sherriknits

Here I am again an hour later.

I got the sweetest gift yesterday and I forgot to show it!  Out of sight, out of mind these days….it was in my Ravelry bag.  This is a friend that I will have fun when I get to wait for a grandbaby with her, too.  She has been gracious and fun waiting with me for mine.

The What if There Were No Grandma’s book is sooooo cute.  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what kind of Grammy I will be and I hope to live up to some of the sweetest ideas of Grandma’s from children’s point of view.  We had a good time reading it together.  The Hugs for Grandma book is like all of those books are, wonderful and thought provoking.  Of course, anyone who knows me knows that chocolate is right in any circumstance….but I will really need it on the big day so I will see if I can keep it that long!

Thanks, Bunni!!!!

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I really am not going to complain about the weather when I think of the horrible tragedy in Iowa and the flooding going on in the midwest…but at the same time, this is the first time we’ve seen the sun in about 2 weeks and I really have to mark it on my calendar!  This has been the strangest year.  The whole town was excited when it started clearing up this afternoon!  Maybe it will warm up, too.  (we’ve had 40’s to 50’s)

I finished another simple little hat for SweetPea to match the bolero but I took it to mama without taking a picture of it.  I asked her to email me a picture but she didn’t get home until after dark tonight.  She is so thrilled at the simplest of things.  So is daddy….they take pictures of baby’s closet and send them to me.  The little bolero I made for mother’s day is hanging in the closet and it is soooo funny hanging on the hanger…the sleeves stick straight out.  I love that they are having so much fun getting ready for the big event.

Knit night the other night was really small, but we really had a great time.  Everyone came in pretty early and we just had a great time laughing and knitting.  I wasn’t going to put a picture but I thought maybe the daughter of one of the knitters might like to see her mom having fun.

See Ravelry open on the laptop there and the pink t-shirt? 

A daily occurence in our household is for the little imp to put on his tux.  I am serious.  Some days it is 4 or 5 times. 

Notice the executive pose.  (and the dressy shoes)

Now for a closeup of the collar and tie….

I love his creativity and enjoyment of life.

It just occurs to me that I had better get knitting a hat for Father’s Day for daddy-to-be.  I think I’ll make the pink version of the football helmet and give him both of them and he can return whichever one they don’t need.  I can’t think of anything he’d enjoy more than a football hat for baby.  They haven’t seen any of the other hats I’ve made…I want to give them when baby is born.

Too bad I have so much to do tomorrow, but glad it’s quick!  Oh yeah…and Saturday is WWKIP so I’ll be knitting all day.

Technorati Tags: blessings, imp, knitting

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I am really wanting to work on my Francie sock, but I’ve kind of got the baby bug now.  Maybe I’ll get the current little hat done and then jump back and forth.

Here’s my progress…

It’s so soft and fuzzy.  I’ll try to get better pictures next time to show the back.  A friend suggested not binding off the 2 edges so the end result is a t-shape that is then seamed together…instead to knit those center stitches and on each side to purl 2 together joining the sides at the same time.  It worked great.  Right now it is back on the needles as I add the bottom edging.  There are little curlicues that go on the top of the hat at each side where the joins are.  If I can’t get that right, I’ll leave them off, but really would like to have them there.  The whole concept of the Itty Bitty Hat book is that for the first year, babies are seen from the top of the head down so the hats are designed to make the top of the hat cute.

We’re seeing baby move all the time.  Mama is looking so cute and Daddy is pretty thrilled to talk about baby.  Gotta love that.

I have one more picture I want to post of the first hat just so I have it without the shadows.

I got a fun present today but never got a chance to take a picture in the daylight so that will have to wait…but I have to say I have the best of friends.

The SP12 questionnaire was posted the other day and mine is now at the top of my page on a tab of it’s own so if you’re here for that, look up there.

