Cabin Fever

Well, the excitement of Christmas is slowly dwindling away. All the gifts have been exchanged, all the feasts have been eaten, not quite all the candy has been pigged upon.

As usual, the girls are the big winners in the gift department. Santa (and parents, of course) bestowed lots of books, games, puzzles, and toys. Eldest, being 9 1/2, is at that awkward age where she is slowly leaving toys behind and is becoming more interested in things like clothes, jewellery, and books. Youngest, at 7 1/2, always follows her sister's lead and is a bookworm as well. She is also really into art, so the grandparents got her a sort of grown-up sketching set. She loves it. The grandparents also got both girls (and us) some gift cards for Chapters, so everyone got to pick even more books they were looking for.

Besides the satisfaction of seeing everyone enjoy the handknits I gave them, I got a new hand-made jewellery box, a funky doll from an artist/craft sale, and a gift certif. for what will be my new local yarn store when we move. Every year, K. gives me a gift certif. and every year the first words out of my mouth are "is it real?". This is because one year he thought it would be really funny to make a fake gift certificate just to play a joke on me. He thought my reaction was hilarious. I was not amused. I have been suspicious ever since.

Now that all gifts have been examined and all Boxing Day shopping is done we are just hanging around at home. It would be really relaxing and peaceful except that, quite frankly, its starting to wear thin. K. has been home since noon on the 23rd and won't be at work next week except for 2 days. The kids have been out of school for a week and still have another to go. We have been doing very little in all this time except hang around and enjoy each others' company. The weather has been beautiful and sunny, but we haven't been really out to enjoy it due to the girls having bad colds. It's getting increasingly harder to stave off boredom at this point. For some reason, I always feel really pressured to come up with entertainment for everyone. Silly, I know, but they all seem to look at me for fantastic ideas of places to go or stuff to do. It's slowly getting harder to remain cheerful when I'm used to spending large chunks of the day alone instead of hearing the girls bickering in the other room and K. snoring beside me during one of his many naps.

In an effort to retain my sanity, I decided to start a quick little project. Just to take the edge off before I get back to the sweaters I currently have on the go from before Christmas. I dug around and found a couple of skeins of Lamb's Pride Worsted in Tornado Teal to make a little doggy coat for Tango. The pattern is from a Patons dog sweater booklet and is pretty quick to knit. I could have done the whole thing in probably 4 hours, but I've been pacing myself.

He doesn't really need a coat, mind you. The weather here is pretty mild and he has an abundance of long, sheddy hair. But I think it is a matter of knitterly pride that he should have his own handknit sweater to show off during walks around the park. Besides, its just his colour.