Holiday Planning

So last night I did about 10 rounds of work on Panel C of the Burridge Lake Aran Blanket only to realize that I had made a mistake on one of the rows and somehow increased the stitches in one of the stitch patterns from 18 to 24 so I had to backtrack most of the new rows I had knit. I think after all of the back track, I was back to knitting only 2 rows more and I had wasted 60 minutes backtracking. Ugh.

In Holiday Planning news, I must say, this is the most relaxed I've ever been about the approaching holidays! This will be the first year since my relocation to the Northeast that I have not flown home for Christmas or New Years. It's quite exciting and has instilled me with a sense of calm. Instead, my family is coming out here for the holidays where yours truly is expected to cook a Christmas meal. Have I started planning said meal? Nope. I have not one single idea at this point but I'll start paying attention to the many cooking magazines that infiltrate our mailbox and home monthly.

Also lending to the stress reduction this year, neither side of the family has decided to do gifts this year. One side is doing a handmade Christmas, hence the grueling task of finishing that blanket, and the other side has decided to just visit (we're not the crafty sort). M and I have even decided to not do anything. It was getting to the point where all parties involved were just buying things to buy things or to reach the allotted quota of giftage. There was nothing that anyone really really wanted so we decided to scrap it until there's a little one that we focus our Christmas Giving energy on. Until that point, we have removed ourselves from the ratrace known as Christmas Consumerism and it really couldn't be more timely with the economy circling the drain.