I’ve been buried in bookwork and got no opportunity to knit today.  Right after I finished reconciling a bank statement this afternoon (that was refusing to be balanced), I got a chance to visit with 3 good friends, though and that was a great reward for sticking to my job.  I had a potluck to go to with hubby right after work and that was fun, too.  Mama and Papa-to-be were there and before we started our meeting, we had to make a guess as to what we all thought baby would be….evenly divided.  It’s fun that so many people are excited about it.

We’re going through some adjustment pangs with the little imp now that big sis just got married.  It will all work out but it’s very different.  We’ve always appreciated the help that our kids have been.  Today when I got to work, the new bride’s father-in-law happened to be there.  He was asking how it was going and I told him it’s been an adjustment.  I told him about a few of the incidents we’ve had but that it’s been good and the kids are all a big help even still.  He said it is nice to see a family functioning as you’d hope it would, that many families probably really don’t have what we have.  He said he knew his son (my new son-in-law) loves the imp as if he was his own brother.  We see it every day with all 3 of the kids and their chosen ones.  I cannot say enough how grateful I am.

Sunday a friend emailed this picture of hubby playing his new bass. That’s our new son-in-law on the drums. 

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For some reason, every now and then one of the keys on my keyboard stops working.  It has done it since I got it and it isn’t that something is in there…but today it is the K so excuse if I miss it.  I have to punch and punch it.

First of all, I would like to remember those who have given their lives for our country.  It’s good to stop and reflect.  I watched several old movies today about wartime (the old romantic kind) and some of them were poignant to say the least.

It’s funny, I forgot about much of our weekend until I loaded my pictures from my camera.  Gosh, that’s kinda scary.

Remember my daily pictures of the theater quite awhile back?  Well, for months and months all I could see was the big board fence that covered the whole front of the building.  (Remember when we had our big storm and the whole fence left? )  Well, this weekend we had our first weekly street market (that was a lot of Ks!)  and the guy who has promoted it and worked at bringing it all about is the guy who is restoring the theater.  So……..

This is while they were cleaning the area but it’s nice to be able to see.  It won’t be ready until the end of the summer but at least now the view is nice.

Friday night was date night and we were very pleased to get a call from mama and papa-to-be asking if we’d like to meet them for dinner at Red Robin.  Once again we split a burger and had great company.

Can you see the back of the boy’s head in the background?  That silly kid was putting the special salt in his milkshake! blech!!!  The boys at the table next to him were even worse.  They seemed to need attention.  One of them asked the waitress something to which she replied “go for it” and he went to an empty table that hadn’t been cleaned yet, took what looked like a grilled cheese sandwich, all eaten but the crust, and sat back down and ATE IT! gag gag gag!

Saturday was really nice…weather-wise and fun-wise.  I had 3 people who spent much of the day hanging out and knitting.  We walked down to the street market and got Costco Kraut dogs and ate them at the sidewalk table.  There were lots of people there and about 40 vendors.  I didn’t get to look too closely but it seemed to be a hit.  Of course, I left my camera in my purse so I didn’t get pictures.  Made a new friend while knitting, though, and had fun.

I did knit this weekend but no pictures yet.

When I got home Saturday we decided we needed to get some things accomplished at the house so we headed off to Home Depot.  We kind of forgot we were in the Jeep (altho the car would have been worse) and overbought.  I wanted flowers for the porch and hubby wanted to finally spend his gift cards he got for Christmas and his birthday last July.  Before we went there, we saw that they had a patio set for cheap and we ended up with that, too.  Hmmmmmm, how to get it all home….

I held the big flower pot and rose tree in my lap but the back of the jeep was rather full.

And there was one little boy surrounded in the back!  I kept asking him if he was till there because the box was behind me and I couldn’t see him at all.  He loved it.

Yep, he is sure he was a big helper.

