Holy Holly Holidays

I haven't written in a while. It was a great holiday season. And I do mean holiday. Each day of December is a holiday for me, regardless of what each one means to you. I like them all. However the word holiday comes from Holy Day, and I would never say that each day was a holy day for me. Why do people object to Happy Holidays? I am tired of such rhetoric. It takes away from my joy. Holy is in the eye of the celebrator perhaps. Or in the toe of the sock?

One thing that made my H-days work (and we all know how easy it is to get them offtrack) was a lack of expectations. I decided that expectations are what ruin things for me when they don't get met in the exact way I anticipated. I tried to have as few as possible. I loved the present I made for DH (Nap Land - couch slipcover, pillows and quilt).

 I loved the cedar lawn chairs he made for me. The best feature is that he adjusts everything for me. They are custom sized and my legs never get pins and needles! We each bought a few other little gifts along the line of what we usually do and that was nice, but I think next year they will go by the wayside as well. We will make or do for each other. There's no price tag on that.

We usually have a huge group for dinner on Christmas. This year we had the MIL. Just 3 for dinner. At first I was worried it wouldn't be as nice as the huge family fests I'm used to. Then I removed the expectations and it went very nicely. Quiet, relaxed and cozy. I got to do the family thing over the next week, especially when little sis arrived from Montreal. Now at one point I started to get disappointed that what I thought was happening hadn't, and then I relaxed again and it all worked out. We are a relaxed group. Hmmm.... The tub looks smaller than it is.

We went out for New Years as a group - 4 sisters and 2 spouses, 1 brother and his partner and all her sisters and spouses. My DH stayed home as he was a sick, sick puppy. I missed him, but we all danced on. Again, you can't sweat the stuff that just happens. It won't change and you'll miss the chance to dance! We don't get enough of those, do we?

Another way I have reduced gifting stress is to make a whack of things I like and let people chose (or not) what they like. Here are the female recipients in their new neck warmers. I used up tons of odd yarns. You'll notice the sad sister with wine glass and no neck warmer. You snooze, you lose. I'll get her later. I never remember to count. The male recipients got little metal puzzles to put together. I have not received pics of the finished projects yet. Those who don't send one may be off the list next year. Or at least last to pick.

Bedjackets Return!

So I'm in bed last night and I'm cold. Just the part of me above the covers of course. The rest of me is cozy. However I'm watching TV as we often do, or I read or whatever. The exposed part of me gets cold. The arms are out and the shoulders are chilled. I like to sleep in a cold room.

And it finally strikes me - this is what bed jackets are for! I always wondered what could possibly make those beribboned things of any use outside of Hollywood. I may omit the ribbons but I'm thinking I need one of those. Something soft and cozy and a bit retro with fabulous buttons. I may even need pancakes in bed to welcome the arrival. Sounds good!

I want to document what I make this year. I lose track. Do you keep track? The ultimate recorder may be Caroline of Handmade By Caroline. She wears only what she has made herself and records all of her expenses. Now I don't want to get into that, but I do want to refine what I make to things I love and that fit well. I also have a huge but luscious stash that needs to be actioned. Yum!

The Elephant in the Room

Christmas looms like an elephant. Dh keeps opening candy containers and we keep indulging. The trees are up and the new bath is almost ready for occupancy. My little sis is coming from Montreal to visit and that was a nice surprise! I've shovelled out the spear room and the MIL will be arriving Christmas Eve. Woo Hoo!

The guest room will always be the spear room. During a move we were using second hand boxes supplied by the movers. Therefore we have no idea who labelled it 'spear room', but that name stuck with us. It just makes sense, don't you think? I really need to find a spear for the wall. Maybe a nice spear rack?

I should be panicked by now over the terror of the unbought present. You know, the one in the nightmare where a dear friend or relative arrives and you don't have a thing for them. Or perhaps you're doling out the family presents and there's a hand out and you have nothing for it? I have those fears. I just don't let them out to run wild.

Today I was useful at work! I'm always useful in a worker sort of way, but I knew how to solve a problem. Someone with a rather expensive Pfaff called in. They had been cleaning the bobbin case and suddenly had an extra piece of metal in their hand. Of course I can't see what she is looking at and she can only describe it so much. I popped the needle plate off a similar machine and emailed her a picture. She ran down to her computer and could see the piece easily! It popped back in place and I was brilliant! Doesn't that just warm your heart? It's a small thing, but I was happy.

The last of the serious stuff.

Want to feel like you're doing nice things while in actual fact - surfing the net? Put one of those charity sites as your home page. Go to Preferences and copy the link you want to 'home page'. I use http://www.thehungersite.com.  When I open my browser I click on their Give link and I feed someone via their sponsors. It also gives you links to other donation  sites. Now all of these links are American focussed, but I like to support the third world countries. If you know of a good Canadian site let me know.

I'm chatting with a former student last week and she just grabbed my heart and squeezed. We were working on a writing assignment and it was to be a personal topic. She decided to write about a time when she had been teased by another student. The look on her face was all you needed to see to know how deeply this had affected her (several years later). She wasn't looking to strike out in anger, she was just remembering the deep hurt and confusion this time had brought her.

I was teaching her and the other student at that time and remembered the incident/s well. I was more concerned with the other student then as this little victim was only part of the carnage, and in fact the aggressor was a sad, frightened little person trying hard to improve. I did try my best with her then and spent some more time with her last week. Picture the look on this little brave and mature beyond her years face, and speak up for reduced class size and teacher supports such as teaching assistants, psychologists, speech therapists, art, music, social workers and on and on. When we put our best efforts into our children, well if you're not sure why we need to (and that would make me worry), think of your pension. You want your best work force working on it. Drug lords don't pay taxes.

