Almost Ready for Christmas

I'm watching The Nutcracker with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland (which I started when writing my last post but only got to the battle with the Mouse King so that's where I resumed today). It's very 70's, the film quality isn't great, and I know he was an ass and she was not mentally healthy, but lord can they dance. He powers through leaps and turns like it's as easy as breathing and she floats across the stage with such grace. They are both amazingly talented, as are all the dancers in the production, and of course I love Tchaikovsky's music.

I am making cinnamon rolls using the ever-popular Pioneer Woman's recipe. We're at the "dough is rising" stage and the house smells yeasty and lovely. I made a Christmas Pudding a few weeks ago (though apparently it should've been done in November, possibly early November. Ooops) and it's "ripening" in the garage. My first Christmas pudding was a gift from Andy and Charlotte and came with the directions "cook in the usual manner" which meant absolutely nothing to me. When making a Christmas pudding you combine all of the ingredients, steam for 3 hours, and then set aside for days, weeks, or even months until Christmas when it gets steamed for another 3 hours and served en flambé with a variety of cream sauce options. I don't see any other particular Christmas "baking" in our future, though I suppose there's always time to have an overwhelming urge for sugar cookies. We'll do the "Christmas Triffle" from last year's Delicious magazine as a New Year's treat. We've tentatively decided on "Thanksgiving light" for Christmas dinner - turkey breast, cranberry sauce, green beans, mashed potatoes, and hopefully Brussels sprouts if we get them in our veggie box. Brussels Sprouts are the difference between Christmas and Thanksgiving.

We went out to dinner with Chris' Highland Web Developer's group. They meet once a month on a Tuesday night at the same place as my knitting group (though we're in the café and they're off in a meeting room) so it's easy for us to both go that week. Chris hadn't mentioned that we're expecting and they seemed rather chuffed for us. We went to a pub, then dinner at a restaurant, and then to another pub. Chris and I called it a night after that (I'd gone straight from work) but the last stragglers went on to a night club. It was nice to meet Chris' friends.

I am making progress on Chris' pullover. Casting on the sleeves did scratch the start-itis itch and having transferred the body to two sets of cabled needles (freeing up my only 3.0mm for knitting the sleeves, two-at-a-time, magic loop) I was able to have Chris try it on and, luckily, it does fit. I also realized that the pullover was designed by the same woman, Carol Feller, who wrote one of my new knitting books, Contemporary Irish Knits so I guess I've been a fan of hers longer than I realized. I also cast on a little something for my Secret Santa at work which I hope to have finished tonight, though I have until the 24th to drop it off, not that I want to go into town on Christmas eve.

We're all done with our prenatal classes except the partners physiotherapy class on Thursday. Friday I will be 36 weeks with 4 weeks to go, though today also marks exactly a month to my due-date. Count-downs are funny like that. I have an ultrasound scheduled for Friday and need to book an appointment to see my midwife for another (last?) round of bloods. I have two more (half) days of work, tomorrow and Friday; we're having dinner with friends tomorrow and I'm having lunch with another friend Thursday. I am hoping to make it to knit night tonight and that's everything planned between now and Christmas.