Mele Kalikimaka!

Bet you thought I completely forgot about this blog! Let me tell you, it's been a long and winding road since I last posted. In late summer/early fall, it became apparent that my mother was ill. It was quite a roller coast ride filled with ups and downs--first cancer, then not cancer; tons of tests; would it be a big surgery or a smaller surgery; could she survive any surgery at her age at all. (this is only a quick summary but suffice it to say that the stress level was monumental) In the end, it all worked out well, no cancer, and a heroic effort by the surgeon to keep the surgery small.

But, through it all, one worry simmered on the backburner--would she get well enough to be able to go on her dream trip to Hawaii. It was the one place she'd always wanted to go and for some reason my dad had something against the place and wouldn't take her (he did take her, and the rest of the family when we were kids, on lots of other wonderful vacations, though, just wouldn't go to Hawaii) We'd intended on a getaway from the snow and ice this winter and had just begun the planning stages when she became ill. As soon as she got the green light from her doctor, we ramped up the timing on the trip because the worry had just been too much and we strongly felt there was no time like the present. Managed to plan the whole thing in two weeks time--everything fell into place, from airline and room reservations at just the places we wanted. If you feel like reading all the details of the trip, I posted a trip diary. Since returning home, I've been trying to play catch up with everything. Lots of stuff got thrown on the backburner, not just the blog. It's times like this that the priorities really get crystallized.

But, wanted to take this opportunity to wish all my blog readers a wonderful Happy Christmas! I have been knitting--a couple of shawls before the trip and a few smaller projects, even some gift knitting. Hopefully, I'll get a couple of shots of them to post in the coming days. But, until then,

Mele Kalikimaka!