Christmas and Travel Plans

What a fine November Day!
The nesting instinct is strong today. I am baking French bread, cooking split pea soup with ham on the stove, a loaf of banana nut bread in the oven. soon I will settle down to work on my socks that are soaring on 2 circular needles, a cup of tea and an autumn leaves Yankee candle tart melting nearby.
The family and I just developed the plan for the extended family Christmas party via email this week. I am hosting it for the first time in years. I'm sure my sisters are glad about that (and probably thinking - "well, it's about TIME!") My house is small, so it will be a very cozy fit. We will need to remove some furniture from the livingroom in order to put several tables together in there for everyone to sit down together. It's going to be great! My niece and nephew and his wife will be with us, which hasn't happened in ages. They are all recently returned to the East from Nevada and Utah. My son and his partner in NYC can't make it, but we will see them later. Everyone has agreed that gifts will be hand made again this year! All of the can take the "BUY HANDMADE" pledge. That is exciting to me. We have many many very artistic and talented people in our family so the gifts will be wonderful.
That brings me to my fun travel plans. My daughter and I will be riding Amtrak to visit the guys in January. What fun that will be! Last time we took a train for a trip was when the kids were 14. I cashed in a plane ticket to Texas and bought 3 train tickets for myself and the kids. We went to visit my mom. Anyway, I loved the train, so I am excited to be doing it again, although it's a much shorter trip - only 9 hours. I could drive, but I'd rather see the scenery and knit the entire journey. How fun is that?
That's all my exciting news. I'll be visiting you on YOUR blog!