Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. In addition to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and a second turkey dinner on Friday, Mum packed a container filled with leftovers for us to have for supper on Monday. Thanksgiving is one of the only times of the year when the leftovers are just as good as the original meal.

2. Karen and I still exploring meeting spots between her new home and my folks’ place. Last Saturday we chose Sturbridge, where we did much of what we would have done if we were still meeting up in Middletown — eat lunch, buy apples, and drink hot beverages.

3. Friday, Mum and I baked a batch of spritz cookies. She made the dough and shot the dough onto the trays and I decorated them. There was some confusion because she seems to be missing a few of the shape discs, but we eventually settled on poinsettas, ornaments, a few hearts, and a tray of humanoids that could have been angels, elves, or snowmen, depending on your interpretation.

Life is looking up, which makes me think that the doldrums that hit at the beginning of the week were definitely a combination of tiredness and PMS.

Getting some stuff done definitely helps, too. Rudi and I have started cleaning, which really means that the Burrow is much, much messier than it was this morning. Unfortunately, when I say messy, that translates to impossible to move around and every possible surface covered. It will get better; cleaning is one of those things that has to get worse before it improves.

I also finished the knitting of Mystery Gift #1. I still have to weave in ends and block it (it currently puckers a bit), but essentially it’s finished. I’m also nearly done with sleeve #1 of my cardigan and hope to finish it off tomorrow at lunch. I keep pushing back my expected finish date for the cardigan, so I suppose I’m now reasonably hoping for before Christmas.

Thanks for all the well wishes. I definitely appreciated them all!