Weekend with the 'Rents

Mom and Dad were scheduled to head home sometime this morning. Unfortunately, a death in the family (Mom's 91-year-old aunt) sent them home a little early. We did, however, manage to squeeze a lot into the weekend.

They arrived at around 3:30 on Friday, after a long (and boring -- just ask Mom) drive from Michigan. They settled in and took some time to see all the things we'd done to the house since they were last here (last time they were here, we'd only been in the house a few months), and then we headed to Starbucks, where we had coffee while we waited for Paul to get out of work. We had dinner at Hoggy's, which is probably their favorite restaurant around here. I think we've eaten there every time they've visited. We are, after all, a meat-lovin' family.

After we got back, we opened our Christmas presents. I got all kinds of fun things -- like great knitterly thingies and both a T-shirt and a sweatshirt from my alma mater (to go with my Go Knights! scarf). Mom, as always, got a bunch of knitted stuff:



Believe it or not, Mom managed to wear each of her new scarves sometime during the weekend.

The big surprise of the weekend came on Saturday morning, when I got up and wandered into the living room, only to find Mom sitting on the couch, sipping coffee and knitting a scarf.

Now I think I can begin to understand that feeling a mother has when she sees her child starting to walk. I was so proud!

Back when I learned to knit, I spent some time trying to pass the knowledge on to Mom. But then I moved to Massachusetts, and she no longer had her knitting teacher readily available. Add to that the fact that Mom doesn't really sit much, and you may understand why Mom gave up before she really got the hang of it. She's mentioned it from time to time since, but she never picked up the needles again.

Last week, however, she bought some yarn that she saw at Big Lots -- and she brought her needles here with her. On Saturday morning, she pulled out the "How to Knit" section of my Vogue Knitting magazine, and that was all it took to get her going. By the time I got up, she was knitting up a storm. I almost cried, I was so excited.

Here she is, just knitting away:



After ripping out her new scarf a couple of times and starting over, she got to a point where she was comfortable packing up and leaving. And while the guys stayed home to do manly things like cut down trees in the freezing cold, Mom and I took off to go shopping. We went to the mall. We went and bought spices at Penzys. Then I took her to the LYS, where she got to meet Jan and Gerald and Suzanne. I was going to buy her yarn for her next project, but she ended up buying *me* yarn to make *her* something. She's decided that she wants knitted collar-like things to make a comeback, so she's going to start it with this:



Throughout the rest of the weekend, the guys did more puttering around the house (after cutting down the tree, they painted the bathroom -- which, actually, isn't quite done yet). And Mom and I went shopping. We also watched a lot of Olympic hockey -- and parts of the Daytona 500 (in my family, car racing is about the only sport that really exists -- though we prefer the Indy 500). We played a few games. We ate a ton of junk food. And Mom and I hung out and did lots of knitting:




(See? I have my mom's red eyes.)

We spent a lot of time feeling yarn over the weekend. We stopped by Hobby Lobby on Saturday night and discovered a HUGE yarn sale. We couldn't help ourselves. So Mom bought yarn for her next scarf, and I bought stuff that I totally didn't need but really, really wanted. Yesterday, when I went to knit with the girls, I brought my ball of Luscious, which I got for $2 on sale. And it is SO YUMMY! So squishy! I am totally in love. Yea, Hobby Lobby!

It was a quiet day with the girls yesterday. Since it was Presidents' Day, they didn't have school -- so only two faithfuls (Miss H and Miss S) showed up. It was quieter (and less insane) than it has been the last few weeks, but there was still plenty of giggling, so we had a great time. And look how much I got done on my Squishy Scarf!



In Team ADD news, I've almost finished the body of the sweater. Just one more round, and I'm binding off. Then I just have the sleeves. It's not going to be done by Sunday (But really...did I expect it to be? Nope), but it will forever be my Olympic Sweater. And I'll get my Team ADD Gold Medal anyway -- because I tried real hard.

I've already posted a ton of pictures today, so the sweater will get its time in the spotlight again tomorrow...