an exciting Christmas

Christmas was much more exciting than we intended this year. J's brother and family were in Spearfish (about 50 miles away) with Grandma and Grandpa. On Christmas morning they drove to our house, and from there we went to J's cousins house nearby. The weather was lousy when they arrived at our house. it had snowed Christmas eve, light fluffy snow. On Christmas day it was snowing and blowing, but the roads didn't seem to bad on the way to J's cousin's house. OK, they were probably pretty bad, but we decided we would be sure to leave early, before it got dark and things would be fine.

We left the cousin's house and quite quickly encountered a drift all the way across the road about 3 feet deep. not surprisingly we got high centered. J's brother had gone the opposite way to go back to Spearfish with G&G. J called them and they headed back to help us get unstuck. a fab Fire Fighter happened by and pulled us out about the time the J's brother arrived. However, in the meantime the interstate had gotten bad enough so that the highway patrol closed it. This meant that G&G and J's brother and family had one place to go (since they couldn't get to G&G's house)--our little 3 bedroom trailer.

Christmas evening and the day after Christmas we had 13 people (3 were quite small ones) in our little 3 bedroom trailer that our family have 5 has pretty much outgrown. :-) Funny part? it was actually quite fun! I'm sure we all would have preferred it otherwise. our unexpected guests had no change of clothes, no toothbrushes, etc. BUT, kids slept all over the living room and on several bedroom floors and the couch. G&G took my daughters full size bed. Brother and family took my 2 son's bedroom--no full size bed, but a biggish room. and we played games and watched silly Christmas movies, and waited out the storm.

The interstate was open this morning. and now we are back to just our 5 selves... it's awefully quiet already, and the house feels huge. :-)

All and all i can only be thankful that we were together, there was food and heat and electricity, and good company! Just so there's a bit of yarn content here... i spent a bit of time teaching my SIL and niece to knit! passing on the addiction. :-) Life is good!

Hope your Christmas or other Winter Holiday was the best. Hope that you had time with family. Hope that you are now getting back to normal and the quiet is a blessing!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and for those friends who celebrate: Happy Boxing Day!

Northanger Abby & Dragons

This really isn't like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies... there'll just be a bit about each.

So... Northanger Abby yarn will be going out on Monday... if you haven't read it, you should know that the main character, Catherine Morland, is a teenager who loves Gothic novels. so i concluded that she is clearly the basis for current Goths. :-) or not... but one way or the other, the yarn is very Goth looking... dark and rich and romantic... totally my kind of colors.




In other news i've been working on a shawl pattern. this is my test of the idea... it's supposed to be a dragon tail and wings... we'll see how well it blocks out!