I'm not quite as far behind as I was the year I wrote The Week Before Christmas, which appears in Our Favorite Verses, last year's new book. At least we won't have a houseful of people this year for the holidays. Still....
It was another crazy week, but I managed to get some knitting done. The Oregon Autumn Cardigan is off the needles.
I still have to put on the buttons (which I've ordered), block and finish off the inside, but the knitting is finished. I found it easier to use three long circular needles for the front/neck band. I put half of the stitches on one needle and half on a second needle, using the third needle to knit with.
While I'm waiting for the buttons to arrive, maybe I can get a small project done. I'm ready to CO an Aran cardigan for a doll for our honorary niece Elsie, who will be getting a Little Kidz Max doll from us. Max is on his way to Elsie's aunt, who will wrap him up. I'll send his clothes along when they're ready. Max is just like Pauly, only blond, so I'll use Pauly as a model.
Meanwhile, the doll I ordered for "The Doll's Storybook" was shipped and should arrive here this week.
It has been very cold. The pups have been snuggling together for warmth.
We did manage to get out to the dog park on Thursday, so the dogs could have some socializing and chase the ball.
We had several errands to do. First of all, we went to our dentists' office. Our health insurance company had given us each a debit card to use for products/services in three categories: dentistry, over-the-counter medications and accessories and "incentive," which was basically to pay us for getting our physicals done. That last category we could spend on anything other than alcohol, tobacco, firearms and gambling, but we could only spend it in certain stores, like Walmart and Kroger. The dentistry and over-the-counter parts had to be spent by December 31st. We hadn't realized how much was on the card, so hadn't spent much, which we learned early in the week. A shopping trip to Walmart took care of most of our over-the-counter purchases and got us stocked up on toiletries, vitamins and first-aid items. The trip on Thursday to the dentists' office gave us a credit there. On the way home, before we went to the dog park, we stopped at a printer to see about getting our holiday cards printed. They thought we could do it all online, but the online services didn't provide the kind of printing we wanted, so I made another trip to the printer on Saturday with my file. The young man who helped us was new, and he sort of messed up the order. The cards were supposed to be 5 X 7, but they ended up 5 1/2 X 8 1/2. I picked them up on Sunday. It was fairly inexpensive, so I said they were OK. I wanted envelopes, too, but now the size I had planned on wasn't going to be big enough. The manager found some that would fit the new size, and gave them to me at no charge because of the mistake. (You may recognize Pauly on the front of the card. The photo is from last year's book.)
We picked up some Asiago cheese to make some special bread for the holidays, Asiago Sourdough Bread. My sourdough starter is ready.
For now, I'm using it to make sandwich bread. Here's the loaf I made a few days ago. It's gone now.
I made the bread in the regular oven, but I decided to try the new microwave/convection oven for some apple crisp. I used the round rack that sits on the turntable, and a glass baking pan. It worked great, and I could see the juices bubbling in the pan as it turned. It makes a great dessert with a little milk poured over the top and a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
My latest book, More Classic Tales Retold, officially came out on December 5th, although BookBaby has had it since they sent me my copies. When people buy my books from BookBaby, much more of the price of the book goes to St. Jude. Here's an example, taken from my accounting page, where I was able to find two posts for the same book at the same price, one from "Print On Demand," which is a vendor like Amazon or B&N, and one from the BookBaby Bookshop. You can see the "Print On Demand" only paid $1.68, while the BookBaby Bookshop paid $8.00.
The kids aren't coming this year. The other grandparents get them. We alternate. This allows the cousins to see each other every two years, which is nice. However, Charlie's brother will be coming. That will be nice.
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What's in The Doll's Storybook: This week's story from #TheDollsStorybook is Staying Well. Originally written early in the pandemic, the dolls demonstrate how children can keep from catching contagious diseases. They learn about viruses and get to see what they look like if you use an electron microscope.
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