Where have I been?

It's hard to blog convincingly when you only write, like, once a month. Of course since my readership is minimal I don't have to worry that I'm actually disappointing anybody! So what have I been doing----
Taxes. Got to get ready to instruct the first week in January, and it is turning into waaaay more work than I had anticipated, and I am sort of behind. The problem is that doing taxes is interesting when you are helping real people but in the abstract, it's really boring. So I sloggeth on.
Knitting. Finished all my west coast items and shipped them off; made a pretty nice hat for Phil, with a touch of stranded work; making myself a neckwarmer and headband from the Rowan Cocoon, and a Joseph's Coat vest [my invention] from the Noro Kureyon I got at the sale. It will for sure be bright and cheery. I got "No-pattern Knitting" out of the library, and basically I'm making shapes and fitting them together. We shall see.
Doing stuff with Phil. We went to a neighbor's open house, small & a touch awkward since I don't know the folks from the other cul-de-sac very well, but it was enjoyable. Yesterday we spent the day over at Old Salem, the historic area in Winston-Salem that was settled by Moravians (of the Christmas cookies) in the 1700's. There was a lot more to see & enjoy than we had realized and it was well worth the admission. Phil's off for 2 weeks so we'll perhaps make another day trip. Tonight we go over to Mary's for the traditional McLoud Christmas Eve pizza-making, and tomorrow we're going out for Christmas dinner, and then over the weekend Phil's brother and his family are coming for a couple of nights, so it's pretty busy. Need to make some more cookies and get a ham.