It's now just over a week until Christmas is here (hoorah!) so it is time to assess how ready I am for the big day. Hopefully if I can put in all down here then I have half a chance of spotting the glaringly obvious thing that I have no doubt forgotten!
Firstly, the things I have done. I finally stopped procrastinating about the slightly too short Fluke sock for my Aunt and that is now finished. It really did take me no time at all, so I don't know what all the fuss was about. I will get those wrapped tonight. I have also bought a couple of large bottles for the liqueur. I will give those away as main presents and divide what is left into tiny bottles to add as extras to other presents. I have begun work on the sweet treats tins for my cousins and my grandma. These are the peppermint creams all done and dusted, I think they look really pretty and they taste pretty yum too. The recipe was from Good Housekeeping Christmas magazine and is essentially a whole load of icing sugar, a tiny bit of cream of tartar mixed with some peppermint essence and a few spoons of evaporated milk. In the magazine they made circular ones but I hadn't got a cutter that size, and besides I like stars better. The mints are faintly green and pink, I would have like them to be a bit of a stronger colour but I got bored of kneading in the colouring. Oh well. My Christmas cake has marzipan on it which has been drying out for a couple of days so hopefully I can get on and ice it tonight. Which brings me neatly on to the things which I still need to do! The cake is going to be a version of the one on the front of the aforementioned Good Housekeeping magazine. I like it because essentially it is really just a tealight holder which will make me feel better when nobody actually eats any of the cake! We also need to go out and buy a whole load of party food ready for Christmas evening when both my family and Chris' family are coming to our house for a buffet tea. Granted everyone will be completely stuffed and no-one will eat anything, but we have to put on a good spread for the sake of appearances! Plus that way we won't have to cook for several days and can live on sausage rolls and onion bhaji's. I also need to get the rest of the ingredients for the sweet treat tins. I think I will put chocolate fudge and chocolate truffles in there, so I need to get all the bits and then get on and make them. I will be seeing my cousins on 23rd December, so I need to make sure that their presents are ready to take away with them that day. Just to add to things, the reason I will be seeing them that day is because it is my Dad's birthday (how inconvenient). I have got him present but that is not wrapped yet. I'm hoping that he didn't actually spot it last time he came a visiting because it I left it on the coffee table for all to see. Ooops. Hmm, what else. My sis's present is still not completely done, but she reads this so I won't mention that. Other than that lot, I think I'm done. Put down in black and white it all looks perfectly manageable in a week. Obviously I have a full time job and a social life to fit in there too, but we won't worry about that. I'm feeling optimistic.
In non-Christmas news, the Slouchy Cover Up is now mostly done. All the main knitting is completed and the shoulders have been joined, but the next step is picking up stitches for the neck band and I'm sure I have mentioned once or twice how I feel about picking up stitches! I was totally convinced I would have this project done by Christmas but I may yet be foiled by flipping picking up stitches. I will try to just bite the bullet and get it done, but once that is done then I have to do seaming (jury is still out on whether I hate seaming or picking up stitches more) so I'm thinking that there is still a good few days procrastination left in me before this project gets done. To be fair, as listed above I have got plently of other stuff to be getting on with. I also feel the need to be writing angry letters to the builders who are working on the house next door, which will take up some valuable knitting time. I mentioned a little while back how e lost all out power due to workman cutting through our electric cable and how annoyed I was (I think poking knitting needles in people's eyes may have been mentioned). Well, on Friday these workmen chopped through our telephone cable and knocked a big hole in the building that houses the pump for our cess pit. When I got home yesterday they had chopped through the gas pipe, leaving us unable to cook and without hot water and this morning they had completely blocked the drive so I was nearly late for work. I understand being clumsy, clearly I am a very clumsy person, but these people seem very reluctant to apologise, let alone put things right. The gas people did come out last night to fix us up but the workmen were refusing to take any liability. I think a strongly worded letter will certainly make me feel better even if it makes no difference to the situation! Right well, better go and get on with all that needs doing, I hope to be able to say within the next couple of days that all has been completed and that I will be doing nothing but watching Christmas films and knitting until the big day comes around.
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