Welcome Yule!

    Alright! Time for some festive pleasure. I seriously heart Christmas time and somehow this year I am already up, don't feel stressed, and have lots of time off. Beginning this week - which isn't officially time off, since I have to work on Saturday, but I get Friday off and plan to use it to visit with J of Spirit Trail Fiberworks. We haven't seen each other in over a year!!!! Not good.

Dragon fly reflection at Lewis Ginter 2009

I'm taking the next Friday off to go Christmas shopping with BD and ending it with a large gathering of friends at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden's where the entire garden - acres and acres of landscaped beauty - will be strung with lights - and we can walk around in the frosty air singing Christmas carols. I think we'll have 20+ of us serenading. It will be a party that I didn't have to clean house for!

This will be a real amalgamation of friends and family - a rare time when H's and B's are joined together and I am so excited about it I could pop!

I've been stockpiling vacation days this year because I wanted to take a long Christmas holiday so after the December 22 story hour I am done with work for 2010. This means I have 3 weeks to make sure everything is in ship shape order for January, so I expect my days to be crazybusy, but not with anything I don't know how to do. It'll just be a case of one step and then the next, crossing things off lists as I go.

Knitting? You want news about Knitting? Well. Humph. Some folks are never satisfied. I am still knitting sleeves. Nothing really worth looking at - but I am suddenly reminded that I want to make a pair of Main Morning Mitts for a girlfriend's Christmas present - the one who I am sure will give me the 10 gallon aluminum trashcan with snap tight lid I asked her for. I want to be prepared for the birds this winter and last year the squirrels chewed through the back porch screens and the lidded, plastic bin I had birdseed in. This must not happen again.

And that's what's happening at TheCastle. Happy Hump Day to you.