Finally. I was wondering if it was ever going to turn proper winter. While I am rejoicing in the chill and the chance to wear all my warm woolly things (I have become convinced in later years that some part of my family must have come from the Nordic peninsula, or perhaps Siberia), it has made the daily commute to work a bit more treacherous for the skin of my face. Biking + frigid icy wind = ow my face. Thus a balaclava is next up in the queue to knit. I was thinking about making this one, but would that freak you out if it was flying toward you on a rickety ten-speed? Thoughts and pattern recommendations are welcome here. There are 360 yds of aran-weight superwash in the knitting limbo that is my purse as we speak.

In catch-up news, Thanksgiving was awesome. I did not take any pictures, because I was rather busy cooking. Our friend Leif came up to join us from Philadelphia, however, and he is much quicker on the shutter than I. If I can harass him for photos in a timely manner, I will post. Back to the day itself, we had a nice little gathering of the urban family, including my friend Nick who is stationed with the Navy up near Saratoga Springs. The menu included herb-roasted turkey with gravy, hash brown casserole, mashed sweet potatoes with bourbon and molasses, broiled brussels sprouts with bacon and mustard sauce, a feta salad and green beans almondine by Sir Leif, dressing balls, rather burned yeast rolls, cranberry-orange sauce, delicious herbed mashed potatoes by Chef Ian, and three pies: a vegan pumpkin from our dear Mr. Lister, a regular pumpkin and a bourbon pie by me. It was quite a spread, but the ten of us did an admirable job putting it away. There’s still some turkey to use up, and I’ve been vacillating between turkey pot pie and turkey & dumplings. The dumplings I’ve done, and they’re phenomenal. The pot pie I haven’t, but I’ve had a serious craving lately. Thoughts?

The day after we spent lazing around. We had a late breakfast/on-time lunch at Chavella’s (nothing says Thanksgiving quite like mole enchiladas), went home for a nap, then off into the city for some quality ping-ponging at SPiN. If you haven’t been yet and you live in NYC, get a group together and do it. It’s pretty reasonably priced, and a lot of fun (even if you, like me, suck at anything requiring lots of hand-eye coordination).

The rest of November passed pretty quietly, and December looks to be about the same. Boyfriend and I will be heading down to Tennessee to spend Christmas with my dad and family, and I am so thankful to have a job that makes a real holiday possible. We are in need of a cat-sitter, however. Anyone out there want to spend their Christmas with a lovable, albeit terrifying, tiny wildcat?

Knitting has been going, but too slowly for my tastes (of course). I’ve been working on the same sweater for almost two months, which is entirely unacceptable. I would very much like to finish it this week and get it out of the basket and onto my person, so we’ll see how that goes. I have little hope. 😛 I did manage to finish a pair of convertible glove/mitten things for Boyfriend, which he was most happy to have when he spent all his Sunday standing outside in the cold on a film set. I’ve also got a lace cowl (for me) and a pair of socks (for the Banana) on the needles, not to mention the hibernating colorwork mitts I started back in the late summer. And then there’s the Boyfriend’s sweater, more socks, and some other household odds and ends I really want to knock out. Including Christmas ornaments for the Etsy shop! I also need to make more bread (I <3 my bread machine, have I mentioned this?) and some pumpkin-cranberry quickbread for breakfasting purposes, and some sort of turkey dish once I make up my mind, and...

The long and short of it is that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. Sigh.

If anyone out there was looking for a good gift idea for me, an extra 72 hours or so to do with precisely as I pleased would be much appreciated.