I was waiting for written confirmation, but the post van containing the letter seems to be stuck behind Father Christmas's sleigh, so here goes;
The result for my A297 Latin course with the Open University was a very good Level 1 pass with a Distinction!
As you can imagine, I am very pleased.
Now back to wrapping presents and making mince pies.
At last my waistcoat is finished and I am extremely pleased with it.
The kit was bought from a charity shop some time ago: at the time, it looked very dated, but I loved the colours. So into a cupboard it went, waiting for the perfect project.
And then, about this time last year, I went into Next (a UK clothing retailer) and was surrounded by garments in the colours and styles of the waistcoat from the kit. The perfect project was for it to be itself.
Yes, it needed a little bit of work to be the self it ought to be. The dark brown was wrong for the twenty-first century: when I piled some other yarns near it the red Rowan felted tweed livened up the other colours, and made it more modern. The kit waistcoat was too short, so I lengthened the ribbing (8 rows instead of 4) and made the body a lot longer. This had the effect of using up a lot of the main yarn, so I changed the colours above the yoke, and also the armhole.
There were lots and lots of ends to sew in, but I finished on Sunday. It was looking good.
On Monday I put it on, and it was instant love. I was hoping to like it, but instead it is gorgeous. Modern and retro and rustic, in colours I love.
A year ago, I was commenting on the silent ending of a family tradition.
I'm happy to say that about a month ago, Middle Kiddo and I bought an advent candle from a pre-Christmas fair in Milton Keynes shopping centre, and it lights up our evening meals. 
There is a change to the tradition though - I don't light it any more. The kiddos take turns. Young Kiddo uses extra-long matches and blows them out immediately but Old Kiddo uses normal length ones and sees how long they will stay burn.
Last week was crochet week.
I designed the following flowers - the colours come from the use of variegated yarn:
Then I went onto another block in my never ending Learn-to-Crochet Blanket. The stitch pattern was based on one I half remember from Magknits, a now defunct knitting magazine that used to be run by the owner of Yarn Forward.
It's currently about twice the size of this now: however we have started watching the DVD of the TV series 24 - we missed it when it was first broadcast, so are finding it compelling viewing. But it is also not the kind of program you can crochet through, too many things going on.
The closure of a bookshop is a sad event, but it does enable a reader to buy a now of books at reduced price. Borders bookshop was extremely busy on Monday lunchtime, but I managed to get Amigurumi and 201 crochet motifs, as well as a selection of other books. Plenty to keep me going for a while!
