Relaxation Week... is over

We had a full week to recover from our trip to Toronto before going back to work (yesterday) and school (today for the girls, tomorrow for my big Kindergarten boy!). It was a much needed week of relaxation. Here's some of what I did.

1) I read this:

You have to love the quaintness of Agatha Christie novels. So British. For the record, I also used to watch Angela Landsbury in "Murder, She Wrote", and I love the PBS Mystery shows (especially "Rosemary and Thyme", the English gardening and crime-fighting crones who make me look forward to being in my late 50s!).

2) I pinned together the layers for my daughter's quilt. I has been a wip (work in progress) for over a year now. All that is left is to machine quilt it, and put a binding on it. I expect it might be ready by Christmas 2010.

3) I resurrected this knitting project:

If you can't tell, it is a simple scarf, making use of short rows to change the orientation of the knitting in a consistent pattern. I made a scarf using this pattern last winter for a friend. I might keep this one. It's made from sock yarn, so is really soft and a bit stretchy. DH thinks its a bit 1970's psychadelic, but I don't think so.

4) We (DH & I, not the kids) also started watching Season 1 of this HBO series:

I'm pretty sure it is horribly inaccurate in a historical sense, but it is entertaining and I particularly enjoyed watching episode 7, directed by Tim Van Patten. (Remember the Van Pattens from te 1970s & 80s? Tim is Dick's half brother and Vincent's uncle).

And that is how I decompressed after the family vacation we'd rather forget. There were also a couple of nice and calm family outings, proving that, we can be a functional family unit- most of the time!