Christmas is over and life is slowly back to normal

Well if normal means that a lot of things seem to be going wrong at once.....

My mom surprised us with a visit on Christmas night. I haven't seen my mom in about 8 months, I think. Our visits average about once a year especially with gas prices as high as they were and us both in tight financial situations. My house was a disaster since we had tore through presents on Christmas morning and then headed to my MILs, back for a shower, and off to my FILs. So we got home and did an emergency super clean up and visited with my mom and her BF for a little while. The next day my mom wanted me to make spaghetti (supposedly I make good spaghetti, but it's not something I like) and after the oven had 'preheated' I found out that my oven was all but cold.

We had to replace our ignitor thingy which wasn't too expensive but was a pain in the rear to shop for. I ended up calling around and Sear's wouldn't give a price unless I gave them my name and all my personal info (which I refused), but a peek on their website got a price without signing over my first born. Their price was almost 20 dollars higher than I paid with a local business (would have been over 20 more with shipping I imagine- local place rocked and they have internet ordering if anyone needs it!). Lowe's was only a wee bit more expensive but shipping was unnecessary if I could get the part locally. So on New Year's Eve we got our part and E changed it out without incident and I once again have a working oven! He got lots of lizards for that one.

My mom brought me a load of thrift store yarn from my aunt which included yummy yarns including some I had never purchased because they're a little too pricey for my usual budget and some I didn't know existed. It's nice to have a surprise of stash enhancement since I haven't had the $ to purchase in awhile. So I started making my mom a better bucket hat (it's almost finshed now)

and will make her a Brighton Bag. I'm planning on making R a scarf, but I'm kind of waiting until he buys the coat he's after. I want to make sure it matches.

But first and foremost I'm working on a clapotis for the Newer Knitters Clapotisphobia KAL. Anyone is free to join us, we just started and it will run through March.