The other day I was emptying out my lunch bag when I got to work and I couldn't figure out why everything was all wet. Then I found two little icicles at the bottom. They must have fallen in when I wasn't looking. It's a new way to refrigerate your lunch :-). 
Here's the finished penguin. He looks a lot better with his face. I think he has a big nose. Chris has a penguin collection so when I saw this pattern I wanted to try making it for her.
I made these holiday cats for Earleen. Last year I made her cats for the seasons but she needed some holidays to provide some variety. I hope you can tell which cats are for which holidays.
I had lots of fun making this hat for Raf. He picked out the colors. It's called Urbanista. I liked it because you knit it sideways - something different.
Sarah and Katie both work in cold offices so I made them some fingerless gloves.
I made this double-sided cable scarf for Nathan. It was a fun pattern. I think it's nice and thick and cozy.
I also experimented with another hat pattern. It came out bigger than I expected but I think it fits Nathan pretty well. It's really warm. The pattern is called Tychus.
Here he is wearing both the hat and scarf.
Here's a string grocery bag I made for our yankee swap. It got swapped quite a few times. I don't know if that's good or bad. :-) It matches Sarah's sweater ball but they're going to end up in different places.
After a few freezing days in Boston I decided to make a new hat for myself. I wanted something that was loose enough so I wouldn't get "hat head." I sort of thought this would be a little floppier but it's pretty good. It doesn't squish my hair anyway.
There are a few more things that I need to get pictures of, so more to come later...
Shabu shabu is where you get lots of veggies, noodles, mushrooms, tofu and meats (for some people) and you cook them in broth. It's fun, delicious, messy, etc.
Sarah and I were sharing a broth so we had to coordinate. We were getting a little competitive. I'm sure she ate some of my mushrooms :-)
The red broth was Nathan's. I think it was super-spicy.
Then on another day we went to Chinatown and tried another kind of soup. This kind is Vietnamese pho. It comes with everything already cooked - you just add fresh bean sprouts, lime and basil, and hot sauce if you want.
It was really cold and windy outside, so good soup weather. Hope you're keeping warm!
Don't you just want to snuggle up there in the sun with a good book and a cup of tea?
Boston has great apartments (and fancy kitchen sinks).
Susie's succulent garden having a little sunbath.
A few knitting projects of course. I won't tell you what Katie's making but I was working on a penguin. The penguin was sad without his face but he found a nice friend.
No knitting for Raf!
One of the reasons I wanted to go to Boston was to do some research at Anthropologie. They have amazing crafty decorations and I love the way they decorate the store. It looked like they filled the whole place with soap bubbles. Or maybe it was supposed to be snow. :-)
It's always changing and I always get inspired with new ideas there. I don't think I'll try this one though.
We also made these delicious raviolis.
The little helper - he looks so innocent, like he'd never try to eat my yarn.
Another one of Katie's favorites - tapioca pudding.
And this is one of my favorites - a baked apple pancake. Yum!
Maybe not the traditional Christmas foods but they were all fun to make.
This one was from inside the car. (Don't worry, Nathan took the picture while I was driving.) It really looks like we live in the great white north.
I can appreciate it so much more if I'm not shoveling. :-)
Then one day there were four and more buds still. It's so nice to have flowers in January.
Happy New Year!!!
