Cold House, Warm Feet

This weekend seemed to be very short, even though it was the normal two days. I think because the cold wind kept me indoors it all blended into 1 day.

Saturday night I made cabbage rolls which were very yummy (but take about 2 hours to make). And then I went with my neighbour to look at some Christmas lights, except I thought we were just going to sit in the van and maybe walk around a yard or two. I didn't know we were going to be invited in - oops, mamma always said to dress up when you go out. The host gave us a tour of her lovely home - with 11 Christmas trees - all fully decorated including many handmade ornaments. And one of the most amazing things was the fact that the home had burned down 8 years ago so (almost) everything she showed us had been purchased or made after the fire. There was a blue and silver themed tree in the living room. A white tree in Grandma's bedroom, a skinny tree in the kitchen (for practicality) a 2' tree in the laundry room with little knitted mittens and socks held on to the tree with little clothes pegs, a 'family' tree with ornaments the grand kids/nieces/nephews had made which included their photos and a little story about what they wanted to be when they grew up(rescued from the fire!). And a very nice dedicated craft area(I wanted more time with grandma's stash too). Boy, if this was my aunt's/grandma's house I think I'd be there all the time! And it was very warm!

My house is not warm. And this cold wind is not helping at all. Brr. It was -5 this morning outside and 14 degrees in my office/work room. So there are there space heaters in the rooms to help warm some spots up. And I knitted me some slippers this weekend which I felted (washing wool in hot water to purposely shrink)- I'll show the photo later today when they're done drying. But the best thing we did was about 2 weeks ago we bought a heated mattress pad. Ahhh! Now that's nice.

When I moved back home in my early 20's, my parents gave me their basement to live in but the bedroom was a bit cold(did I mention I hate being cold?). That's when my father told me about heated mattress pads. Electric blankets didn't work for me because I was a rather active sleeper back then and I ended up breaking the wiring in the electric blankets (although I'm sure they're made much better today.) I remembered my dad's suggestion and suggested to JP that we get one for our cold room. Ahh! Thanks Dad. It's so nice having a warm bed. There are two warm places in my house - the shower and my bed. And if you take those away from me - I will be a very grumpy girl! I do not like being cold at all. No I don't.

I hope you're all staying warm too.
9 MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!