Thursday, December 30, 2010

Christmas, I'm glad it only comes once a year.

My Mom's Tree

I only took a handful of photos this year on Christmas Eve, and none of them came out well. So we left the camera alone on Christmas Day and just tried to enjoy ourselves.

I successfully failed to buy presents for ANYONE but my husband and daughter this year. Nada, zip, zilch. Which was really hard, but I expect it to get easier as time goes on. There were a few successful handmade gifts, as everybody really seemed to like the Spiced Nuts Keith and I made. Delia and I made Caramels too, I hope everyone got at least one, there weren't very many, but they sure were fun to make.


Zoey seemed to like her knitted vegetables (I know, tomatoes are really fruit!) and a baguette. She told me that Santa brought her her very own kitchen, and I think she will have a lot of fun making up great (healthy) things to eat in there.



Delia is enjoying her Gir (from Invader Zim) Hat. It technically didn't get finished till the day after Christmas. She can be seen here also enjoying her new e-Book, which is really incredibly cool. She hasn't set it down for very long at all, and has already read Alice in Wonderland and several Sherlock Holmes adventures (the ones that weren't too scary).

The Holidays are so stressful for me, as I am sure they are stressful for others as well. Didn't do a very good job of ameliorating that stress... Our family and friends are all such wonderful people, but I feel like I missed them this year. We were blessed with abundance and gifts from our family and friends, and we ate delicious food and made merry for the Holiday. I am continually grateful for the sweet and thoughtful things everyone made for us/gave to us/did for us this year. Should have been enough to shake any normal person into a cheerful mindset! Hope I didn't Grinch anyone out.

When I went outside on the LongestNight to try and see the lunar eclipse... I could not. Maybe I saw the reddish glow of the full umbra, but it might just have been the lights of Morgantown reflecting off the wintry cloud cover. I knew it was happening, I'd seen the real time video on the internet just minutes before, but it just wasn't happening for me. In my bathrobe and slippers and Keith's wool coat, at 3:15 in the morning, I stared at the sky in vain. A metaphor for my state of mind. I try to keep things as upbeat here as I can (which is why it is quiet sometimes), but really life is made up of good things and also sad things - like feeding my Dad his Christmas Dinner one bite at a time... Good, but sad.

Anyway, Christmas is over, thank the Gods. Heading into another long, cold, dark stretch of time, I am glad I have my friends and family and yarn and kitties to keep me warm.

3 comments:

Ed and Barbara said...

I'm not too sure why Christmas is so stressful, but it sure is! Maybe we expect too much all the way around, to much expectations of ourselves and each other.
Anyway, the veggies are so neat, I really like that. I'm very interested in the eBook and how Delia likes/doesn't like it. I have a kindle and it is fun, but I love the feel of books in my hands so much....

Serafina said...

So far I think the draw of the eBook is that it came with 100 public domain titles already on it. And that Alice in Wonderland was right near the top of the table of contents.
I prefer books, but then again, I haven't really played with the eBook much. In certain circumstances it might be more convenient. Imagine how much 100 classics in hardback would weigh, and how much space they'd take up!

Heidi Ho said...

Sometimes you say what my heart wishes it could. We should have coffee and chat sometime. I understand and agree.
xoxo
Heidi

Sophie got veggies and a kitchen as well...but not those beautiful hand-knitted lovelies that you made. She is a lucky girl! Such a great idea.