I hadn't explored before. Here's what was at the end of that road...

Makes me want to win the lottery and buy a house right there! I hung out for quite awhile, in my van, knitting and breathing ... and knitting and breathing. Isn't it stunning? It's Trincomali Channel, stretching from Wallace Island to Nanaimo with the snow-capped mountains of the BC mainland in the background. It was hard to tear myself away!

Two more hats have joined the pile:

The yarn arrived for the commissioned hat that needs to be back in France for Christmas, so I'll start on that one in the morning!
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WELCOME WAGON XMAS PARTY

Today was our Welcome Wagon Christmas brunch in Victoria, so away I went! I had to catch the 6:15 a.m. ferry to get there on time, so it wasn't even daylight yet.

So I got to see downtown Sidney all lit up for Christmas (when I stopped to treat myself to a Starbucks latte) ...

 ... and how cute is this fish market??

I was about 2 hours early (because of the way the ferries work) so I took my latte to one of my favorite beaches there and watched the sun come up:

 

I got some knitting done, of course.  :-)

Then I drove the rest of the way into Victoria (20 minutes) and went to the gathering ...

I'm exhausted now.  :-)