New Year's Eve is here!

So it's one day before the New Year starts and I thought I should get one last post in before it's 2009. My Christmas was pretty good, though not great. The food I cooked with DH's help was great, spending time with my husband and sister was wonderful, but considering that I was actually in pain for the majority of it, kind of made it not so great. I did try to overlook it, though. :) As for why exactly I was in pain, well, on Christmas Eve I headed over to Payard's to pick up one of their AMAZINGLY good Buche de Noel for our Christmas dessert and decided, in the interest of saving some money, to take the subway back home. Well, wouldn't you know it that of course with all the snow and rain I slipped on the stairs going down to the subway (note: I was wearing snow boots, not some slippery leather shoes or anything) and fell, sitting, with all my weight on my tailbone. I can't even begin to describe the excruciating pain. Seriously, seriously painful. To cut to the end of the story, I wound up with a bruise about 8 inches in diameter with a very large contusion (basically swelling the size of an orange) in the middle of it. It's been a week now but the pain is still completely there and the swelling is now the size of a kiwi instead of an orange, so it is getting better. The doctor says it's still going to take another 2 weeks for it to feel any better, though... isn't that wonderful? Blegh. So annoying! You never realize how important something like a tailbone is until you hurt it. It not only hurts to sit, I can't lay down on my back AND I limp when I walk since the contusion is stretching my skin and hurts when pulled so I can't extend my knee all the way when taking a step, thus the limp. Basically, I can't sit, lay down or walk. Standing is okay, but after a while it hurts too. It's a lose-lose situation. In order not to be too depressing though, I'm trying to look on the bright side of things and the bright side is that I was able to save the Buche de Noel from getting wounded during the fall and it really was incredibly delicious, LOL!

The other bad thing from this injury came from the fact that it was very difficult for me to knit... I was finally able to get cracking again about 2 days ago and now i have two other projects finished, plus my sister's sweater dress is blocked and dry - after a week! So, I have some new projects to share with you all before 2008 is over... yay!

First up, my sister's sweater dress which really was a complete PAIN to make. This pattern was absolutely horrible to work with for me, and I don't even know why because it's a really simple pattern... just not well written at all. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure there's no way in hell I'm ever going to do another Twinkle pattern. Just not worth the time and sweat spent on it. It did end up looking pretty good, though, and my sister is absolutely going gaga over it, so I guess it was worth it for that... just don't ask me to repeat it!





For hubby, I made Jared Flood's Habitat hat, which I just love! It looks amazing and I'm all set to make another 2 for my cousins. I wouldn't say it's an easy pattern at first with all the different cabling going on, but as soon as I memorized all the cables, it became quite easy. Anyway, here it is, still blocking but looking very good, if I do say so myself. I hope to get some on-his-head shots sometime this week.





And one detail shot:



And just for fun, another neckwarmer... the last one in the Christmas gift series, and I do LOVE the buttons on this one... they look really cool in the light too. I still will make another 2 of these, one was a request and the other is for me. I'm still not sick of this pattern, though maybe you guys are, LOL!





And the cool button:



Now I'm gearing up to actually start making some non-Christmas related projects... too bad I still have 3 gifts left to do! I'm really looking forward to my non-Christmas knitting as I have some really yummy yarn and projects lined up.

Hope everyone had a great holiday, and that your New Year is everything you hope it will be! Happy New Year!!!

Christmas at my house

So Christmas has finally arrived at our apartment. I only say this because we finally made our way to our storage space - yes, we have to rent storage space... space is limited in New York! - and took out our Christmas boxes, which included all the ornaments and the Christmas stand so we could FINALLY get a tree and put it up!

I love it! It's one of my favorite trees that we've gotten as a couple, in fact. We've lived together 3 years now and the first Christmas tree was too small - really it was so short, it looked strange - the second year was a little too closed up so it was hard to put ornaments in it but this one is perfect... or close to! Having a Christmas tree in the house just makes me happy. I'm not sure if it's due to childhood memories (we had one of those fake white ones... yes, we were awesome!) or just the idea of Christmas in the winter, curling up in a blanket with a glass of wine... or hot chocolate! Since the first decade and a little more of my life was spent in a summer Christmas (I'm from Brazil), I just love the actual cold Christmas. Probably due to movies and being brainwashed into thinking that's what a Christmas SHOULD be, but I still buy into it. In either case, winter and a Christmas tree always puts me in the holiday spirit! :)



My sister came over to help me with the ornaments, as she does every year, and this year she brought with her an early Christmas gift for me. Isn't it ADORABLE??? She even has on a knit dress and cap. Too cute!



Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!