Christmas, Stress and other Stuff

I guess this is the time of the year when everyone's blogs are looking a little bare and neglected. It's only because I've been so busy.
So, last time I posted, Denise was in Melbourne doing her law placement, and loving it, and I was in the middle of Nanowrimo madness.
Denise is now back, has had her graduation ceremony (doesn't she look so smart!) and is now enjoying being a lady of some leisure (with Christmas also comes the mad Christmas house cleaning!) Now she just has to wait to see what happens in regards to a placement for her graduate diploma, and if this placement she's just done also nets her a job. Fingers crossed.
I was happy with my Nano effort. I knew I wasn't going to finish, but I did get more words up than I was expecting. I did hit the 30,000 word mark, expecting only to get to 25,000. On the last friday of November I joined some of the other Adelaide members at the 24 hour bakery for an all night write-in, where I stayed until 2am writing. It was great. I was in such a good space, physically and in my head, that I got a lot written. Now I have 10 months to prepare the plot for my next story. I had inspiration on the 14th of November for a novel that I may actually work on enough to publish. Here's hoping.
At the Adelaide KTog group we had an end of year Kris Kringle type of gift giving. With a $10 limit I decided to make stitch markers. Someone on the glbt-knit list made some and posted pictures. I loved the idea so much I realised I just had to give them a try. Lincraft were having a sale on beads, and I found these beautiful little charms to add to the end. I tried taking pictures, but shiny things reflect flashes. I've ended up taking them so far away so not to cause reflection, that a lot of the detail is lost.
Anyway, the charms on the end say Unite, Inspire, and Imagine.I hope the people that received them liked them.
Despite all the Christmas crazies, I've still managed to get a fair bit of knitting done. I tried making the Origami Slippers in the 2007 Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar. I had no idea what I was doing, and Denise had to give me a hand figuring out how I had to sew it up. I may go looking to see if there are any pattern corrections for it. It doesn't seem quite right. I'm also 80% through a pair of socks. I'm surprised with myself. I started these last week, did a fair bit of the knitting on the trip up to Renmark for work, and have almost finished both. No second sock syndrome this time. I'm getting happier with my standard sock pattern. I knit them top down, do a short row heel, and shape the toe down and finish with kitchener stitch. I tried toe up socks, but didn't find a cast on that I liked. Plus I like to think that my kitchener is pretty good, and I like to show it off when I can.
Denise is currently working on a pair of socks for her grandfather for Christmas. Yes, a bit late, but we'll just put it down to Christmas postage. This is the second pair of socks from this ball of sock wool, although the cuff, toes and heel are done in a different yarn. She also made two crocheted baby hats for my cousins' kids for Christmas. The kids looked quite cute in them. With the rush on the gifts, the arrowhead scarf has been put on the back-burner for a bit.
And now with Christmas over, we're spending a day doing... well, nothing. Denise is currently playing Transport Tycoon on her old computer, which I finally got around to fixing. And later we've got plans to set up the new TV table we bought together for Christmas. We may get around to it.
Anway, only 4 more sleeps until my birthday. I'm turning 25 on Saturday. And realising that without warning I've grown up. Shit! Who made me an adult!