Here, bloggy bloggy!

I had so much spare time over the holiday break, and yet I got so little done... blogging included. Here's a bit about what I did do:

Learned to purl. I taught myself how to knit last winter, but had until recently been unable to make the opposite stitch, a purl stitch. You can't really do any patterns without both, so my newly acquired skill has opened up a world of endless possibilities... of scarves. (I only knit scarves. They're easy, and I know I'll finish them and actually wear them.)

Cleaned out my closet. I had lots of clothes that no longer fit me (for the happy reason of having shed a few pounds this year), so I finally pulled the ill-fitting ones out of my closet and took them in to a consignment shop.

Cleaned up the apartment. We've been so busy this semester that our place was in desperate need of a little love.

Ate somewhere between 20 and 30 satsuma mandarins. I bought two five pound boxes at the store last week, and I'm hell-bent on finishing them before any go bad. (I've had six today...)

Spent time with friends. My family is too far away to spend Thanksgiving with, but Luis and I have been fortunate to have wonderful friends with whom we celebrate Thanksgiving. Our potluck style Thanksgiving has become a lovely tradition. I toyed with trying to write something about celebrating the holiday away from my family - certainly a bittersweet experience - but I couldn't recruit the right words to express it. However, Joe Nickell of the Missoulian wrote a sweet, touching column this week, and I think he put it well.

A whole lot of nothing. I spent inordinate amounts of time reading, knitting, and watching movies. It was wonderful. But now it's back to work for the remaining two weeks of the semester (I can't believe there's only two weeks left!), so off I go for a spot of studying. More again soon!