Jan 3rd was my first vacation day even though my office has been closed since before Christmas. My plan was to catch up on my reading and stitching. We went to my mom's for Christmas so I got a couple books read on the way to and from her house (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9182478-hourglass and http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14003.The_River_s_Gift) and a bit of back stitching done on Mrs. Tiggy-winkle while we were there.
My 3 yr old nephew lives next door and spends a lot of time at Grandma's, especially when his auntie is there, so there wasn't much time for stitching. We made a trip to Christina Lake on Boxing Day. It was beautiful but very snowy. I got a bread machine for Christmas so I've made a few loaves of bread since we've been back and I've been getting the birds' area ready for another bird or two I'll be adopting this year from the bird sanctuary.
My cockatiels, Mal and Hawk are now sharing one cage so we took down the second cage to make room for the new one. That involved moving and cleaning toys, perches, and playstands. Mal has decided he likes kisses so he's a bit more sociable now. We had our Christmas with them yesterday. The birds got a new foraging toy, a preening/puzzle kind of toy and one with lots of bells on it. I also bought them some Nutriberry popcorn. Mal had a few nibbles from the ones I put in the foraging box but Hawk hasn't looked at them yet. The other toys went in the drawer for later, since they have to look at them several times before they decide they're safe to go close too. Llew, the hedgehog, got a new tunnel and some more mealworms. He hasn't been in his tunnel yet but I gave him a few worms early since I had to clip all his nails. I also bought some toys for Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary Empty Stocking fund for the parrots in their care.
I should be able to do more stitching this year anyway. I'm not taking the last payroll course until September and I'm dropping one of my volunteer positions and cutting back on the other one in 2012. I did a little stitching on L&L Celtic Summer last night and I've ordered Celtic Christmas.
