Day 22: Stockings and Yet More Martini’s

It is December 22 but my guess is that you don't need me to tell you that!!

The downhill stretch is on us and I’m amused by knitting and crafting blogs everywhere that detail the frenetic activity of the season! Schedules made, schedules abandoned--- and some that have no schedules at all. I think I like those best! I am enjoying so much reading about fellow knitters who are knitting away madly at school concerts, in the car, on the bus---- and generally full of the season. It’s great and I send you all my best with fingers crossed for easy schedules and a weekend to finish projects for loved ones. Are you done? Will you be?

What to do when you forgot someone? Or need a filler? How about a stocking stuffer???? It quite frankly happens and laying in an emergency goodie or too is a spectacularly great idea. Personally, I think stocking gifts are the very best and I have more fun with them than anything. My Mom was the Queen of stockings! From her I learned not only that the stocking itself needed to look great and reflect the owner but that filling it was an art form. Mine always had certain things you could count on, those chocolate covered cherries that were filled with the sugary glop that ran out if you bit them, Andes mints, and always things that were so fun! Usually a magazine to read in pj’s when all of the Christmas mess had been cleared away, and silly things that made me laugh (then and now). Some of the things I’ve picked up for the 3 stockings I have to stuff this year range from handwarmers to hair scrunchies, disposable razors to gum and my favorite--- a pez dispenser for dogs. Seriously, how great is that???? I am insanely in love with last minute stocking stuffer shopping at Walgreens! It is the coolest place in the world to assemble an awesome collection of wonderful crap! Every year since my Mom has been gone I always buy myself that box of Cello chocolate covered cherries and eat like 5 of them in the car on the way home. Mom smiles every single time.

In case you’re in a jam----- or need a good backup (it happens)----- how about a little chart that can fit into a purse or notebook that a knitter can list what needles are owned???? I think I own five of them and they’re in different knitting bags and notebooks—but they have saved me more than once!

Print it out, laminate it maybe if you’re hard core. My favorite idea is to give it with a little certificate for what needles do you really need…………… my treat card. I gave a card like this to my niece last year and she wanted to know if a set of Denise’s counted. That’s my girl! (And no, they didn’t!) She chose a pair of lovely Lantern Moon needles, I believe they were rosewood. If nothing else I did teach my child about the quality things!

Some of my very favorite gifts are wonderful gift cards that offer things like breakfast, giving the dog a bath….. you know what I mean. I would personally love a card from my significant that said----- “you can sit and knit whenever you want and ignore anything in the whole wide world that is just pissing the boogers out of you by presenting this card. Really.” But you know what? That pretty much is my life, can I get an amen?

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It was a lovely day yesterday! What a treat to spend the day with my son just hanging out and talking. And laughing. And eating! We even made dinner together which was pretty great. (Coconut chicken, cauliflower gratin and a nice salad). You have to admit that it is nice during the holidays not to have to actually MAKE dessert with all of the sweet options hanging around the house! Bless that childs' heart, a young man shouldn’t have to hang out with his mother on a Friday night so he went out with some friends leaving me to knit. (Candy Cane Cocktail knitting!) On the subject of those minty cocktails, they are addictively good little suckers. I wouldn’t be partial to drinking a peppermint martini any other time of the year but baby--- you mix equal parts of vanilla rum, Godiva white chocolate and peppermint schnapps, rim that glass with some crushed mints and you have yourself a little Merry right in your glass! Cocktailin’ aside, the scarf from Artful Yarns ‘Broadway’ was finished and I absolutely love it. One of those yarns with enough mohair to be really interesting and the colors and segues were fabulous. The best part was the metallic flecks, not a gold or silver but the coolest sort of marbelly metallic glint. I absolutely love this! And mine. Ho Ho HO!

I had to seriously crop this photo. We’ve discussed before that I hate my neck worse than just about anything and if I won the lottery big or small I’d make a plastic surgeon my new best friend. Which makes me doubly love this scarf---- it hides a multitude of sins (i.e. my neck) and is cute to boot! I think I might have to knit one in every color in the rainbow. Hey---- you can wear cotton neck hiders (er, scarves) in the summer, right? Just in case that windfall doesn’t come anytime soon that is!

News from my oldest daughter------ a Wii will be under her tree for the grandboys! She's feeling smug and exhausted! Those toy people do such an excellent job of whipping the public up into a froth about one thing or another every year. The search for the Wii was even on The Today Show today, sheesh.

I’ve just cast on for yet another hat. I know, the hat a thon around here has just come to an end but I did need one for ME, so I happily cast on for another “unoriginal hat” in Malabrigo Aquarella, the colorway ‘tranqueras’. I'll get my very own hat done by Christmas (I hope) so that I'll be able to do---- well, something wonderful.

What makes me happiest? I think it is probably my first holiday season in recorded history (and perhaps beyond) where it is 3 days before Christmas and I’m done. And relaxing. Enjoying the season. It is a heckuva concept and I think I’ll have to try and replicate the feat in years to come. For now I’m practicing the days after Christmas when it’s jammie time.

Know what? I’m going to be really, REALLY good at it!