I don’t have pictures. I don’t even have a long witty story to tell. All I have to say is that, I can’t wipe the smile from my face.

I keep looking at today from two different angles. First, we usher out, one of the most awful and embarrassing periods in American history. George W. Bush, who woulda thought he could be that bad. Second, we welcome to the White House, not only the first African American president, but a man, so competent, it sort of blows my mind.

The fact that yesterday we also celebrated Dr Martin Luther King’s birthday makes today’s Inauguration especially sweet. Even the kids realized the timing. This morning at breakfast Alex said “you know, this wouldn’t have been possible without Dr King” and Cassidy chimed in “And John F. Kennedy!” and Dylan, in all his 7 year old wisdom… “Mama, did you know, Dr King changed rules?!?! Did you know that African Americans had to sit at the BACK OF THE BUS? And Dr King helped change the rule? Mama, did you know Barack Obama is AFRICAN AMERICAN?!?!”

You could literally see the that realization on his face. That a generation ago, without Dr King, Rosa Parks, and a VERY long list of people of all races and backgrounds.. this day, would not be possible.

So Happy Inauguration Day America.  Today we celebrate. Tomorrow we get our hands dirty, trying to fix the last 8 years of mistakes and incompetence.

Talk about “bringing integrity back to the White House”.

Partly it’s that I’ve been in a perpetual bad mood for months now (with no end in sight). It dampens my blogging mood when I have almost nothing good to blog about and there is only so much bitching I can do here without risking y’all getting sick of me and my bitching. Worse, I don’t read my friends’ blogs much anymore either, and when I do, I never comment. A rut, for sure.

So, while I’ll still try to put something here every once in a while, I am on Twitter. And Facebook. And of course Flickr and Ravelry. So i’m not totally “off the grid”.

Maybe I’ll come around.. I don’t know. It seems a shame to keep this thing up for five years and then quit, but I’ve got nothing good to say. Why publicly harp about my miserableness?

I love it. It’s made me smile entirely too much, and I listen to it often.

Now on to the obligatory pictures..

The tree.. before the onslaught

Cassidy, excited over her new Hannah Montana light up fashion plates type thingamajig

Alex with is much anticipated and pined over roboraptor

Dylan scored Megatron.

Connor, loved everything.

Christmas eve was… interesting. After waiting for what seemed like forever for the kids to fall asleep, Richard had already fallen asleep, and I was left to deal with the Santa set up by myself. Then halfway through finishing wrapping, before I could even get the previously wrapped gifts from the attic, the massive wind storm took out the power.  Yeah.. scaling the attic steps with a flashlight and a wrapped Roboraptor - I wouldn’t suggest doing it any time soon.

Two hours of Santa set up in the dark, crawl into bed dead tired.. and power comes back on.

So, whatever you celebrate, or if you don’t celebrate anything at all, I hope y’all had a great day.

Truth is, I’m only blogging right now for two reasons. One, I actually have something to say. Two, I’ve now received FOUR Christmas cards, commenting on my lack of blogging (HA!) Not to mention, actual phone calls. I have to admit I’m feeling the love.. it’s nice to be missed.

As for the something to say, I’ve been soooo uber busy holiday knitting, and I mean BUSY. I planned it out in three groups. Group one and group two.. DONE. Group three’s knitting to start tomorrow, ending with a mad sprint to Wednesday. I have it all under control. I can do this! I can!

The bad news? Because everything I’ve knit lately is a gift, I can’t show off anything yet. Next week though… lots of pictures and details.

More of something to say? I designed a pattern. It’s absolutely nothing special.. just a basic ribbed hat. But there was a need. See, Richard has a pretty big head. As does his dad, and my brother. Knitting hats for them can be downright difficult without adding pattern repeats or tweaking stitch gauge to compensate for several more inches than the typical hat circumference. Such a pain in the arse.. AND I’d never get exactly what I was looking for. Something was always “off” about the finished item. So I figured, that’s it.. I’m just writing my own…

Presenting… Gargantuan Melon. It’s a free .pdf download, both here on the blog, and on Ravelry. Because dammit, I’m not the only knitter who needs to knit for obnoxiously sized noggins. The great big bonus? Because this hat is so springy, not only does it fit a gargantuan melon, it also fits a child sized head! Multi-purpose… I love it, and I didn’t even plan for that.

I’ll try to post again this week… but there is that mad sprint and all.