T'was the Night Before Christmas

I think one of my favorite Christmas traditions/rituals is the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church.  I love sitting in the dim sanctuary, singing Silent Night, while candles get lit one by one from a single flame.  By the end of the song, each member of the congregation is holding a lit candle.  It is so peaceful, and it nearly always makes me giggle.  This is why:

There is one Christmas Eve service in particular that is forever etched in my memory.  I was five or six at the time, and my parents felt I was too young to be entrusted with my own candle (they were right).  Megan, a friend of mine who is a year or so younger than me, was sitting further along the row from my family.  Her parents made a different choice on the candle front, and I was rather jealous. 

We were all singing Silent Night, and the candles were lit down my row, one by one.  A verse later, Megan lost concentration, got sleepy, or simply displayed the coordination of a typical four-year-old.  Her candle started to tip over, in the direction of her mother, Ann.  This was the mid-1980s.  Think fuzzy angora sweaters and giant hair, full of flammable hair products.

This is how I remember things happening, though it was probably a little less dramatic:  Ann's fuzzy sweater sleeve erupted into flame, and a fireball was racing up her arm, toward her giant, hair-sprayed 80s hair.  My dad leaped, Superman-like over the people sitting between our family and Ann, and beat the fire out with his bare hands.

I know that at this point I turned to my mom and said, "Mom, why is Dad hitting Ann?"

Ann escaped without any major burns, and with all her hair.  Megan was not allowed a candle of her own again for a few more years.  And I always picture an angora sweater erupting into flame when I sing Silent Night.

Tonight, I took my two-year-old son, Julian, to our church's Christmas Eve service.  It was a family-friendly service with bible lessons and lots of Christmas carols.  Also, no candles.  I think I'm okay with that, this year.

2013

'Tis the season for resolutions, though any day can be a new start if you choose to make it so.  My biggest goal for 2013 is a continuation of a goal I set for myself when my son was born.  I will strive to be the sort of person my son can be proud of, and I will lead by example and be the sort of person I wish my son to be.  I will be patient, kind, creative, fun, compassionate, faithful, and generous.  No problem, right?

It's a big goal, but I have someone around all the time to hold me accountable:

He's got his eye on me.

I have a few smaller goals for 2013, as well. 

I want to learn to sew my own clothing.  And I will not give up on myself when it's not perfect the first try.

I will grow a larger quantity and greater variety of produce in my garden this summer.  I will stay on top of harvesting and preserving it, and if I don't have time for preservation, I will at least bring my produce to the local food shelf so it does not go to waste.

The garden, summer 2011.

When I get stressed, or anxious, or angry, I will remember what actually matters and chill out. 

(This matters.)

Happy New Year, everyone.

Preach it, Jean-Luc!

Basketweave Knit Blanket

Once upon a time, I dusted off my knitting machine and started on a half-baked project idea.  My nephew/godson was going to be born in less than a month, and I wanted to make him something special.  Spoiler alert:  it actually turned out!

First, I machine-knitted 14 rectangles (I will call them scarves, because that's pretty much what they are).  Each scarf is 25 stitches wide, 214 rows long.

Next I pressed them, since they come off the knitting machine wanting to curl in on themselves.

I started laying my scarves out, weaving them together and tacking the outside corners.

My work surface isn't quite large enough for my project, so getting my spacing correct was a little frustrating.  Also, even though each scarf was the same number of rows in length, and was made out of the same brand and weight of yarn, some scarves were shorter than others.  If I was a more serious knitter, and didn't just jump into projects with little more than a glimmer of an idea, I might bother to do tension swatches and avoid this issue.  Instead, I just dealt with the problem by fudging the scarves around and eyeballing "even" spacing.

Here it is all woven together.

Once all the scarves were woven together and spaced to my liking, I went around the edges to tie the scarves in place.

This was as far as I had planned, and my blanket looked a lot like a pile of laundry, so I decided to make a gin and tonic and read about dinosaurs for a while.  (The kiddo was asleep for the night.  Don't worry, I don't go boozing mid-day.)

I was amused to learn about the Irritator.  Someone had modified the skull of this species of dinosaur, and when the scientists learned of the tomfoolery, they were irritated.  So they named it Irritator.  Love it.

