Merry Christmas 2021!

We finally got our tree up, and I wrapped all the presents I was personally responsible for.

I've been wearing the thrift-store cardigan I added an afterthought pocket to way back when. I hadn't worn it for a while because I had worn a hole in one of the elbows. I had a nice woolen pullover the moths got into some time ago. I washed the moth-eaten sweater in hot water and ran it through the dryer to felt it, then cut out some elbow patches to sew on my thrift-store cardi. It's sort of like a kidney transplant for the cardigan, which will now "enjoy" an extended life. I sewed them on using a blanket stitch.

I spent some time on the phone with an Apple technician, getting my Bose Sound Touch app to update. It took two sessions, because I needed to delete a ton of duplicate photos and some apps I never use to download the update. The Apple technicians were, as always, very patient. (I wonder if they knit while waiting for people to call.) Anyway, we got it to work. It was really important, because I have an extensive music library in my external hard drive, and I couldn't access it except to play the music through my laptop's speakers. While nice, they are really not suitable for listening if you aren't sitting at the computer. I have 18 hours of holiday music in one playlist and 15 hours in another. I could almost play one playlist after the other and never have a song repeat. It's all on my external hard drive, though. Not much good if the computer won't connect to the Bose.

I did some cooking for the holidays. I made some Lanttulaatikko (Finnish rutabaga casserole), a family tradition.

We also needed some Pulla (Finnish Cardamom Braid), another family tradition.

I made some cranberry sauce with honey, minted ginger, pepper flakes and lemon juice.

I still have dressing and a Sri Lankan sweet potato recipe to make for Christmas dinner. We have a fully-cooked turkey breast that just needs roasting and some Quorn "Meatless" Roast that also needs roasting. We'll have salad and some kind of green vegetable (maybe Brussels sprouts). We have some kind of pie or cheesecake for dessert, along with DH's birthday cake, which has been in the freezer since September.

Having most of the cooking in hand, I began the H-word, beginning with my workroom, which will be a bedroom for our daughter and her family. While Beatrice, my Eufy robot vacuum, worked her magic with the floor, I straightened up and made up the day bed and the trundle.

The wicker trunk will slide over in front of the closet doors (out of the photo), maybe with the desk chair, or we can move one or both of them into our bedroom, which has a lot of floor space. The kiddos will sleep on the floor in sleeping bags.

Then I moved the packages addressed to our daughter to the workroom table.

They're flying in, so they preferred to send their presents directly from the stores (and Amazon, as you can see).

I still have the other guest room to prepare, but that won't take much, and the rest of the house to (ugh!) clean. (Beatrice is going to be busy!)

Also during the week, I ran around to deliver copies of my new book to various places, including the library and the local yarn shop. The new book has links to the free patterns for the Wonderland Turtle turtleneck and the Everyday Play dress for dolls in 18", 19" slim and 14" sizes. The owner of the yarn shop wants me to make samples of them and leave a couple of dolls there wearing the items. Dolly and Gabi will go to work. The owner of the shop had suggested offering the patterns, yarn and book or books to customers when I left some copies of the first book with her. I included the links in this book. The customers can make something for a child's favorite doll and include it with the book as a present. I bought my yarn for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL there, too. All I have to do to be ready now is wind the yarn.

Rocky continues to get drops in his eyes (one kind six times a day and then the other kind twice a day) and his regular medication twice a day. I have to be sure to be up before him in the morning, because he shouldn't go down the steps to the family room to get out of the house to potty, because he can't see and could hurt himself. He also need an occasional check on him when he's outdoors, because he sometimes can't find his way back to the house. He has no trouble finding the person with the sandwich, however.

The choir is preparing for Christmas Eve. It's going to be a busy week.

Reminder: If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Getting ready to CO for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along.

What's on my loom: Still the trailer rugs. I really had hoped to have finished them by now.

What's on my sewing machine: Still its cover. No progress (for some reason) on the T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: Still the whole-cloth quilt. A little bit more done.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The Week Before Christmas finds The Writer frantic because there is so much to get done before family members arrive for Christmas. The dolls take pity on her and do all the preparations for her, while she sits with a cup of tea and her up with Christmas movies on TV. People have been telling me they really enjoyed this one, which is a poem reminiscent of "The Night Before Christmas."

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Perry on the Audible app. It was hard to put down, but it took me longer to listen to because I was trying to get all the stories scheduled for the month. Now listening to Mel Brooks' All About Me. I heard an interview with the 95-year-old comedian and screenplay writer on NPR during the week and tried to buy the book. Sold out! (It's still available on Kindle and Audible, however.) I wish my books would sell like that.

What's in my wine glass: Madroña Vineyards' Lake Tahoe 2016 El Dorado, a new favorite.

What's my tip of the week: Always dust before vacuuming. That way, the vacuum picks up the dust you just removed from shelves, etc. Start with the highest shelves or places to dust and work your way down.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>