Christmas Spirit, coming up!
Dec. 8th, 2008 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carynb
'Twas a bit of an up-and down weekend, at least in terms of my mood.
For the first time since I moved to Ontario in the fall of '89, I'm not going home for Christmas. Surprisingly, I've been okay with this, so far. The last time I tried to stay up here Christmastime (about 10 years ago), I was a wreck by now, so unbelievably homesick that I ended up getting a ticket (on points, thank God, since first class seats were all that was available for love or money) 2 weeks before Christmas and going home anyhow. Things are different now, though - I have my own home, I have a partner I want to spend Christmas with - I've been looking forward to Christmas, here.
And yet, for the past week, I've been saying "I've got to get the gifts wrapped and in the mail", and then procrastinating. Oh, I had reasons to procrastinate - first all, I didn't have them all. *g*
Saturday, I finished my mail-away shopping. Then, Saturday night I set out to block the shawl I'd knit for my Grandmother. This was were things started to go wrong. Somehow, someway, in a brand new shawl, finished all of a couple of weeks ago, I managed to break the yarn. I was spreading the shawl out on the bed, trying to find enough room to pin out the points, when all of a sudden I saw this stitch, just hanging there, with no anchor on it. I thought, at first, that I'd dropped the stitch while knitting, and somehow managed to not unravel the whole thing shawl down. But then I looked closer, and the yarn the row above the un-engaged stitch was broken. The row above that, one of the two plies of yarn was broken. I finished pinning out the shawl, putting a pin through that stitch, so that it could dry, anyway. I don't think it's repairable, although I am going to try to darn it, somehow. This really disappointed me - it's a nice warm soft merino shawl, shaped so that it won't slide of her shoulders - I thought she'd really like it.
Our original plan for yesterday was to go up to one of the Christmas tree farms nearish to us, and cut our own tree. The extreme cold yesterday kinda kiboshed that idea, though.
Then, I finally figured out why I as procrastinating so badly on the wrapping front. This is the first year that I'm mailing the gifts, instead of bringing the gifts. I think this is the first real, tangible sign that I'm not going home, and I'm putting it off. Once I clued into what was happening, M & I decided to go get out Christmas tree yesterday, after all, although we did go to the local Lion's Club lot rather than to cut our own, as a concession to the cold.
M put the tree up as soon as we got home, and only one potted plant was broken. *g* It's a Douglas fir, and it's huge - we figure it's about 10 feet tall! We left it alone overnight to fall out, so it's not decorated at all yes, but I think it'll be pretty. *g*
So I finished my mail-away wrapping with the scent of pine in the air, and somehow, that made it easier. My house smells like Christmas, now...
For the first time since I moved to Ontario in the fall of '89, I'm not going home for Christmas. Surprisingly, I've been okay with this, so far. The last time I tried to stay up here Christmastime (about 10 years ago), I was a wreck by now, so unbelievably homesick that I ended up getting a ticket (on points, thank God, since first class seats were all that was available for love or money) 2 weeks before Christmas and going home anyhow. Things are different now, though - I have my own home, I have a partner I want to spend Christmas with - I've been looking forward to Christmas, here.
And yet, for the past week, I've been saying "I've got to get the gifts wrapped and in the mail", and then procrastinating. Oh, I had reasons to procrastinate - first all, I didn't have them all. *g*
Saturday, I finished my mail-away shopping. Then, Saturday night I set out to block the shawl I'd knit for my Grandmother. This was were things started to go wrong. Somehow, someway, in a brand new shawl, finished all of a couple of weeks ago, I managed to break the yarn. I was spreading the shawl out on the bed, trying to find enough room to pin out the points, when all of a sudden I saw this stitch, just hanging there, with no anchor on it. I thought, at first, that I'd dropped the stitch while knitting, and somehow managed to not unravel the whole thing shawl down. But then I looked closer, and the yarn the row above the un-engaged stitch was broken. The row above that, one of the two plies of yarn was broken. I finished pinning out the shawl, putting a pin through that stitch, so that it could dry, anyway. I don't think it's repairable, although I am going to try to darn it, somehow. This really disappointed me - it's a nice warm soft merino shawl, shaped so that it won't slide of her shoulders - I thought she'd really like it.
Our original plan for yesterday was to go up to one of the Christmas tree farms nearish to us, and cut our own tree. The extreme cold yesterday kinda kiboshed that idea, though.
Then, I finally figured out why I as procrastinating so badly on the wrapping front. This is the first year that I'm mailing the gifts, instead of bringing the gifts. I think this is the first real, tangible sign that I'm not going home, and I'm putting it off. Once I clued into what was happening, M & I decided to go get out Christmas tree yesterday, after all, although we did go to the local Lion's Club lot rather than to cut our own, as a concession to the cold.
M put the tree up as soon as we got home, and only one potted plant was broken. *g* It's a Douglas fir, and it's huge - we figure it's about 10 feet tall! We left it alone overnight to fall out, so it's not decorated at all yes, but I think it'll be pretty. *g*
So I finished my mail-away wrapping with the scent of pine in the air, and somehow, that made it easier. My house smells like Christmas, now...
