She Wishes Me a Merry Christmas

I finished the yoga socks twenty five minutes before class the other night, just in time to snap two pictures, wrap the socks, and take them to give my instructor. She was so happy to get the present - she squished it in her hands, felt that it was knitting, and said excitedly "Oooh! you made me some of those wristwarmers you're always wearing! Oh thank you!"

Uh, you're welcome, but... you didn't get wristwarmers. You got strange looking but eminently practical semi-socks.

Looks like I'll be casting on another Christmas project. (Her face did actually fall a bit when she realized she was mistaken, but to her credit she tried to be enthusiastic about the yoga socks. Should have kept them for myself.)

Yoga-Belly-Dance-Socks

Cast On: November 28, 2006

Cast Off: December 5, 2006

Yarn: Gedifra Sportivo in colour 5762

Needles: Two 2.25mm Susan Bates circulars

Tension: Dunno. Sorry.

And St Bleh-gid has become St BriGiddy! I have my joy back, you'll be glad to know - don't know where it came back from, but it's back and I'm happy. I have divided for the armholes which means I should be done this sucker for Christmas after all.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

And I got a present today. Yay! First Gift of Christmas! My lovely friend Megan, who just makes me happy whenever I think of her, has sent me a beautiful book. Now, there's history here - Megoon (the Pickle) finds me, I think, a bit Christmas-crazy. We had a slight difference of opinion on the proper duration of Christmas observance early in our relationship, and we have had many interesting conversations about it since. I am nuts about Christmas, and start regularly playing the tunes pretty much as soon as it gets dark and rainy - around mid-November, to be totally honest (choral hymn-type music here, folks, not madly jingling, forced jollification Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree-style stuff). In contrast, Megan's Yule Rule states that Christmas music should be played, food eaten, halls decked, and merry made only between December 6 and January 6. I scoffed at first, but over time have come to realize the sense of it. After all, the given span of time is bracketed by the Feast of St Nicholas on the one side, and Epiphany on the other.

Anyway, to abbreviate this long story, my dear friend Megan has kindly given me a Christmas book every year FOR FOUR YEARS. Out of the blue, not an arrangement, or anything - just sometime in early December (and this year it was today) the postie shows up with a little brown-paper wrapped package from MKC. Here is the collection:

Clockwise from back left:

- Christmastime Treats

- The Christmas Cookie Book (this year's addition)

- The Penguin Book of Carols (my all-time favourite reference book - and I have a few)

- The Physics of Christmas

I can't really describe how good I feel about this state of affairs. It is just so thrilling to get this little package every year, when I absolutely least expect it (if you can believe it, it takes me by surprise every time). The great thing about Megan is that she understands how much I love Christmas and how I think you can never have too many special Christmas things, like books, or music, or entire sets of china.

And the other great thing is that these brown-paper packages come with printed labels on them. I don't know why I like this so much. You could argue that it would warm the old cockles of my heart more if she hand-wrote the addresses, but nope. This year there was actually a little label stuck on the back of the package, which read "It's that time of year again. HO HO HO" It was like a secret admirer package!!! Or a real Santa package!! So mysterious - so Exciting!!!

Megan, if you have tuned in, thank you so much. I just love your thoughtful gifts - they are as perfect, well-considered, interesting and heartwarming as you are. Mwah! Mwah mwah!!