December Daily- Wrap up 23, 24 and 25

We had a lovely family brunch at Mary's to start the day off right. The last photo is from our girls lunch on the 26th which really wrapped up the holiday weekend nicely.  I'm glad I have her blog to link to as I think that's the only time I have a photo of me show up!  It was so much fun watching Charlie talk about his tree cutter and blower, and while Sam didn't have much to say he definitely had lots of smiles to share. Much later in the day I had a serious raving for a Coca-cola-I no idea why, so off Andrew and I went with the dogs to the convenience store around the corner, but since it was so dark I decided to let Sophie wear on of my neon workout shirts so cars would see her.   Motorist in our area never pay attention to pedestrians.  She was not amused!
 

Christmas Eve we spent a few hours with my Mom.  Similar to what we did last year we took heavy hors d'oeuvres for lunch this year's menu included:  baked brie with cranberry jam, stuffed mushrooms, veggies and hummus, smoked trout dip, stuffed potatoes, shrimp cocktail, bacon wrapped scallops, bloody mary's, mimosas, and Moscow mules.  It was all delicious and we had a very nice visit.  We had dinner reservations at Maggiano's and I'm glad we had a decent lunch as the restaurant was overbooked for the evening and we had to wait more than 30 minutes past our reservation to be seated.

Christmas Day was just the 3 of us, and it was nice to have no plans to go anywhere or get dressed up.  Yoga pants and a t-shirt was the outfit du jour!  I knit Andrew a Clemson themed hat since when he returns to Maryland its going to be coooold!  This will help keep him warm when he walks Cocoa and traveling to and from the train station.  Maybe it will serve as a good luck charm that they'll go [and win] the National Championship again.  There was more delicious food for brunch and dinner- glazed ham, french toast casserole and snacks from Christmas Eve [and Maggiano's leftovers!].

I'd had my fill of football, so I cast on the Lilly Rose dress for my co-workers soon-to-be-born second daughter, and watched a few episodes of Season 2 of The Crown.   I've never struggled so much with a baby gift, but everything turned out too big or wasn't what I was hoping for.  I don't know why I didn't do this pattern to start with as it is such a cute/quick knit.  I am finally on the road to success with this one.  I also queue a ton of stuff on Ravelry, and my rationale was to purposely use the patterns I've bought [or printed] over the last few years, but manage to forget I have at the ready.  My goal this year is to knit from my stash and the patterns I've already purchased.  I plan to document my FOs a bit better this year.

The girl's lunch at Bistro VG on the 26th was so delightful, as always, and now all the out of towners are back home, but it was so nice to have everyone together.  I guess that means it's time to wrap up 2017 and focus on 2018.  I have some goals in mind that are achievable, and holding myself accountable to posting about them is at the top of the list.  I have a few more days off before I have to go back to work.  Today is a much needed hair appointment and I hope to get my Mom's quilt closer to being finished.  Yesterday I got together with Joyce and Brenda, and we've scheduled our next sewing day in the hotel lobby.  This will be our 3rd year, and I'm glad we've managed to continue to get together despite the fact that 2 of us have moved!  Friday will involve a trip to Acworth to help my Mom get her lease renewal documents submitted, and I hope to be home early enough to get Sophie out for an extra long walk.  It looks like the weather here will be dry but very cold which I can manage.  I want to get outside as much as I can before we have really yucky weather.  Here's to a productive few days-I hope!