This holiday season has been a tough one for me, but I've been working hard to find joy alongside my sadness. Happy holidays to everyone, may your days be filled with as much joy, peace and love as can be packed into them!

There's a million more things to be thankful for, and I assure you that I'm likely thankful for them all. Even with the sorrow, it's a good life that I have.

And now a little Thanksgiving story. The last time my immediate family was all together on Thanksgiving was in 1998, when my sisters and I were 15, 17 and 19 (before I went to college too far away to come home for a long weekend). After my parents divorced, we would have an early dinner with my mom, drive over to my dad's house and have a second full dinner around 6 or 7. This Thanksgiving, we were all sitting around the table and out of nowhere, my younger sister bursts out with "And that's why I wear sweatpants!!" Or at least that's what the rest of us heard. To this day, she swears that what she really said was "Guess why I wear sweatpants?" The four of us ended up laughing until our bellies hurt.

I hope everyone who reads this has a fabulous Thanksgiving, if you celebrate, and a wonderful Thursday if you don't!

Today is my mothers's birthday. I'm sure if you asked how old she is, she'd tell you she's "old enough to know better." I cannot tell you all how wonderful my mother is. She's my support, my good friend, one of my biggest cheerleaders and she gives great advice when I ask for it (and sometimes when I don't.)

When I was growing up, waking up on Saturdays in our house meant heading downstairs to see Mom in the kitchen, her hair pinned up with a large barrette, singing along to the sounds of oldies playing on the radio while she baked bread or did dishes. She worked full time and still managed to bake most of our bread and can and preserve a vast amount of fruit and vegetables from the garden. She also managed to sew most of the clothing my sisters and I wore until we grew old enough to prefer jeans and tshirts to handsewn clothing.

Mom has been responsible for my education in many things. She taught me how to cook, bake, can and preserve, knit, crochet and sew--all tools that have served me quite well since then. She taught me how to appreciate sarcasm and how to laugh at myself. She inspires me in so many ways, the least of which is her tenacity and her zeal for life; she took up tap dancing at an age when many adults are starting to think about slowing down and recently she's started spending a great deal of her free time hiking through the hills and mountains near her home on the coast of Maine. In short, if you asked me to pick the perfect mother for me, there would be no contest, I'd choose the one I got every single time.

Happy birthday Mom, I love you more than I can possibly ever put into words. I feel so lucky to have you.

My birthday this year is bittersweet. I'm excited to be turning 30, excited for the start of a new decade of my life and excited because I just plain love birthdays. But it's a hard day in that it's the first birthday my dad isn't here to sing happy birthday to me. When I turned 27, I thought he forgot my birthday. He came home to messages on his answering machine from both of my sisters reminding him to call me so on my 28th and 29th birthdays I got emails from Dad that said the following:

28: (subject line "burpday")
Happy Birthday . This is to let you know I haven't forgotten
and to keep my answering machine from overloading with messages from
your siblings to remind me. I will give you a call when I get home
from work around 10 . Love Dad

29: (subject line "HAPPY BIRTHDAY")
I will give you a call after I get home from work tonight.Have a
Happy Birthday .  Love Dad

My dad had a way of calling on people's birthdays that involved singing loudly before actually saying hello to the birthday person. I would answer my phone and he would belt out the birthday song and follow it with "HEY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. This is Dad." As though I didn't know.

While I'm missing my (crazy) father, I'm also thrilled that my mother is here for a week-long visit. We're partying it up with friends today, I'm entering my 3rd decade on this planet as I hope to go on--with good friends, good food, and a gallon of margaritas.

(cross-posted on Cathartic Ink).

What a year. I keep saying that 2010 has been terrible (and it has) but as I looked back through my photos for the year I realized it was also full of a large number of great things. Recapped here for you, 2010 at Casa de Baya.

January: I knit a kidney for my mother, who has to have one removed. D and I take a trip to meet friends in Portland, and while he spends an afternoon playing computer games with the hipsters, I am surrounded by yarn and knitters.

February: I fly east to help my mother out after her surgery and am able to visit all-too-briefly with my friend Lisa and her husband. It's a short month, because it always is, thankfully.

March: I start seeds for a garden that will eventually produce very little because of a very long, damp and cold spring and a very strange growing season.

April: We celebrate D's birthday with a trip to Portland to see a Q&A with Kevin Smith, and are simultaneously super disappointed to be missing Conan O'Brien's show here in Eugene (on the same day). We had a fantastic time none-the-less. We also undertake the next step in our massive overhaul in the front yard landscaping that leaves us exhausted and feeling accomplished.

May: We spend a large amount of time figuring out just how goofy we can be.

June: It's my 29th birthday, our 3rd wedding anniversary and Black Sheep Gathering all in one action-packed month. My handspun and handknit pygora shawl brings home a perfect score and a 2nd place ribbon at Black Sheep Gathering.

July: A far-too-brief pair of visits with one of my too-far-away friends (which reminds me that somewhere there are a few more photos from her visit). We visit with Jodie and Anthony and have a great pizza adventure. There are a few days of hot temps, hot enough that the kitties look like they might melt, but not hot enough to justify the work and cost of moving the window a/c unit into the bedroom to deal with them.

