A few days into January

We are heading into the end of our winter holidays though I have more than most.  I think businesses are back to normal routine since yesterday but school is off until the 10th for me.

This is good because I seem to have had a "flare" which is a new word for me since starting life with rheumatism.  And I was going along so well these past two months!  I had thought/hoped that if I took medications regularly and followed a slightly restricted diet that I wouldn't get caught in one of these actively painful periods but here I am laid up again.  It is rather discouraging but I've got a doctor's appointment anyway next week and there is still time for me to laze around in bed with books and knitting at my side...  So it goes.

New Year's Day had us enjoying the myriad of New Year's cards that get delivered on January 1st.  The post office holds back all New Year's cards so that they can be delivered on New Year's Day and it is nice to hear from friends far and wide and even those whom we only have contact this one time a year.  It is interesting to me that if there has been a death in the family the previous year, New Year's cards won't be sent out but rather around November families will send out somber notices of the loss of the loved one explaining why the happy messages of the New Year WON'T be sent out later.  To recipricate, friends will not send cards to the family in mourning... which seems to the American in me, odd because they are the ones who need cheering the most in this festive time of year...

Most Japanese will enjoy a feast of beautifully prepared and colorful New Year's food but for Tetsu and me we keep our meals limited to pounded rice cakes with different sweet toppings.  Sweet beans, sweet bean paste, sweet soy bean powder...  

We got tired of that the third day into New Year's and I made vegetable miso soup...

Since I've been moving around normally for weeks now we went for a longish walk on January 1st which was lovely.  

We took photos of ourselves to send to our kids and the next day spent time at the pool to get some exercise and relax in the hot baths.  Somewhere along the line in those two days I must have over exerted myself because I've been limping around since then...

I think Tetsu is most worried that I will become discouraged and closed in and so he suggested a day out at the movie theater yesterday.  He could drop me off at the entrance, I didn't have far to walk and then we enjoyed a few hours of distraction and popcorn!  

It was evening by the time we came home and the connecting mall was lit up beautifully!

During the holidays I took some time off from my endless quilting to do some knitting and even crochet!  Marlene asked me to make her a towel topper for her kitchen and that was a quick and easy project.

This is now written up in my bullet journal so that I can do it all again at a later date.

The green pom-pom that I showed a few weeks ago on my blog came from the hat that I knitted up for M-san.  

It was her birthday yesterday and so I gave her the hat... wrapped in a pretty piece of fabric!  I figure if she can't use the hat at least she'll find uses for the fabric!

I also made a neck-warmer for Tetstu (I forgot to photograph that and he's wearing it today) and I'm working on a simple hat for him too...  Using up fabric stash and yarn stash feels good!

And so that's how week one of 2023 has been going for us.