Christmas Presents Complete

Hooray! All my Christmas presents are complete. I'm very excited. Now I just need to wrap them. Or -- and this is much more likely -- dump them in gift bags. Gift bags are God's little present to the wrapping paper impaired.

I will be posting pictures of the completed projects, but not until after the 28th -- our immediate family doesn't celebrate Christmas until then, and I don't want to give anything away. Even to my sister, who already knows what she's getting, but hasn't seen the purtiness of the finished product.

The Fabulous Maureen taught me a new stitch yesterday, and I'm whipping through a scarf using it. (In the picture, you can also view my new Lantern Moon needles, which I am pretty much in love with.)

She calls it Chain Link Fence, because when you stretch it out, it looks like a ... well, you know. It's very quick and I think it's so pretty. I have a stash of yarn that I've been looking for a project for, and I think I'm going to do an afghan in Chain Link Fence. Just as soon as I finish this scarf, which I think may be a fun gift for someone as yet to be named. Don't you just wish it was you? :)

Advent

On the radio the other day, I heard a man talking about the coming of Christmas, and what it ought to mean to us. His message, at its heart, said that we've been going about this whole Christmas-is-coming thing the wrong way, which is something I've believed for a long time. While I applaud the extra cheer that many folks seem to muster up, I'm not a fan of the general frenzy that is most of December. The Christian season of Advent, he pointed out, has never been about sugar and presents and decorations, or even about families getting together. Advent is about expectation and hope, and longing.

So rather than asking you what you want for Christmas, let me ask you this: what do you long for? It may be reconciliation, or a child, or a vocation. It may be a resolution to a tangled problem in your life. What space is there in your soul that cannot be filled with anything wrapped up under a tree?

I cannot guarantee that longing will be fulfilled on Christmas morning. I can almost guarantee that it won't. So life, like Advent, is bittersweet. We are all of us walking around with holes in our hearts.

I don't have any objection to Christmas cheer. But I think it would be so nice if we took the cup of kindness with us past the New Year celebration.

Christmas Knitting Pressure

So I went to my Sit 'n' Knit group this afternoon. I thought about skipping it, because I really needed to clean up the kitchen and vacuum and do some other things. Like put up the Christmas tree already. But then I decided that the dirt and the tree would be here when I got home, so off I went. And I was glad, as always.

We had a great time chatting away, though Pat was very quiet today. She's working on felted slippers that require her to count carefully on every single row. Counting like that always shuts me up, which is probably a relief for the other knitters!

It seems like everyone was working on Christmas gift projects. Pat's slippers were intended to be presents, but she's not going to get enough pairs done, so I believe she's given up on that. Melanie just finished a collection of purses for her aunts and mailed them yesterday. She said she never wants to knit another purse. Or at least not for a long time. Maureen, our Fearless Leader, put some finishing touches on a sock monkey, Jackie was working on socks (perhaps the only non-Christmas item) ,and Pam was attempting to finish a copy of a vintage knitted Christmas stocking. Everybody in her family has one, and she's making one for her granddaughter. It's got overstitching and sequins and all kinds of good stuff. She's very brave.

I was working on finishing a set of legwarmers for my big sister. They could not be easier: K2 P2 ribbing and sewn together at the edges. They're the third and final gift for Christmas that I am knitting. I didn't want to get into knitting a whole bunch of stuff, because I knew that I would just lose my mind at about this time, and I wasn't signing up for a nervous breakdown this year.

The darlin' boy is herding me into the car. He really is like a sheepdog. I'll be back ...