A Christmas Rehash.

The holidays this year were overly hectic and overly stressful for a variety of reasons. The main one being that my mom (Santa), waited until 3 days before Christmas to do all the shopping, and to even begin doing any of the cleaning, which means I had to do a great majority of the cleaning and part of the Santa shopping and wrapping (on top of my own shopping and cleaning). My family’s main celebration is at my parent’s home on Christmas Eve, we have roughly 30-35 people attend. The resulting everything being done at the last minute meant I really did not get to enjoy the holiday season as much as I normally do. Next year, I resolve to do everything in my power to get my mom not to procrastinate. Christmas time is really my most favorite time of the year and I’m bummed that it was so stressful this year.

Although I was incredibly stressed (made worse by the fact that I once again have a cold—Thanks mom!), I still had a happy holiday. My niece was a joy as always. She really took the noise and strange people all in stride. She remained happy and laughing throughout the night (when she was not napping). I think she really went above and beyond a normal 2 month-old’s behavior. The other baby who was here (my cousin’s kid who is 4-5 months old), was a cranky pants as usual. Every time I see this kid, she is screaming and crying. It is just amazing to see how the baby’s personality is already developing.

This year I only handcrafted one Christmas present. It was my niece’s stocking. It took me more then a month of working on it; I started right after Thanksgiving and finished on December 20. It was a huge amount of work. I think part of the reason it was so much work was because I am not a sewer or embroiderer. I know it will be enjoyed for years and years, and even when I am gone, my niece will think of me on Christmas when she uses it. It truly was a labor of love.

On Christmas Eve, I wore my completed tree jacket. It fits amazingly well and really is just beautiful. It may be my favorite knit ever. I hope that I will find a good picture of myself in the sweater (edit: the above is the best photo I have at the moment. Black is so hard to photograph!). Most of the pictures I took were with my sister’s camera, so I will have to wait on her for the pictures. One of my brother’s replied, when he found out I made the sweater, why I have not at least made him a hat and gloves if I have the skills to make a sweater.

This year I received a few knitting related items. From my aunt in the grab bag (my family does a $50 grab bag for the adults and then everyone usually buys the kids something), I received a subscription to Interweave Knits as part of my present. My boyfriend bought me the book Sensual Knits by Yahaira Ferreira. Santa brought me Classic Knits by Erika Knight, 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant, and The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd. In my head, I have already planned a few sweaters from Ann Budd’s book. The one thing I do not like is that none of the sweaters are top-down, even the raglan is made from the bottom up. I really prefer to work top down, but I think I will at least make one sweater from the book going bottom up. Actually, there is another thing from the book I do not like. In the book, my size is considered a “child size.” Really, I think that is rather insulting. I may be thin, but I am not a child…I also received about $70 worth of gift cards to Joann’s (that is sort of knitting related).