Hello 2008!!!

Here I sit at home on the first evening of year 2008. My little kitty is trying to sleep across from me, but every time I get up she has to look up so to see whether or not she'll need to follow me into some other room. I'm sure she wishes I would just settle down. Friends invited me to a nice party last night where I met a number of new people and renewed friendships with some recent acquaintances. Very nice.

The only interesting news was our Christmas cookie decorating party two or three weeks ago(!). I'm only now posting about this. The boring news is that I've finally finished reading the first half of the National Electric Code. This tedious task has been consuming my time for a couple of months, now. The other news is that dear "Oslofia" sent all of us in the Hello Kitty Knit-along the first pattern on Christmas Eve, but that I haven't even started it. Some of the knitters have already _finished_ the first pattern, and I haven't even started. I plan to get my supplies tomorrow after work.

The Christmas cookie event wasn't really a party--I just invited some neighbors over to decorate Christmas cookies. I remember doing this as a child, with my mother. What I learned doing it, though, is how much work my mother did to provide me with this pleasant holiday tradition. I spent the entire evening rolling out dough, baking it and mixing batches of frosting. It wasn't until everyone left (things were running late) that I even had time to frost some cookies myself. But, the end results were enjoyed by all, and the cookies were good, too! On the right is Emily with the cookies that she and Joseph decorated. And, to the left are Aaron and Erin (and Ishi) with their cookies.