Christmas Preparation

Well, we know where and approximately when my family is celebrating Christmas, it's not on the day and it's going to be at a park for a lovely picnic.   
I'm presuming that Christmas day will be at the In-Law's as usual with heaps of food and noise (and for me, knitting to stay sane).     I'm an introvert and find the rather hectic environment there a little trying, not their fault, nor mine, just the way it is.   Thomas and the boys will love it, they all cope much better than I do.   I'll have to check soon what the deal is timewise, and what we need to take as well to both celebrations.

In other preparations we're pretty much sorted for Christmas presents now.  George gets his quilt, Ian is now getting a new trampoline (shared with George of course).  The old one is nowhere near big enough now and the bottom of it is moving when he bounces near the ends.    I managed to get a brand new one off Trademe for a good price, it'll be delivered in the next week and then we just need to put it together and take the old one down.  We've offered that to Thomas' brother as a Christmas present from us to his two youngest.   I know he's seen the offer, but don't know his response yet, hope he does want it as I'm sure his kids would love it.   We hadn't planned on getting a new tramp, but Ian's been using it a heap recently (maybe due to computer ban) and he uses it for grounding himself as well so it's necessary for it to be safe.   The new one is 12' in diameter so much bigger!   There will be a few small items as well for both boys including new swim togs and a watch for Ian as he is envious of George's watch and we're hoping it'll help him learn to tell the time from an analogue face.

I don't think we're getting anything for each other, there's a garage to think about first.   We've had the visit from EQC and a few things they won't do, but they're talking about paying for a new garage the same as the old (like for like) which being a block garage won't be cheap.  We're waiting for the new Scope of Works before anything else happens, at which point we'll likely be making some waves about their intention to reuse the old slab.   I have an email from the council saying any slab must be up to current code, there is no way it is, especially considering our land rating of TC2; we need thicker and stronger foundations, they also need to be higher than our current slab is.

Got the quilt for my brother and his wife started, going much quicker than the last version of this I did

The layout, no sewing done at this point

In the last few days I've got 7 rows sewn together, leaving 3 to go

7 rows ready to press

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the last 3 rows complete and pressed, then I can sew pairs of rows together.

I've also got more knitting done on my mystery shawl, it's totally different from anything I've done before and I'm surprising myself how much I'm liking it.

Section 3 complete, just starting section 4 (chart 3)