Happy New....Uh, What Year is this, Anyway?

It seems that I had a bit of a lie down, then a bit of a knit up, a couple of shopping days and whoops....its a whole new year! For those of you who aren't struck by awful karmic disease that my dear friend Jana has (go read her blog!) "Happy New Year"! I know that it's a new year, because the idiots where I live like to shoot fireworks and guns at midnight to celebrate! They did that last Monday night. (Just so you know, honey, I do pay attention to some of the things going on around me, even if I am knitting!)

Every year, around the holidays, I tend to go into a frenzy. Between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, I have managed to cram in a Birthday (mine), 3 major Holidays, shopping for everyone in the Western Hemisphere (well, maybe not everyone, but I have the far ends of 2 continents covered!), the Major Work Holiday Eat, Drink and get Drunk Fest (usually on the 1st Saturday of December, so as to drastically reduce shopping time), baking (for the aforementioned holidays), decorating of the home/tree, along with cleaning, cooking, washing, etc. that goes along with husband and kids. By January 1, I'm usually sick, exhausted, broke, and very, very crabby. Just in time for Tax Season! Whee!

This year, however, I decided to do it a little differently. First, I signed up to work on Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve. Lest you think I did the former to get out of cooking, let me tell you that the girls insisted on their turkey and green bean casserole on the day after Thanksgiving anyway. So, on my Birthday, I cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner. Happy Birthday to me. Pumpkin pie AND birthday cake!

Now, I've been through a half-century's worth of Chrismakwanzakah hysteria, and decided to "go semi-green" this year. Not in the environmental sense, necessarily, but in the "I'm-tired-of-buying-you-bunches-of-junk-that-you-don't-appreciate-and-will-break-by-next-week" sense. Hence, I knit hats.

Lots and lots of hats.

I had knit this pattern for my husband, once before, with modifications for knitting it in the round (which I didn't write down and couldn't remember and had to work out all over again). He loves it! He wears it all the time. He actually needs a new one. So, I figured I would do that. Knit. Hat. Oh, smallest DD is always nabbing Daddy's hat. Knit. Hat. *Sparkles*. Eldest DD will want one, since smaller sib and stepfather have one. Knit. Hat. What shall I get for my brother? Knit. Hat. (He lives much further north and will need it). Of course, one cannot leave out SIL, who's tastes run about like littlest DD. Knit. *Sparkles*. Hat. For the boss who has everything (literally). Knit. Manly. Hat. For the DD's boyfriend (who, it turns out, looks alot like Charlie Brown in his). Knit. Hat. Different from DD's. I churned out hats like there was no tomorrow! Yes, there were other gifts (especially since eldest DD sent me a list via e-mail with links provided! I finished it in 30 minutes online!) But, mostly there were HATS!

I didn't bake. I didn't really cook (thank you, Honey Baked!). I Knit. Hats.

Everyone loves them.

I love them, too.

Maybe next year (if I start next month) I could do socks!