Are there many other holidays that we compare against other years as much as Christmas? This year at my house, we only had glimpses of Christmas.

Did You Have More Than Just Glimpses of Christmas This Year?

We haven’t hosted friends or family for Christmas in decades. So we usually don’t decorate the house for the holiday. No Christmas tree, no house lights…not even a wreath usually.

Thaddeus and I don’t exchange gifts either.

So, most of our Christmas experience comes with celebrating it with family and friends.

We had decided not to get together with family and friends this year for Christmas. I missed seeing my mom and brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews (and great-nieces and great-nephews). I missed seeing Thaddeus’ family as well. Their house is always decorated in a way that wraps me in the holiday spirit.

We also opted not to do extended Christmas dinner with our friend Charles. This is usually gifts at his place and then dinner at a restaurant on New Year’s Eve.

Comparatively, this was a very sparse Christmas chez QueerJoe.

But there were some delightful glimpse of the holiday.

Sweet gifts and a note of Joy from James in New Zealand was heartwarming as always.

Thaddeus also made a really nice dinner for Christmas and finished it off with pumpkin pie.

And finally, I was really missing Thaddeus’ sister’s cookies. So she packed up a crate of cookies.

Nut roll, thumbprint with apricot jam, oatmeal/cherry (from the niece), Russian tea cakes, raspberry squares and lemon squares. Honestly, this was simply 5 pounds of butter disguised as baked goods, but OMG how delicious.

All-in-all, I have to admit, I enjoyed Christmas…although I really missed being around the people I love.

Current Knitting

Almost two more pairs of Rose’s Fingerless Mitts.

Yes, I also have to weave in a few ends. And I think I have enough yarn to make one more pair of the mitts in this yarn.

I’m also working on a way of labeling these with the size of the pair and keeping the pair together, but also able to be tried on. At the one craft show this year, I could pretty easily eyeball which size they were. For the future, I may have too many pairs to keep track of.

I’ve got some ideas brewing, so I’ll keep you updated. As usual.