Making a scarf

There were no homemade Christmas gifts this year. That said, I did give away the two scarves that I knit over the holidays. Let's call them New Year gifts. The knitting was a therapeutic exercise for me, and while I had planned to keep one of the scarves for myself, they were drawn to other people. This one went to Raissa, who ooo'd and ahh'd about the pretty wool so effusively that I couldn't deny her.

I used one skein of Magnum Cascade Yarns, colour 9452 for each scarf. Raissa's scarf is 14 stitches on 12 mm needles with the following pattern: Row 1: K2, P2; Row 2: Purl.

Saturday

Our neighbours:

Our coffee:

Our lunch:

The Christmas of Catan

In December, our roomies Marc and Jen gave us an early Christmas present: The Settlers of Catan. The board game, which combines the best parts of Risk and Monopoly, has been on our wish list since Ananda introduced it to our household last fall.

We brought the game to Saskatchewan for Christmas, and we played it a million times. Both sets of parents and our friend Raissa learned to play. Everyone was really into it.

This game had a lot to do with making our Christmas holiday so enjoyable.

Other things that contributed: looking at old photos with my Baba, watching three good movies in the movie theatre (you really need to see The King's Speech), knitting scarves by the fire and drinking coffee in a leisurely fashion.

Then there's seeing friends and family in the flesh; that's always a good time.

I hope you had a fun holiday too!

Christmas Greetings!

We got our Christmas card done, just in the nick of time. I didn't want a replay of last year, so I made Michael change out of his pajamas to take this photo on Christmas day. I'm a jerk, I know. If you want to see our other Christmas cards, for old time's sake, you can find links to all of them here.

(Thinking about) making bread

I've never had the inclination to make bread. Before now. You can blame Tartine. I've gone to the bakery every time I've visited my sister in San Francisco (that photo of chocolate banana bread pudding is from a visit last spring), and in November I went to Bar Tartine for the first time. That's where I ate the best bread in the world. It was the best part of an amazing meal (actually, celebrating my dad's 60th birthday was the best part, but you know what I mean).

At dinner, after pointing out that Chad Robertson was eating at the bar, Shannon told me about this video, which (successfully) promotes Tartine Bread, a new cookbook which I must own. I like Marie Abe's portion of the video best, so watch the whole thing!

My stomach is growling.

Christmas moments

Cardboard gingerbread men at Choux Choux Charcuterie:


A snowman and his cat in our backyard (who have since expired):


A snowman and his popsicle (obviously) at the Christmas tree farm:


Slippers, tree, lights and Michael in a rocking chair in our living room:


Lights on a giant tree at Government House: