One last post for the 2021 year, almost at the wire. Might as well let it be for the mutsjes/little hats that round out the year!
Speaking of which, the 2021 mutsjes donated to Innocent smoothies for charity (helping seniors in need) were due by the end of November. These next two batches were the last I donated for the 2021 year:
You can tell these little hats were from socks I made for me, myself and I,
now that I'm remembering to show the matching photo.
These were made from self-striping yarn in our communal stash.
I LOVE how they remind me of babies.
All in all, I ended up with 151 mutsjes donated to charity from 2021,
and because I didn't start until July, that's almost one mutsje per day. YAY!
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Now begins the 2022 year in December, with my goal to make 300 mutsjes by the end of next November:
Self-striping yarn from the communal stash.
I tried light, medium and dark brims to mix it up a bit.
More self-striping yarn from the communal stash, which I love.
In this case, I found the green and gold solid-colored yarn, again from the communal stash.
You can't tell but they both have a gold, sparkly thread running through it.
Using the same green and gold yarn as in the previous collage,
I tried to make my own patterns, using white and red yarn to spruce it up.
It felt a bit more festive for this time of the year.
Now I'm back to my own Scheepjes yarn that does weird self-striping patterns.
It's my least favorite yarn but I want to use it up.
Last but not least, here's a loner from a scrap of communal yarn I found intriguing.
I'm glad it yielded only one because those colored flecks made knitting it hard.
Still, it makes for a perfect year-end splash, don't you think!
For the second year in a row, because of COVID, visiting Christmas markets here in the Netherlands or Germany has been out of the question. Even if some are open now in Germany, they're not full-blown with all the usual stalls.
Talk about a bummer!
So, you can imagine our excitement upon discovering that nearby garden centers in Rijswijk (Kolbach) and Dongen (AVRI) give a Christmas "fix" that is almost as good. Little did we know!
What follows is a combined visual of both garden centers visited in one day, 29 km apart, with Kolbach just 15 km from home. With lunch in between at one of them, it was totally doable.
First of all, remember that these are garden centers...
where you can still buy garden supplies, plants etc. DUH.
But THEN you enter a Christmas wonderland!
And like at Christmas markets, you have a gazillion things to see...and/or buy.
The decorating creativity was as good as anything I've ever seen in America or Europe.
I told daughter Amy that I could picture one of these
next to her Christmas tree or fireplace. Just call me a glutton for them.
But THIS is what grabbed our attention the most: the model villages.
Both garden centers had several of them that took up most of our photographic time.
This is just one of them.
I think we all have Childlike Wonder at such sights, don't you!
To spare you all the sordid details of what it took to get there, because of COVID restrictions, let me jump straight to the end and say it may have been our best trip ever to see the "short version" of my family, which is Amy (daughter), Mark (son), and Nicholas (grandson). [Sadly, sister Ruth and BIL Don in Maine had to be scratched off the original schedule because of COVID, but, like I said, I'll spare you all the details.]
Part of the preparation, however, was a mainstay of our trip...
...handmade face masks by Astrid (6 each) for the entire time.
It's a sign of the times we're still in, as Europe right now is in partial lockdown again.
The trip is easily sectioned off into 3 distinct time slots, as follows (and as shown on FB for those of you who followed us):
1. At Amy's House in Roswell (first week):
We arrived in Atlanta (non-stop from Amsterdam), on late Thursday evening, October 21.
How's this for a mish-mash of memories between then and Sunday!
[Emphasis, I might add, is on MICHIGAN beating Notre Dame that Saturday, 33-7!]
Did you notice those envelopes in the first collage?
Those were the socks I mailed to everyone that first Saturday, along with their coordinating mutsjes.
Don, Ruth, Ruth G, Bruce, Lynne and Diane, with some of their photos.
How fun is that!
Most of you know by now that Astrid and Nicholas have their obligatory photo shoot. Check!
(Nicholas is now 21, getting his Business Associate's Degree at GA State, living at home.)
