Our house is freezing.

Why? Because we ran out of oil!!! We recently switched to an indoor oil tank in the basement (we have plans to remove the one out in the front yard in the next few years) but this tank holds much less oil than our old tank. Although we informed our oil company of this, they didn’t change their delivery schedule (we used to get 3 deliveries per winter – now it will be more like 6 – they hate that because they don’t get any more money, but they have to make more deliveries)

So we’re freezing. Last night we all slept together under many blankets and quilts – and we were quite warm! This morning the crew are all still upstairs, I’m down here making coffee, feeding the pets and sweeping up.

The trip down was uneventful except that yours truly – the navigator – got us lost and we spent 2 extra hours on the road. I’ve literally driven this route dozens of times – I could do it in my sleep – and yet there we were, heading right toward Pittsburg (we were supposed to be going south at that point…) I keep making jokes about my lack of focus, the way I get lost these days, but this time it wasn’t as funny.

Once we got there, though, we had a wonderful Christmas! The house we were staying in was the perfect size, it was so kind of my mother’s friend to let us use it! She had sent mom several sets of keys, but none of them fit so we ended up calling a locksmith who contacted my mother’s friend to get her permission to let us in the house.

The kids fears were put to rest when Santa was able to find us (hooray!) Max got his bike, Hannah her Kit doll (which she has carried around, dressing and undressing, since she first saw it!) The best gift was the opportunity to give my mom 5 full days with her grandkids (she doesn’t get to see them very often). It was wonderful to see my family – we’ve had so much sickness and death in the past few years, but it wasn’t a weepy holiday at all! We laughed a lot, had a wonderful dinner and worried about each other – family stuff.

I got some nice swatches knit up while we were away. Sometimes I’ll start a swatch and then hate it a few rows in so I’ll rip it out. This becomes a vicious circle as I continuosly rip and knit and rip and knit and end up with no swatch at all. Swatching in the car forces me to finish what I’ve sta/9\o work through whatever is annoying me about my current swatch. I finished a nice lace technique swatch, a very nice basketweave and I’m working on a shaped lace shoulder swatch. Sketches for Vogue are due this Thursday (why on EARTH am I submitting again?) and then I have a few deadlines in the following weeks. I also have some project deadlines in late Jan/early Feb to start on. It’s nice to have a month of work laying ahead of me.