Winding up the year

2024 is winding up and because we are Japanese (I'M NOT, but I've lived here 47 years!) we are doing end of year cleaning...  To ring in the New Year, everyone wants their house spic and span and despite the cold, windows are being washed, gas range covers are being changed and closets are being purged of all the stuff that got pushed into them during the last 12 months.  Tetsu is still deep in the closet and when I try to help I just seem to annoy him so I'm taking a break to write a blog post.

It snowed yesterday though it didn't stick, and Tetsu has made sure that our tires have been changed over to snow tires.  I think we have food enough to last through the holidays and basically we are sticking close to home...  Influenza is prevalent and we definitely don't want to catch that, so we are back to wearing masks whenever we go out.  The cold has affected us in strange ways such as our cell phones stop working at night until we warm them up.  That shows you how cold our rooms get when we try to sleep without heat!  The battery run clocks have died and so did my car battery.  

One day Tetsu and I went to have a medical check-up at the community center in town.  It is true that in some ways I feel like part of a herd of cattle being moved from station to station to have various tests done, but the whole process was so well organized and well staffed that it was an easy hour.  We turned in our stool samples and were handed a cup to give a urine sample, I was also given a gown and then directed to a station where a nurse took a blood pressure reading and asked questions about medications I was taking etc.  From there I was directed to a curtained off area for an electro-cardiogram test, then an eye exam, a breast ultrasound, a blood test.  I had elected to have a pap smear and so was pointed OUTSIDE to a gynaecology bus while Tetsu went to a barium x-ray bus.  The day's exams were free for Tetsu because he's over 70 and it cost me about $20.  So...  no personal care though you could talk with a nurse if you wanted to, but it was all very efficient.  The results will be mailed to us next month.

Christmas came and went quietly...  I went to church, Tetsu worshipped online as he usually does with our home church in Morioka.  I ordered a Christmas cake, which is a Japanese tradition, and we shared that with the Yamadas when they came over for coffee.  Our gift giving to each other is pretty predictable.  I gave Tetsu socks.  He gave me socks.  Just like last year.  He also gave me handwarmers and ankle warmers (just like last year) and I gave him an assortment of portion coffees (just like last year).  Tetsu bought me shoes (same ones as he bought me last year... he can order them online) and also a BEAUTIFUL towel to use at the swimming pool.  He's bought me a towel a few years ago too but this one is gorgeous (I've already had compliments from my pool friends!)  

One change is that I didn't knit Tetsu anything this year as he no longer wears sweaters and vests and has quite a few neckwarmers, but together we did buy him a new transistor radio... exactly the same as the one he has used for the past 10 years.  We are not much for variety.  I guess we know what we like and so just buy the same thing year after year.

Another reason why Christmas went by so quietly is that it was a normal workday for me.  The school children had school that day so I was at the crosswalk bright and early, and afterwards I had a Traffic Safety meeting at the City Hall.  From the 26th however, winter vacation started and we have been enjoying some sleep-ins on frosty mornings.   

I did some last minute sewing and made my final quilt of the year.  I had brought back all these little triangles from Indiana that were leftover when I was making baby quilts for Leiya and I just wanted to use them up somehow.  

I didn't have much of a plan but made them into small flying geese for a somewhat modern quilt.  I had thought that this was going to be a larger quilt but it is what it is.  

I don't have anyone in mind for this as it was made just to use up fabric...  and I took that aim onto the backing too...

And with that, here is my round up of quilts I made in 2024!  From center left, and actually the quilt above and to the right, these are the baby quilts I made for Leiya to give to her friends.  Those three are the same pattern, just different colors.  On top is a Mexican Star quilt I made for a college friend.  The Wonky Word quilt I made for Takumi.  The strip quilt I made just to practice machine quilting with M-san who made a similar quilt.  She and I also made identical rainbow star quilts to practice machine quilting.  The labyrinth quilt went to Julieta and above that is a mola quilt that I worked on in an air-conditioned room during the summer.  There at the bottom is the last quilt, no name yet, and the Misty Mountains quilt is to go to Leiya someday but I don't trust the post office yet so I'm keeping it safe for her... 11 quilts and a few minor sewing activities like bags, Taiga-kun's Christmas stocking, and a toothbrush rug.  It was a good year for sewing!

Hope you all had a merry Christmas!