A Great Christmas, despite walking pneumonia

Diagnosis:  Walking Pneumonia

Hello!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  Ours was great, despite the fact that I am sick.  I found out the day after Christmas that I have walking pneumonia.  This could be a real downer, but instead, my spirits are up.  I have had a great time spending Christmas with my family, and all-in-all don't feel too horrible.  I have felt a lot worse with other illnesses, and it sounds like the medicine that I am taking should knock this out relatively quickly.  However, I am not taking this lightly, and am just laying around visiting with my family, knitting, and watching movies.  That part has been fun!  :) 

I will only be contagious for another couple of days, though it could take a month for all the symptoms to go away.  We are now in Birmingham visiting my Mom for Christmas, and since my Mom, husband, and daughter are already exposed, we decided to stay put until I am no longer contagious, and also so that I can get some rest.  (The doctor said that I am "very" contagious.)  Hopefully no one else will get this.

A Great Christmas!

On the bright side of things...We had a wonderful Christmas!  It was so fun watching Cosette open her presents this year!  She was able to open all her presents herself and to really get into it.  She seemed to enjoy it a lot, as well as decorating the Christmas tree.  It has been so neat watching her enjoy the Christmas lights and have so much fun this year!  She is a true blessing to my heart!

My husband and I decided to spend only $10 on one another for Christmas, focusing on stocking stuffers.  This turned out to be so much fun!  I was able to get him a neat magazine about the upcoming National Championship (Roll Tide Roll!), his favorite Giordelli chocolates, and a small bottle of Chardonay from the World Market.  He loved them! 

He got me one of my favorite movies:  Far and Away, some white chocolate truffles, and the winter Interweave knitting magazine, which he knows I love!  They were perfect!  I think I enjoyed this more than when we got bigger gifts for one another!  It was great!

It was also fun watching my Mom open her gifts, too!  This year, I was able to give her homemade knitted gifts:  My very first finished knitted project:  the dishcloth that she helped me start that really got me into knitting.  I especially wanted her to have it.  She said she is going to save it and not use it since it is so sentimental.  I also knitted a dishcloth in "gumdrop" for her, which was pretty.

I also made my Mom a little knitting-related gift.  She is always kidding around with me that her yarn stash is my inheritance...So, I made her this little gift, which was so fun to make for her.  She loved it!  :)  I also included a $10 gift certificate to Knitpicks.com, a wonderful website that she introduced me to.  It has been so neat sharing with her the joy of knitting!

Another one of the bright points of this week has been the sheer joy of getting to knit...a lot!  I have also really enjoyed getting to knit with my Mom, which I don't get to do nearly as much as I would like.

I have been knitting a little winter mouse for Cosette since Thanksgiving break.  I started and finished the skirt in one night, but got sick right after Thanksgiving (I guess with walking pneumonia, though I didn't know what it was at the time).  Anyway, I wasn't able to work on it anymore until now.  On Christmas Day, Nathan took Cosette to a family party for a little while, so Mom and I sat here knitting.  :)  I also worked on the mouse while waiting at the doctors office, and yesterday I finished the last two pieces:  the two little ears.  How exciting! 

Now all I have to do is get some stuffing.  I have no stuffing with me, and haven't been able to go get any since I am sick, so I am hoping to convince my husband to go to Michael's for me.  ;)  He seems pretty willing, so I am hoping to stuff the little mouse by tonight or tomorrow.

Here are the pictures of the unstuffed mouse:

These are the mouse's ears. 

I also finished another dishcloth for my Mom while waiting at the doctors office, and yesterday I made a dishcloth for our Aunt Lue; and I made Cosette a little mini-dishcloth to use on her play dishes.  She said, "for me?  for me?"  : D  This gave me the best feeling in the world!

Doctor's waiting room dishcloth for my Mom (some of her favorite colors).

Aunt Lue's dishcloth (this is called "chocolate umbre").

Cosette's Mini-dishcloth.

Well, even though I am pretty sick, I am enjoying time with my family, time knitting, and time really contemplating what is important in life:  God and my family.

May you and your family have a wonderful Christmas season, and a Happy New Year! 

Thanks for reading!   
Faith