sherriknits

I pray you had a wonderful day filled with all you hoped it would be.

This Christmas, we were filled with a sense of gratitude for people and for God’s goodness in our lives.   It’s been a very interesting season leading up to today.  Even Sunday at church people were commenting on how difficult it was to get into the commercial side of things because of the storm.  We drove to Olympia after church and I haven’t really seen that highway in the daylight since the storm and I felt emotionally whipped after the trip.  It is just so shocking.  We’re not really stuck in the whole thing to the point that we can’t enjoy each other but as we continue to marvel…we really did go through something!  (and came out whole for the most part!)

It was an interesting week since I last posted.  The theater work was really affecting business in a huge way.  They had our street blocked off for several weeks and the last week especially, it was nearly impossible to find parking but we know in the long run, it will be a good thing.  Last Friday, they made good on their promise….

See the marquis reader board?  It’s still giving trouble, but they did get it running.  It will have the time and temperature along with whatever message they want running.

About an hour later, we were treated to this:

What was so cool was that there were quite a few people on the street clapping and whistling as it came to life.  It was pretty cool!  For our little town, this is a pretty exciting thing.  It is going to be fun to see the interior and I hear there is to be a little coffee shop opening soon in one of the front little shop areas.  We’ll get to have some big-name concerts here, evidently it’s something that can be done when bands come to the casino an hour away.  I don’t know how many I’ll go to, but I’ll get to watch the loading and unloading.

Moving along….

Our family always gets together with the extended family and the store crew (including some employees who retired 15 years ago) for a big breakfast.  The cafe we go to is closed on Christmas Eve, but they open to serve us and we get to order anything we want.  We put in our order a week ahead and we get seating with place cards and grouped by families.  I forgot to get my camera out, but we did have fun.

We had a crazy day at the shop.  I am closed on Mondays so my shop was not hopping although I did have several people pop in for last minute gifts.  For the most part, I gift wrapped in my family’s business and had a great time.  By 3 when we closed, I was really tired, but it was so much fun laughing and being silly when we were all getting pretty ready to be done.

We then go to my sister’s house for our big extended family gathering.  Poor number 1 son had a breakdown with his van on the way there so dinner was delayed while his girlfriend’s dad came to get them and take them home to our jeep.  We were only 10 miles away at my sister’s but her daddy was close enough to come help.  (we did get the van home today and it wasn’t as bad as we thought although the thing is on it’s last legs)

We got to come home and relax for about 2 hours before we headed to church.  Candlelight service is something we all look forward to every year.  We sing carols and have a brief message that is very low-key and personal.  Hubby only had had to schedule the music but actually got to sit with the family.  I was late getting to my seat because I went to find my friend who works in the office and we had a very special time of talking with each other.  The church has gone through some tough times that has divided family members and her family was especially affected, but we have definitely deepened our friendship over the past year and a half and we had a very positive time of talking and laughing together until we realized the service had started and my family was wondering where in the world I had disappeared to!

We have one little imp who evidently enjoys putting on his tux at least once a week so one big sis decided he needed to wear the jacket with his jeans to church on Christmas eve. 

The picture is dark but the smile is real.  One of the pastors took this picture at the candlelight service.  Notice the raw nose, he’s really been struggling with a whopping cold … owee.  He’s not very happy to blow the nose these days, it hurts.

I think hubby and I got to bed around 1 a.m. after we got home from church.

This morning, we woke up to the closest thing we see to a white Christmas.  It was kind of a fun touch.   

It was a little harder getting everyone together this year and we have come to the realization that life as we know it is going to be different now.  With one daughter married, one to be married and a son who will be married sometime in the near future, they have other places to go and other people who have become more of their focus. 

Most of us were together this morning and the little imp got a huge surprise.

A cell phone! Big sis has been trying to talk me into this for 2 years and we finally decided it was something to try.  The main reason we got this is to teach him responsibility…keeping ahold of it, keeping it charged, learning to call people, interacting a little more with others….then on top of that, he is a wanderer and with his phone we hope we won’t panic so much if we lose sight of him for a minute.  We know it won’t be a babysitter, but I can’t tell you the stressful times he has put us through.  Adding him to our family plan was pretty cheap.  And yes, we have all had several calls from him today but he received one call from one of our pastors and as he walked by the doorway on the phone and daddy asked him who he was talking to, he took the phone away from his mouth and in a stage whisper said, “it’s Pastor Rick!!!!”  He was pretty tickled.  We had anything that could cost us a lot of money blocked (texting, downloads, etc) and they assured us he could not call overseas.  I had a long talk with his case manager from Dept. of Developmental Disabilities and both she and our former case mgr. said they’ve seen families do this for kids who are a lot more involved than he is but for the same reason.  I’ll let you know if we made the right choice.  lol

And now to the knitting part, after I show you one of my gifts:

I know the lighting isn’t good, but can you see the knitting needles and yarn?  This is from hubby.  Here’s the front of the mug:

Can you read that on the inside rim?

Here’s another hint:

Yep, a week ago Saturday, we found out we’re going to be grandparents!  This is my wild knitting over the past week when I didn’t really have time.  These are Saartje’s booties and I’ve wanted to make them for quite some time.  They take very little time, I think it takes almost as much time to weave in the ends.  I tried the in the round version but wasn’t wild about knitting a row, purling a row and opted to do the original version.  Quite fun!!!

Here’s the inside of the little basket hubby put together for me

The new mommy really wants lots of hats. 

Baby isn’t due until the end of August so there is lots of knitting time from here to there but it’s going to be quite the year for us…another wedding and entry into the grandparent club!

As I was finishing this post, we got a call from #2 daughter and her fiance.  We had told the kids we were cutting back this year.  Our immediate family is now 9 people when you add the extras…and since we are not the main focus of their lives any more, we need to do things a little differently.  We have a tradition of giving pjs to the kids to wear on Christmas day and anyone who is hanging out here has to wear jammies on Christmas day.  We gave them to the kids before breakfast yesterday.  Today they got house socks (no, I didn’t knit them ~sad to say) and little Starbucks or Blockbuster gift cards and some money as well as their Christmas stockings filled with candy.  We had hung the tree with little Christmas buckets and put the money in those so when they opened their little gifts, we also gave those to them.  Well, the fiance was having his time with his family when we did that and then when he arrived, #1 son threw the little pail to him, it hit the floor and the lid popped off so the little bride handed it to him and said there was nothing in it so he wouldn’t be embarrassed looking.  It wasn’t until this evening as they were driving to his house that he thought it would have made sense if there was candy in it and when he opened it, he saw $$$.  They were embarrassed but laughing when they called.  She said she was so grateful for everything she got and was just fine with it all but now they felt terrible for not noticing or acknowledging it. Isn’t it funny how you think back to the things you said assuming they would know what you meant?  (like pooling $$$ and giftcards for something)  We just figured they could put their money together and get something or use it themselves but at this age, they usually want something that they appreciate the help getting there.  We’re all laughing now and I called the other kids to see if they had noticed there was anything in the pail.  I can only imagine how strange those two thought that was to be handed a silly little thing like that.  lol

The kids will be here soon for the exchange between themselves and games.  We’ve had our naps and are gearing up for the final round.  I haven’t even figured out if I’ll open my shop tomorrow.  (the nice thing about having it located inside my family’s business is if I’m not there, they’ll help out and call me if they need help).

My most sincere wishes for a very meaningful Christmas for you all!

Tags: baby, blessings, event, friends, kids, knitting

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