Last day of vacation

*sigh* Today is my last day of vacation.  It was a very busy and good two plus weeks.  Weekend before last, (the 22nd), I flew to Michigan for the weekend to visit family, and to help with and attend my Niece's baby shower.  It was a very good time.  The new baby is very well provisioned and is set for diapers for quite a while.  DNiece has been diagnosed with gestational diabetes so the poor girl woman, that can't stand the sight of blood, now has to stick herself four times a day.  She's doing a great job of it and is feeling good.

I came home Monday and started straight in on Christmas preparations.  I finished the Christmas cards (just need to address and mail), all the wrapping, and all the cookies.  I needed to get all the wrapping and baking done as I was going back to Michigan on the 29th and wanted to take as much with me as I could.  I have a couple gifts to finish up for the folks here in Virginia, but I have a bit of time for them.  I also need to do the decorating of the house.  So rather than getting up bright and early to hit the stores, I got up not as bright and early as planned and hit the road.  Minimal traffic and good weather - neither of which is guaranteed this time of year - made for a nice drive.

The trip up last weekend for was Jack's first birthday.  It may be the fastest a year has ever passed.  He was quite lavishly gifted for the celebration and had cake for the first time.  He really wasn't sure of the taste as he's not used to sugary sweets

You could almost see when the sugar hit his system and he really got into it:

The cake Jack has is called a "smoosh" cake and is a small cake separate from the one for the rest of us.  It's designed specifically for the purpose of smooshing.  We also found out that Jack is being promoted to Big Brother come the end of June!  Yep, another baby!  We're all excited to welcome the new family member.  Of course, this news completely changes my stitching plans for next year - it's going to be all baby, all the time. :-)

Speaking of stitching, I took a piece with me this weekend and got a bit done.

This is Snowman and Pals from Dimensions.  I finished the back stitching on the large piece on the left and the bit of stitching on the right.  The piece on the right is as wide as you see and there is another piece the same size - one for the right side of the large piece and one for the left.  I can't tell you how long I've been working on this, but I'd really like to get it done.

Somewhere over the last two weeks, I finished DSon's throw.  I bought the green yarn three or four years ago and was knitting a throw for him, but didn't care for it.  Once I taught myself to crochet I decided to crochet a throw for him.  I had four skeins of the yarn, but to make it long enough I needed six.  Unfortunately, the yarn I picked, Bernat Blanket in Pine Bough, was a seasonal color and it hasn't been released again, so I started searching and found Bernat Blanket in Tweeds (another seasonal color) which I liked so two skeins later there is a center stripe.

I used all the Tweeds and had this much green left

The Hubs really liked the Tweeds yarn so I bought a bunch of it and have started a throw for him:

It's a ripple pattern (I need the markers to let me know where the top and bottom of the ripples are) and I like how it looks in this yarn.  I don't know when I'll finish it but it's a piece that can be picked up and worked on for a little while and then put down.

I worked on Forever and Ever for a little bit and got it to here:

I hope to finish the center this afternoon/evening.

And the piece that I've spent the most time on is J.

I had such a fuss with this one.  I originally stitched those five designs in the letter the same, so ripped four of them out and restitched.  My brain could not wrap itself around the design and I had to rip and restitch almost all of them at least twice.  Needless to say, I'm glad they're done.  All that's left on the letter is the beads and then the fairy/pixie.  This, despite my inability to count, is stitching up fairly quickly so will continue with "O" and "Y"with the hope of finishing by the end of this year.

Back to work tomorrow.  I have a meeting all day tomorrow and Thursday, so by the time I get to my emails on Friday, there will be almost three weeks backed up.  Fortunately, a lot of folks are out right now so while there will be a lot to go through, it wouldn't be as many as say in July.  I also heard from HR that security has given me the okay for release to my new job.  I have a tentative report date of December 22nd.  I could have tried for the 8th, but since I haven't given an official "I'm going" to my boss, picking the 8th seemed a good way to burn bridges that I really want to keep in tact, so the 22nd it is.  It will be hard to go as I've been doing the work I"m doing now, in one form or another, since 1989, but I'm looking forward to the new work and the challenge.

So back to reality and my old stitching/crafting schedule - it certainly was fun while it lasted.