Quick look of the past month: Christmas, knitting, new job, new dog.
I got my first job at a non-unionized location. There weren't a lot of people hiring when I was looking for work, so I accepted the first job offer that I recieved. The pay is the same as unionized facilities, the staff are amazingly nice, and the place is well kept, so I'm pretty darn happy with the place! I've already learned a bunch since I started two-three weeks ago. I'm still on the hunt for some work in the hospital as well as more casual positions.
I want work in a hospital because I get to utilize all of the skills I've learned in school. In long term care facilities, there aren't many opportunities to perform skills outside of morning and night-time care, the occasional stoma-related care, and the far-and-few-between catheter insertions and irrigations.
The nice thing about working in a long term care facitity is you get to learn all the resident's quirks, likes, and dislikes, plus you get to meet the families and create a relationship with them as well. They put their trust into you as a nurse and you get to give them updates on their family member. This is especially true for dementia units.
I managed to finish my very first pair of socks. I ended up finishing two pairs for Christmas -- one for my mom and one for my brother. I'm now going to start a pair for my daughter, since she's been asking me for a pair since forever :(
I got a new dog, but I won't go into too much detail about that since this update is long enough as it is. Wheeler, the new dog, is a beautiful mutt. He's a cross between a bernese mountain dog and a golden retriever... The perfect blend. A family dog with a docile temperment crossed with a snow-loving cuddler. Wheeler has fit right into our family and it is just amazing having a dog in the house again :)
It's about time I've sat down and really finished a pair of socks. I have started about 3 or 4 socks, only to frog them a few inches in. For some reason, it's just never been very comfortable to knit a pair of socks, but I've found a pattern that I think I can stick with. I'm about 25% finished the first sock and I casted on yesterday, so I should be good to go! 
I mentioned Christmas before, but holy cats! I somehow lost track of how close it is to Christmas... Well, in my mind anyway. I like to make most of the gifts that I give, so I try to start early (read: summer). So far, I've only started on one present... The fish hat for my younger sister. I had started a hat for my older sister, but frogged it because I was using the wrong yarn/gauge. It was HUGE! I'll start over :)
I spent most of this long weekend stripping off wallpaper, washing walls, spackling, sanding, and painting our living room. I'd like to note that my daughter spent the night with her grandparents, hence me busting out the Bananatini Vex. I'm happy to say that the walls are done after two full days of hard labor being put into it. I even stayed up until 2:00 AM last night in order to finish it... Since it is actually physical work, my body was energized and awake until 5:00 AM. That would have been okay if my daughter hadn't woken up at 7:30 AM. Ack! No sleep for this mama. No real surprise there, eh? :P