Now I'm off to decorate my trees. There's the regular tree, the cat tree, the basketry tree, the doily tree, etc. It takes some time. I just stuck a candy cane in my Wayne Gretzky green tea to ramp up the mood! Very festive!

Fruitcake

I discovered a new dish tonight. You may be in the mood someday, so here it is. Sprinkle chocolate chips on a plate. Tear marshmallows in half and place the sticky side down on the chips. Microwave for 20 seconds. Watch the marshmallows puff through the microwave windows. Scoop and enjoy!

You really need to be in the mood.

I think my house phone has been broken for a week. I'm not sure. It's been quiet. I thought it was just peaceful, but we seem to be lacking a dial tone. I'll look into that someday.

The recent fire in the clothing factory that killed at least 112 people concerns me. What are we thinking? We need thneads (Read The Lorax. It's an important book) it seems. Dr. Suess saw this a long time ago, and we continue on regardless. Our lust for a cheap and constant feed of new things demands the exploitation of others. We can have no concept of what that means in this country. We can pause for thought. Where do you go with those thoughts?

It seems my DH likes fruitcake. I hadn't planned on that. I made 2 and we're currently nibbling our way through the last one. Now I know why that recipe called for 4 cakes. I'm getting a fruitcake belly! It's very festive. I think I'll put up my tree tomorrow to celebrate it.

Musings

I spent time sewing with a friend today. She's a lycra girl. My fingers disagree with her cutting tools and all that tough poly. I had to have another sticky plaster this week. I'm so delicate. It's interesting how we all have our own ways. I find what we do fascinating but would never have considered sewing lycra suits to be so interesting. I think it's also her approach and professionalism. We all have pride in what we are passionate about. It's good to find someone to share that with.

I did clean out my closet with great enthusiasm. I have nothing to wear! Now there's a dilemma. The 11 patterns I just ordered from Vogue may help with that. There was a sale, people! It was late, my cat died this week, I needed stuff. Now I have stuff and I do feel a bit better. I think I'm going to buy myself an iron too. A big steamy iron with bells and whistles and steam! Steam is good.

Yes, I'm getting in the holiday mood. I want to decorate December 1st. I want to nest in front of the fire and bake sweet things. I want to slow down just a titch. I want to giggle with friends and family. This means trying to wrap up my gift wrangling by December 1 as well. It's always the one thing that drives the Christmas anxiety for me. As I have in the past I like to make a pile of things and let family take what they want. It works for me. I don't tie up a lot of worry about getting just the right thing for each person. I don't worry about a present for every person. I let the gifts fall where they may. But it still means getting a pile together and I want that pile readyish by December 1st.

Such determination!

Lucille Finds Her Own Way Home

I did not have the best of mornings. That will teach me to rearrange the sacred day of domesticity! I decided to shop and do groceries before cleaning. It seems this is wrong. OK.

On my way to the first shop (candle wick) I wasn't sure where it was and turned down what I thought was a nearby street. I turned smartly as a police car was parked on the corner. He or she was as whacked out as I was as that street was one way, and neither of us seemed to notice my car was not headed in the right direction. Not to worry law person, I was properly scared straight on my way to the first cross street. No cars or people were scared physically in this debacle.

Got my wick. $.45 a meter at Maritime Hobby if you need some. Then off to the Superstore on Portland for groceries. Picked up sherry for the fruitcake and popped it in the car so I didn't need to deal with it. Back in the store I stopped in to the washroom first (yes, it's part of the story, you need to know). I remember putting my purse on the tidy door hook. I'm pretty sure I took it with me. Anyway, some shopping later I realize I have no purse in my cart.

No tears, no panic. In times of crisis save those thoughts for after, with the sherry. However I was adding up what was gone and figuring Christmas was off my list for the next 10 years. I'll try to make this long story short. There were many trips to the customer counter, parking lot (to see if my beautiful truck was still there), garbage cans (was it dumped?). I gathered an entourage as the crisis spread throughout the kingdom. Superstore people were great.

Fortunately I remembered early on that I had an iPhone, and had registered that puppy for Find My Iphone. Dashing off to the Aliant store in the mall I found all the employees were doing their best "I'm so busy" routines. When I couldn't get their extremely slow web browsers to work (an 8 year old was called upon for assistance and he was helpful) I knocked on the back door where 2 employees had just disappeared and I dumped my woes in their general direction. Aliant Mary got out her own iPhone and we used the Find app to locate my phone. IT WAS STILL IN THE STORE!!!

You could see it. The dot was at the back of the store. NOOOOO!!!!! It moved! We watched it move to the front of the store where it settled and stopped. With everyone searching, calling the phone (it quacks) and using the locator sound option we still had no luck. I also had to run out every 10 minutes and check on my truck. I love my truck.

Finally I hear my name paged to the Joe Fresh counter. This was at least an hour later. It seems my purse had been found in a shopping cart at the back of the store and these lovely (very wet behind the ears) ladies had brought it to their counter. They were so pleased to see me as the phone had been driving them crazy with all the ringing and quacking.

They never thought to answer it or take it to customer service, where all lost things go. I didn't burst their bubble by hammering them over the head with a ham, but I wanted to. I thanked them very much and then bought the ever faithful Aliant Mary with a Timmies card. That girl never left my side, which was good, as it was reassuring to watch that little red circle stay still.

Nothing was missing from the purse. I have no idea what happened. I had no cash - maybe someone was only after cash. Maybe someone just found it and set it out? Maybe I switched carts in mid aisle? I don't know. I just know I like to have faith in the people around me and it does seem to work out.

I went home and made fruitcake. Lots of sherry in that fruitcake! Some in me too!