A Yarny Advent

Months and months and months ago, when we all had jobs and disposable income, I ordered a yarny Advent calendar from Yarnbrary.  I watch the podcast that Emily does with her sister Deborah (Meanwhile at the Castle) from time to time, and Emily announced that this year, her Advent calendar would be based on the movie "Elf," which I must admit is one of my faves.  So, not realizing what was coming, and how much I might wish later I hadn't spent the money, I ordered one.  Then as we all know, the world changed drastically, and to be honest, I completely forgot about the whole thing.

At the end of November, a box arrived, and well, I was really glad I'd spent the money, because what a treat to look forward to opening a package every day in December!  

Day 1 had the colorway named Buddy, and I think it was perfect, since it truly ecapsulated Buddy the Elf to me:

Plus, it included a tiny elf shoe that could be used as a progress keeper, or worn on the enclosed chain as a charm bracelet.  This made me SO excited and happy!

Here are the colorways for Days 1-6, and I am in no way disappointed at all!

I think they are such happy little skeins of yarn, and if you look closely in the lower right corner, there is a little candy cane progress keeper/charm on the yarn, so there's even another goody there!  I haven't started my Advent calendar project yet, but right now, I plan to try and knit the Habitation Throw, since I have always liked the pattern, and have seen some really nice ones made from other Advent calendars.  Once we are all decorated and all of the packages are mailed out, I plan to get started.  

Yes, it would have been nice to have the money I spent earlier in the year, but to be honest, this has given me so much joy, I think I made a good decision when I decided to go for it.

*****

We had a good weekend, getting out some of our Christmas stuff and getting organized.  I got a lot of gifts wrapped and ready to send, and even managed to get most of the cards ready to send in the mail today, so that made me feel excited.  I joined a knitting Zoom yesterday for an hour, which was truly fun, and a nice break from just everything else.

Hamlet started sporting his (well, originally it was Dug's) festive collar, and is thrilled when people pay attention to him as a result!  So you know his holiday season is starting out well!  💘

Years ago, I had a couple of Christmas-themed items I'd bought that our first cat, Molly Bloom would actually wear without much fuss about it.  Most of our cats since then have not been, shall we say, as gracious about it.  But I did manage to find a use for one of them, and now Hamlet is not the only one in our household decked out in festive splendor:

Baby Yoda/Grogu is ready to roll!

Second Sunday of Advent 2020

advent, by Jacqueline LeSeuer

Lightness touched darkness.

Haunting melodic echoes 

danced off painted sky.

Friday Funnies - Holiday Grammar

Actually, this would be fine with me, since I have always loved diagramming sentences!  (I still do it sometimes in my head ...)

Have a good weekend!

It's That Time Again!

For the past few years, I've participated in the Virtual Advent Tour, sponsored by sprite, and it's one of my most favorite things of all about holiday time.  I've also been introduced to so many new blogs, new stories, and new traditions, and I don't know about you but I love when that happens.  (You too can sign up to participate here.)

Today is my turn to write a post, so I thought I'd tell you about the time my mother was thrilled to receive a gift from us that The Tim then had to tell her was actually for *his* mother ...

My mom, much like me (well, I guess I'm much like her actually), loved to open packages.  So it was not unusual for us to give her 4 or 5 things, each wrapped up,  as well as a stocking full of goodies and tiny little wrapped packages.  She was also someone who loved costume jewelry as much as fancy jewelry, so there was always a package of Christmas earrings, or a necklace, etc. - you get the drift.  

The Tim's mom was a different story.  She was first of all, really difficult to buy for because she could be really critical even while thanking you for something.  And she didn't really like a big variety of things.  So this particular year, The Tim saw that one of the department stores near us was having a pre-Christmas sale on their 14K gold jewelry, and he decided to buy his mom a pair of gold hoop earrings.  

When we used to travel home for Christmas, we would have two large bins in the car - one filled with gifts for my family, one filled with gifts for The Tim's family.  He was always in charge of packing the car (still is), because he has a certain way he likes it to be done.  This particular year, we were going to be with my family first, and then travel to his family.  

Christmas morning, we opened gifts, and everyone was having fun, and so excited with everything.  My mother opened a box, and I just happened to look up as she opened it and realized that it was the pair of earrings for my mother-in-law!  She of course, not having a clue about anything, was thrilled with them, and kept saying how pretty and fancy they were.  

Apparently when the car was being packed, one of the bins got bumped, and The Tim didn't notice that a single package had fallen into the other bin.  It was marked, "To Mom from Bridget and Tim," so we didn't notice it either.  Now, if we just shrugged and let my mom keep the earrings, it would mean we did not have a single gift for my mother-in-law!  So The Tim had to gently explain to my mother that a mistake had been made.

Fortunately, she completely understood, and even thought it was funny.  She did comment on how odd she thought it was that we gave her so many other gifts PLUS the fancy earrings, though.  

All's well that ends well, but it's become a Christmas tradition in our family that someone reminds The Tim of it every year.  Even some of the nieces and nephews, who had not even been born when it happened, will say, "Uncle Tim, do you remember when you gave Gram the earrings for your mother and then made her give them back?"

My mother-in-law was never any the wiser.  Let's just say that probably was a good thing.

December! And Also, Tiny Needle Tuesday!

And just like that, December 1st rolls around!  Whether or not we are ready, it's here.  I for one am happy, since I love this time of year.  I'm not one to wish a year away, like so many people are.  I just like December.  Plus, if you recall, last year around this time soooo many people were saying, "I cannot wait for 2019 to get out of here, bring on 2020!"  Proving that you should be careful what you wish for, no?

Anyway, 24 days until Christmas Day, but it's time to enjoy Christmastime!  And for those of you who do not celebrate, I am not meaning to stuff it down your throat.  I certainly hope that you have a good month, and that if there is a winter holiday that you celebrate, you are looking forward to it as well.  But if you have read this blog for any length of time, you should also not be surprised that I love everything about the holiday season.

Yesterday, I got three of the five things I had on my list for the day accomplished, and they were the three things that to me, were the priorities, so that was a good feeling.  Especially for a Monday.  Even better, though it poured rain for 95% of the day, we managed to get in three walks with Hamlet during times it was not raining, which was beneficial for all of us.

However, what today is really about is Tiny Needle Tuesday, which I have not been able to post about for a bit, because I have been not just in-between projects, but having a hard time deciding what I was in the mood to do next.  But once I realized it was nearly December, I started to poke around, and remembered I had a credit at Stitched Modern due to a package that was damaged in shipping.  So I decided to see what was new (to me at least) there.  I found one that just really spoke to me, and with my credit, I got it for a mere $3.00!

Sunday morning, I got started and it was so much fun to do some cross-stitch again.  This is as far as I made it before stopping (and yes, that is a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer stitchery pouch, thank you for noticing):

I'm sure I could have done most or all of it on Sunday if I'd kept going, but I didn't want to finish it all at once, and just like knitting, I don't like to cross-stitch non-stop, because it makes my hands/wrists/elbows/whatever hurt, and why would I purposely do that??  I'm so happy with it so far, and even though it hasn't been that long between stitchery projects, I forgot how much fun it is to see the image start to look like something. 😊

So, onward with today, which is a day I am at work, so hopefully that will go well, and the work part of the day will pass quickly.  I hope your day turns out to be one that you enjoy.