Yes, I know that is a year away but I have a wonderful idea to save you all the stress that you WILL put on yourself as next year’s holidays roll around—something that came to me this Christmas.
Go back to Christmas Eve with me: Kent & I get to church early for the Christmas Eve service. Our congregation is growing and blooming with many families with young children so we knew seating would difficult—in a wonderful way. . Laura and her husband and the 2 darling grandkids volunteered to go extra early to save seats. When we arrived for the 4pm service it was already quite dark and cold. Son-in-law, kids and seats were waiting but no Laura. I thought that was odd since she was helping with communion. A few minutes before the service son-in-law got a phone call. Still no Laura Finally, just before the 1st hymn started she showed up. 
A few hours later we were all together having eaten our special Christmas Eve appetizer dinner and settled down by the beautiful tree to exchange gifts. When Laura gave me hers I was more than touched. She had been working on her first lace piece and it was a beautiful table runner for me. That was when we found out she was KNITTING IN THE DARK, IN THE CAR when we were waiting in church! She was SO close to finishing but didn’t want to take it off the needles so it could be put in the beautiful box.
Now all of you who are young, working mothers can really appreciate the kind of pressure the holidays put on you—and adding something like this was just beyond belief. Having been one of those moms myself in days past I really appreciated the effort to which she had gone.
The one gift I hope she received was watching how I handled the “knitted gifts for Christmas” issue. It was a glorious Christmas with our son Peter home from California, our other wonderful son Paul and the delightful Ms. M here, AND it was the “good” Christmas year when Laura and the kids are here at home. Every other year they go to the other grandparents in Minnesota which stinks except for the fact that we love the in-laws and know the grandkids are enriched by every minute with them.
I was grateful to be able to cook and get everything ready for the 2 day festivities for them all others near and dear to us who join us on Christmas Day. I did want to do some knitting gifts but as the time grew close the only thing I had time or energy for was buying yarn. (That goes without saying—unless in an ICU somewhere there is always time for yarn). I put it all in a big basket and let everyone pick a yarn they wanted for a pair of socks.
I have 1 of Paul’s done and about ½ of 1 of Peter’s and actually am having fun going from one to the other. Doing different styles with different yarns and needle sizes makes it even more fun. The weather forecast here is for the coldest weather in 10 years but I have my basket of Christmas gifts to keep me warm.
June 16th, 2009 at 4:17 am
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