Speaking of Nicholas, one day he surprised me by giving me his orange hoodie.
He remembered that the last time we visited (in 2019) I loved it because it's MY color!
And now it's mine. :)
Lest I forget Oscar-the-Cat, he also is a member of the Amy Household!
Astrid often says she has "nothing with cats," but I think she protests too much, don't you?!
Did I mention that since our last visit, Amy had moved to a new house
in another Atlanta suburb only 7 miles from her job at Mercedes Benz USA Headquarters?
So Astrid and I enjoyed our walks in her new subdivision, getting acquainted with it.
Halloween time, of course!
No wonder this is my favorite time of the year!
Amy joined us one day in a nearby park where we "lost" ourselves in Mother Nature.
This was Astrid's take on our time that day.
And these are all the different photos of that first week that Amy herself posted on FB.
Lucky for us, she was able to borrow the humongous MB SUV from her company for our cabin trip.
2. At the Cabin in the North Georgia Mountains near Blue Ridge (second week):
This is the time we all get together on neutral ground to VACATION together!
Even though 4 of our 5 days were rainy, we didn't care.
Soon after unpacking, Amy pulled out the jigsaw puzzle she and Astrid connived at surprising me.
Yes, that's a photo of many of the socks I had knitted in the past year and a half!
I'm happy to say we finished it the day before we left, with Mark getting the last-piece honor.
Speaking of Mark, look at the photo he had me take of him and Astrid
on his smart phone, in their hockey jerseys.
Mark also taught us a new board game that we all loved: Azul (original version).
We highly recommend it. In fact Astrid bought it once we returned home and we've played it since.
I won't mention that we watched MICHIGAN lose to Michigan State, esp. if sister Ruth is listening.
But we sure got over that fast when Amy and Astrid made Rice-Crispy Monsters for Halloween.
Amy had been planning that surprise for weeks before we even left.
Did I mention that this is my favorite time of the year!
When it wasn't raining, I walked with Astrid.
One day we even had enough relief to play Azul out on the covered deck.
Here's Astrid's FB take on her own walks, some of which were in a light drizzle.
Astrid's take also on our tradition to stop at the Blue Ridge Waffle House the morning we left.
It's been a tradition we all look forward to, believe it or not!
3. At Mark's House in Flowery Branch (third week):
Like Amy, Mark also is in a new house since our last trip back
(where Astrid blew leaves and did the last mowing of his yard for the season).
He's a techie nerd who, when not working remotely as a Quality Assurance analyst, is a gamer.
I had never seen a computer with a transparent cover like that, with internal colored lights.
Did you notice the entertainment center in the previous collage?
That's all in his full-basement sub-level, where we enjoyed several movies after supper.
Those suppers, btw, included meals he cooked on his pellet grill (another new one for me),
like, in this case, smoked pork ribs...
...and, the very next day, a 14.5-lb. spatchcocked turkey. OMG. I died and went to heaven.
More football, including wins for both Georgia (his alma mater) and MICHIGAN (mine).
And more board games, including Tsuro and Carcasonne (not shown).
On our Sunday with him, we went to see Eternals in the theater,
followed by ice cream at Bruster's from the neighborhood of his first house years ago. Memories.
Later that evening we all met at a Japanese hibachi for our "last supper" before our departure home.
That very last full day, Monday, the 3 of us visited the Georgia Aquarium, per Astrid's wish.
It was exactly what the doctor ordered to end our Atlanta trip.
Here's a video Astrid took of the jelly fish that are always a highlight for me,
with tentacles 10-12 feet long. How crazy wonderful is that!
The next day Mark drove us the 55 miles from his house to the Atlanta international airport for what ended up being the easiest return trip to Amsterdam we've ever had, arriving home mid-afternoon on November 10. We even had time to do a quick grocery shopping before settling back in.
This is a long post, I know, but as I always say, "it's for the record." If I don't write it all down, it's so quickly forgotten. And this is NOT a trip to be forgotten! Period. Exclamation point!
