The Loot! and...staying away from it

Here's what I occupied myself with while trying to keep my hands off those presents:

I ended up finishing the back of my Minimalist Cardigan-to-be on the 26th and starting the right front the same evening. The right front is going so much faster than that big piece of back fabric! I am a little concerned that I should've taken more length off the pattern, but we'll see how it goes. Hopefully it will be fine, just not the cropped-ish look that's on the model in the magazine. I will be shortening the arms though, I've read a few people's surprised reactions to the sleeve length.
It's hard not to be concerned with the way the back ended up so "slanty". I've also read that that will be fine once it's blocked, but it's still a little unnerving. The front... oh boy... it's fast, but my how that stockinette strip on the front is rolling! Hope that will block out a bit as well.
Anyway, now that I've opened all the presents, I'm still knitting away. I'd love to finish the right front tonight and get going on the left front. I wonder if I can finish both sleeves next week and then maybe I can meet my goal of finishing by my birthday! I'm not looking forward to the seaming though. And, I wanted to do some other crafty projects (and some reorganizing in my classroom) over winter break... which is already half over! Eeek!

Okay, so here's what was in all those boxes under the tree:


Lots of good stuff! Someone who did not know me but looked under our tree would be able to tell the following about me, based solely on my presents: I run and I cook. And that's pretty much it. I got lots of running clothes--including 7 pairs of socks!-- and cookbooks. I got some other goodies too, like some clothes from...the Gap(!!! I haven't been to a Gap in 6 months, but David found one on mainland Japan I guess!), a few other books, a day planner, a special Moose ornament, etc. Santa brought me an ice cream maker! How did you know, Santa? I've been wanting one for 2 and a half years. In fact, I did have one for about 5 minutes once. Five minutes is how long David and I argued in the Linens N Things' parking lot before he guilted me into taking it back and exchanging it for something more practical. But that Santa pulled through for me and brought me the ice cream maker I've been waiting for...and an ice cream cookbook, of course.