The egg whites worked!

After applying egg whites to my second degree burns, I was almost completely healed in 8 days. I think that means it works. It's supposed to have something to do with the collagen in the eggs. I haven't taken a picture but by last Friday the blister had reabsorbed. Monday the dead skin pealed away revealing fresh new skin. The edges are a little rough yet but I haven't had any pain since the day after the incident. Amazing I think!

Whew! The holiday marithon is over, mostly...

As noted previously, the prep work for Christmas dinner kept mom and I up until almost 2:00. Dinner ended up being 10 people, all from our church. Robert and Carrie did not come since Carrie is still not getting out of bed much (I'm worried about that but I can't change it). We had fun but it wasn't quite a family Christmas. Everyone left fairly early. But we worked on a puzzle and there was a rousing game of Triple Yahtzee. I had enough presents made for everyone, even though we added a few at the last minute.

Monday was my holiday so we went up to see Mike, Marilyn, and Andrea. I was glad to see them but feel like maybe I didn't do my part in the visit as I was tired and absorbed in finishing hand sewing the binding on my dad's quilt (Yes, after three years it's FINALLY finished). I got to show Andrea the Catkin and Candy's half finished present. We watched "What a girl wants" which is a very funny show- even though it's called a chick flick. I need to get myself a copy.

Tuesday I worked but then scooted off to Philomath to meet my parents to go out to Wren to visit with Walker, Johanna, and their girls who are visiting from Sweden. It's been five years since their last visit. Natalie and Emelie hadn't even been born yet then. Joel was also present and since he recently started knitting, we had a good talk about Ravelry and knitting. The little girls are adorable but mostly speak Swedish so conversations with them were limited. There are some things that are pretty universal and conveyed by tone when little girls are together. I was amused by some of the bickering that I could hear even though I couldn't understand the cause. Sophia is the oldest and was just a toddler last time they visited. She receives English lessons in school because Sweden requires that children with a parent who isn't a native Swedish speaker receive lessons in that parent's native tongue. However, she seemed the least willing to communicate. As I understand it Emelie spoke no English when they arrived but she was flinging words around here and there. She and Natalie seem to be getting an impressive amount of English Language skills from this visit. I got a brief cuddle with Natalie and played a bit with Emelie. Sophia was off playing by herself most of the time. I really wish we had more time to visit but since they have so many people to see, this was our only chance to see them. I think Johanna and I could become pretty good friends and I would like to renew my friendship with Walker now that we have more in common. Maybe someday I'll get to visit them in Sweden. We stayed until 10:00 and then headed home, making for another late night and too early morning.

So now I'm finally back on a normal schedule. My thumb is healed enough to start my knitting again and I need to finish up a couple of outstanding Christmas projects. I also need to finish a couple of crochet projects that haven't been done yet. Still it's a pretty short list for after Christmas. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to start knitting for next Christmas right away or if I'm going to declare this a knitted gift free year and knit for me. I have so many projects I want to do for me and I've spent the entire year knitting for other people. We'll see, but I'm leaning towards being selfish this year. After all, there are only so many knitted gifts you can give knitting muggles before you exhaust the list and start duplicating. Well...I'm pretty sure there are some knitted baby gifts that will get done this year but probably nothing for adults. We'll see. I really love giving handmade gifts.

Today is my last day of work until next Wednesday. Tomorrow is my governor's holiday and Monday is the New Years holiday. I'm taking Tuesday as a vacation day. I need a break from this place and a chance to catch up on sleep, house cleaning, and other little tasks.