August: I spend a lot of time preparing a moderately sized wholesale order of knitting themed cards for a yarn club, and plan to launch my etsy shop (launch does not happen. March, I hope.) There is the continuation of a stressful situation, and we go to an awesome 50s themed party to watch Dr. Strangelove.

September: We help our friend April harvest the delicious honey from her apiary and I meet Heidimonkey and Emily for a short romp through the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival which is more crowded than I have ever seen it and extremely humid due to rain. We eat tiny pies and knit together.

October It's hard to remember the first half of October, but we get the front yard weeded and use our wee Toyota Prius to bring home 15 cubic feet of bark-o-mulch and mulch the heck out of things. Front yard finally looks reasonably done. On October 30th, we go out to eat and D royally screws up his back which leads us to...

November and December which are a flurry of doctors appointments, physical therapists, bed-rest and hoping for results before finally an eventual MRI shows us that he has a badly herniated disc in his back that requires surgery. We manage to have great Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in spite of this, and that brings us to now.

Now we're waiting patiently for this trying year to end, and for the surgery to get here and be done with. We've got big plans for 2011 and they don't include being confined to the house for a day longer than necessary. We're hoping that it'll be a great year, and I wish the best year ever for all of you out there!!

The year in knitting and crafting will be coming soon!

It's been a long two months, but right now we're relaxing and gearing up for a low-key holiday celebration with my in-laws. We'll be eating lasagna and spending time together, in a modified version of our normal crazy huge Christmas celebration. There will be gifts, delicious food, and--most importantly--a house full of love. May you have joy and love to surround you whether you're also celebrating Christmas, or just enjoying a beautiful post-Solstice Saturday.

Just a few things of note that went on this year:

January After three and a half weeks of cleaning, painting and packing we moved from our crappy apartment across town to a sweet duplex with a washer/dryer in the garage and both a front and back yard.
February We settled in to the new home, and found great joy in having a dining room table.
March We adopted a second cat, a big black former-tom cat that we named Ollie, since then he's made it clear his name is really Bob.
April Celebrated my husband's 30th birthday, and our good friends Matt and T welcomed baby Arthur to the world. Saw Joel McHale do stand-up in Portland and finally visited the Japanese garden there.
May Planted my first "on my own" garden with the knowledge learned from family gardens growing up. Learned quickly how much faster things grow in this warmer climate.
June Celebrated my 28th birthday, started to harvest delicious foods from the garden.
July Made it through the wicked heat wave, thanks, in large part, to a window a/c unit that we installed in 105º heat.
August Won a blue ribbon for my Desdemona shawl at the Lane County Fair.
September Got a diagnosis for my husband's sleep apnea. Attended the beautiful wedding of Jodie and Anthony and watched their cat while they were on a mini-honeymoon. Our second great-nephew arrived in the world. Came down with crud and spent the latter 2/3 suffering from a raging case of bronchitis.
October Got a CPAP for my husband and as such, got my husband back. Took a trip home to the east coast where I spent not enough time with my New England family. Headed south to Massachusetts and then west to Rhinebeck where I was able to finally put real faces and voices to many wonderful women I know online. Was graciously hosted by Lisa, whose presence in my life is a daily source of joy. Returned home, came down with Rhinebeck crud. Drove south with my husband to San Francisco to see Kevin Smith and spend the weekend visiting with our friend Bonnie.
November Mourned the passing of a friend and of a family member but remain thankful for the memories we have of them.
December Full of joy. Celebrated Christmas in our home with my husband's mother and stepfather. Did mass amounts of knitting, baking, wrapping, and cleaning.

Not all of 2009 was joyous for us, but we are lucky in that the good generally has outweighed the bad. We have big plans for 2010 to be even happier, full of projects and friends and family and love. I wish the same for everyone else out there. Let a new decade begin!

Wishing you all the joy and love possible as we slog through these dark, cold days. Whatever you celebrate--or not--I hope you are surrounded by people you love with an abundance of the kindness inherent in the best of the human spirit.

There are so many things I have to be thankful for this year. Here's the short list.

• my husband
• our family
• good friends
• my husband's job
• our home
• two happy spoiled cats
• a fair amount of yarn and fiber in my office
• being part of a community that shared freely its knowledge

So cheers, and happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates and Happy Thursday to those who don't.

Marnie posted a link on twitter to this recipe on the Food Network this morning and even though we're not celebrating Thanksgiving until Friday this year, I went ahead and immediately made some changes and tossed my berries in the oven. Just over an hour from start to finish, this sauce can be made quite a bit in advance (the recipe says it keeps a few weeks in the fridge) and takes almost no active time. The result is a rich sauce, tangy and sweet, with just a hint of spice. Perfect for any dinner, and you can easily adapt the flavors to suit your meal. You could try changing out the juice and almond extract for tequila and cayenne pepper, with lime zest in place of the orange for a spicy kick on your turkey.

Baked Cranberry Sauce (adapted from the Food Network)

1 12 ounce bag of cranberries, fresh or frozen and thawed

between 1 and 1 1/8 cups sugar, depending on how sweet you like it.

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tablespoon orange zest

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 teaspoon almond extract.