After laughing about the Irritator for a while, I decided my next step would be to pin the woven scarves to the fabric I was using for a backing to the blanket.  This would help maintain a square(ish) shape.

Once I was done pinning, I tied knots at each intersection of scarves to keep them from curling and to maintain my spacing.

I had intended to use my sewing machine to sew down the length of each scarf, but this ended in a tangled disaster and a bit of swearing.  After dropping the project for a few days (to make a viking hat for my son, among other things), I determined the best way to hold the scarves together would be just to hand-sew a running stitch along each scarf.  I was pleasantly surprised to find how quickly that went.  I think it took me three episodes of Friends on Nick at Nite to finish this part.

Here it is all stitched down.  No baby arms will get tangled in there now!

My last step was to fold the edges of my backing over twice and sew it in place for a binding.  I hand-sewed the corners.  That was way too bulky for my machine to deal with!

Here it is!  I was surprised and very pleased with how well this turned out!  I got to meet my newborn nephew over Thankgiving weekend, and give him his new blanket.  I think it will keep him very warm over the North Dakota winter!

Anniversary

Four years ago, I got married to my favorite person. 

He didn't even smear cake on me at the reception.

He makes me laugh, and I'm pretty sure I make him laugh.  I hope he's laughing with me more often than he's laughing at me, but I will take what I can get.  You can never have enough laughter in your life.

I'm not going to say that I can't imagine my life without him, because that isn't true.  Life would probably be easier, but it sure wouldn't be nearly as much fun.  Besides, I kind of enjoy his company.

Damian is smart, witty, funny, loyal, and hard-working.  He is a wonderful husband, and a fabulous father.  For some reason he loves me, despite my flaws.

Oh, and did I mention how handsome he is?

Yeah, I'm a pretty lucky gal.

It's been a great four years.  Here's to forty more.  Heck, I'll take as many years with you as I can get.  Happy anniversary, Damian.  I love you.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from the cutest jumping skeleton ever!

 

 

 

Oh no!  He's coming to get me!

 



Aaaaah!

Noooo!

Gaah!

There are worse ways to go, really.

Vanquished by the super cute zombaby.

It's too late for me.  Save yourselves!  And be sure to have a happy Halloween while you're at it!

Living Joyfully: A lesson from my dog

There are days when I am not as grateful as I should be.  There are days that I feel resentful.  Sometimes I find myself wishing I had more (time, money, unnecessary stuff).  Then I look at my dog, Langston.  I think I could learn a few things from him.

Toys are great.

Squeaky mouse.

Dagron!!

Dino-rawr!

But people are better.

Langston with Damian, the night we brought him home.

Langston with me, the night we brought him home.

Much more recently, accepting pats from Damian and tolerating Julian playing with his collar.

The little things in life can be the most fun.

A net float he found on the beach.  A.K.A. "The Best Toy Ever."

A stick, a.k.a "The Best Toy Ever."

Play stops being play when you call it exercise.  Run for joy!

Running!

Running with a friend!

Have faith, and trust your friends.  Try new things, even if they are a little scary.

The steep slope was scary, but he did it because we did.

He was willing to scramble up the clay bluff so he could come with us.

Just because God didn't give you wings, doesn't mean you shouldn't try to fly (at least a little bit).

Taking off!

Keeping your feet firmly planted on the ground is clearly overrated.

It's okay to look silly.  The people who matter don't care.

Slobber eyebrow.

Someone walked in tar and had to wear socks for a while.

Why?  Why the bandana?

Sharing is a good thing.

Langston shares his toys with Julian.

Julian shares his snacks with Langston.

Don't bully those who are smaller than you.  No one wants to be friends with a bully.

Langston plays nicely with Finn and Julian.

Feeling grumpy?  Take a nap.

A nap fixes a lot of things.

It doesn't really matter where you're going, so long as you have good company.

Going to the beach?  Going to the vet?  Who cares!  I get to go!

Walking with his friend, Silver.

Being part of a family is THE BEST!

Langston's first beach vacation.

Stay joyful, my friends.

Thanks for reading!