Here's our favorite of the lights from the holiday lights exhibit downtown.

Can you tell we are still in a holiday mood? I have a three-day weekend, and am savoring it to the fullest. I hope you are, too.

One more song for New Years: http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/wassail_wassail_all_over_1.htm

In addition to a little housework and a lot of celebration, I have done some knitting.

Here are some slippers, in their initial Sasquatch size. #2 daughter is modeling them here:

These are the Ballet Slippers from Felted Knits, done in Paton's Classic Wool.

And here they are, felted, in their proper elfin size:

#2 daughter modelled the finished pair:

Obviously, I could not take them away from her. I made a pair for #2 son as well, while watching the "Monk" marathon, and will make myself a pair today, if all goes according to plan. It's amazing how much knitting a person can accomplish if she doesn't have to go to work.

And that is Fiona, the glasses-wearing dog, in the background. She did not need her glasses today.

We enjoyed a little mild celebration of New Year's Eve, with ginger ale at midnight. We went downtown to see the parade, but came home well before the fireworks.

New Year's Day is a good day for deep philosophical contemplation, naps, football, and beginning as you mean to go on. If you are superstitious, it's also a day for pork, root vegetables, greens, and black-eyed peas. The Empress gave me a recipe for a green salad with black-eyed peas which will be delicious with the leftovers from last night's pork roast. Barbecue sauce, whole-grain sandwich rolls, sweet potato puree -- yep, we have everything ready.

http://xmas.ert.gr/en/song04.asp?id=03%20-%20Schuch&Cat=Here%20We%20Come%20A-Wassailing&Name=Schuch,%20Steve%20&%20The%20Night%20Heron%20Consort

What a long link! But once you get there, you can hear a very nice version of "Here We Come a- Wassailing," a song which contains the line "God send you a happy new year." What more could we ask for?