Happy in the New Year

It has been a long time since I've posted! Life quickly got crazy for us over the holidays. I love love love Christmas but this was a hectic one! My first mistake was deciding to knit everyone presents. This was an awful idea, because I am not a quick enough knitter and everyone had special requests for scarves and blankets. (They must think I am a machine). To top it off I actually got very sick over the holidays, so I did not finish most of my gifts on time. I am still knitting Christmas gifts in the middle of January. Next year, I am not knitting anyone anything for Christmas. :) Lesson learned.

Aside from all of that, Christmas was a lot of fun. I managed to get Richard some bike stuff and he bought me knitting books. We also baked lots of my favorite Christmas cookies from childhood and we sent our first Christmas card together! It was so much fun, I want to send a photo greeting for like every possible holiday.
New Years Eve was special, because we were actually together at Midnight and in a position to celebrate (last year we were in the car/stairwell when the ball dropped and I didn't even get a kiss!). We were at Zed because I was "working" so Richard had a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and some fondue while I waited on the masses. At Midnight he gave me one of the most romantic kisses of my life. Seriously. It was one of those moments where the world stopped and I knew I was absolutely the luckiest girl on earth to be with Richard. And we got to wear hats and blow party horns. I am so sad that we didn't take a picture together that night, but that kiss will be burned in my memory for the rest of my life. I was too tired to drink champagne when I got off work and that was fine with Richard because he had over-indulged and got a little sick (in front of Zed). Poor thing!

I spent the next couple weeks churning out Christmas gifts, but I actually didn't photograph any of them. Sorry! I cleaned the house and got our lives a little more organized and then I began knitting my first pair of socks. It's times like these when I wish I had a knitting tutor. I had to attempt the heel like 3 times, but I did finally figure it out. I will post photos soon.

My parents bought me a bunch (ok all) of the Stephanie Pearl-McPhee books which I love! I already read them all and I have to say they were so inspirational and comforting. As a knitter, I felt like Stephanie was my long lost sister or something. Not only did she have tons of great knitting advice, but she writes about yarn stashes and compulsive yarn-buying/project-starting like she can see inside my brain. It was very nice to discover I am not the only Knitter who feels these crazy urges and I understood myself (and knitting!) better after reading these books.

Richard is very excited that I finally like Chipotle. It took 3 years, but I finally discovered a not-spicy and delicious thing to eat there. I thought he was going to do back-flips when I told him. Thanks for making the Pork not spicy Chipotle. Seriously.

I would like to finish this post with a list of
Ten Knit-Related Reasons Why Richard is the Best Boyfriend Ever:

1) He buys me yarn. Boo-Yeah!

2) He helps me tear apart our leather recliner whenever one of my knitting needles disappears into it's dark cold abyss.

3) He continues to help me tear apart the knitting chair, even after he miraculously cut himself between his finger and fingernail while we desparately tried to rescue my fifth sock needle. I bet it really hurt.

4) He chases the dogs around the living room and rescues my yarn/needles from their mouths/legs/tails/etc. on a regular basis.

5) He never gets upset when I splurge at the yarn store (This is probably because I continue to not get upset when he splurges on his bicycle, but still).

6) He will drop everything and check out my latest knit-related accomplishment. He recognizes my hard work and congratulates/celebrates with me regularly.

7) He wears the scarf I knit him even though it was the first thing I ever knit and thus has some (ok a lot of) flaws.

8) He asks me to knit him things. That's right. Talk about a knitters dream boyfriend. First, it was a beer cozy. I was so excited I almost fainted when he hinted that he wanted one. He uses it every time he drinks something cold. Now he wants a pair of alpaca socks. I am foaming at the mouth to get started on them!

9) He doesn't care if I knit in public with him. He pretty much lets me knit anywhere, anytime without comment. He's cool with dating a knitter and I think that's awesome!

10) He learned how to knit. Sadly, he was not addicted like me (I do not understand how some people can learn how to do something as cool as knitting and not be horrifyingly addicted). But he tried it and I really appreciate that. He also told me I couldn't tell anyone that he knit, but I think he just meant Jim and Jim will probably never read this blog, so I think I'm safe to put it on this list.

When he learned how to knit I started having visions of the two of us sitting and knitting together every night, splurging at the yarn store together and combining our yarn stashes on our wedding day into some sort of super-stash. Now I realize that that was a bit silly, but, hey, a knitter can dream!

There are, of course, a zillion other reasons why Richard is a great guy and the best boyfriend ever, but I thought this list was a good start.