Yesterday was kind of a rest day.  We just have to on Sunday or we feel like we never slow down.  The little imp and I did not make it to church and I am not happy about it.  He has been a bit of a trial to me this week and already ruined one day.  We were totally dressed yesterday to go and without warning he just quit cooperating.  I am not sure why it was too much to put on shoes and socks, especially when they were right there, but I did not have the desire to force the issue.  He loves church, loves Sunday school…but turned a deaf ear to getting on those shoes and socks.  So, we stayed home.  I next to never do that but he was out cold and we missed first service which we are used to attending.  He was cheerful when he got up but maybe he just wasn’t really in gear. I don’t know…but I did not care to spend another day bummed out so we stayed home.  He did see me crying and I think he felt bad, I didn’t make a big issue over it, I don’t think I needed to.

The rest of our day looked up though so enough said.

Late last night I started cleaning out my corner of yarn.  No small chore.  Every basket seemed to be connected because somehow those balls of yarn seem to jump from one place to another.  I was kind of intrigued while I untangled them all.  How in the world to they do it?  As i worked, I thought well, this must have passed this way before as I followed the maze.  I broke off very few of them but took time to save most of it.  It was kind of fun taking the challenge.  Hubby and I went to Walmart-Home Depot-Walmart to get something to put it all in.  Now when we get some extra room upstairs it is ready to go.  Finished.  woohoo! 

In the midst of it, we had the girls and hubbies over for a barbecue.  The little imp and I caught a glimpse of a visitor across the street.

I know the deer are pests when you have a beautiful yard, but they are so beautiful themselves.  We watched it watch us, then slowly cross the yard and continue eating. 

A dear friend knit baby a sweater and told me to give it to mama-to-be some day when she needed it.  We were all sitting around the new patio table, it was peaceful, and I just felt like it would be a fun time to give it to her.  She’s never met Nancy but in the short time I’ve known Nancy, I feel like she has become a real friend.  I cannot tell you how blessed I am that she would do this for my grandbaby! 

I didn’t get a picture of the pleased Daddy.  I will take a better picture of the sweater.  Hmmm, how can I do that? It went home with them.  Take my word for it, it is adorable!  If you are on Ravelry, check it out at memegreen’s page.  It’s her own design and she is going to get it out of her head and onto paper.  It has 3 buttons in the front and is just so cute.

Tonight hubby brought home strawberries and get a load out of how huge they are!

That is a regular size Fiestaware cereal bowl!  Mary had to remind me how to do the straw trick to get the centers out of the strawberries and it worked like a charm.

And now I am going to get a little imp off to bed and head there myself soon.  Hope you had a great weekend!

Technorati Tags: blessings, imp, blessings

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First of all,  I am progressing on the Francie sock.  I haven’t had a lot of time to knit, but when I do, it moves along pretty fast.  I’m loving this and have loaded A Tree Grows in Brooklyn back onto my iPod although I am trying to finish Howard’s End first.

It’s hard to show the shaping on the bottom of the foot at this point but next time I’m sure it will be worth a look.  I really like that this is a fairly easy knit but there is enough to keep interest.  I have to say even thought I have used this yarn before, it seems thicker this time.  Maybe it’s the ribbing.

Today I had the little imp with me at work for awhile.  He isn’t wild about being here but he does enjoy one little chore.

will he knit, too? from Sherri Knits on Vimeo. 

Future knitter?  If not, a great assistant anyway.  He loves it and does a good job!

Before this, he was actually writing messages to his brother that said, “Let’s go”…hoping he’d get rescued.

Good news here.  Remember many months ago when hubby’s guitar got stolen from our church?  He didn’t want them to replace it for awhile in hopes it would show up, he loved that guitar and they are not easy to come by.  Well, he finally decided it was time and “just happened” to find one listed at a store in Seattle.  The church immediately called them and purchased it.  He had the choice of dropping everything and heading to pick it up or to wait until Saturday.  Guess which option he took.  haha.  He was outta town in nothing flat.  I’m so happy for him.  They only make 50 of these a month to sell worldwide.  He had sold 2 good guitars to get the stolen one.  Anyone who knows about guitars (not me) knows that 2 guitars of the same model will not feel the same and he had really looked for a “good fit”.  He decided no matter what, he was getting this guitar and if it didn’t work, he’d sell it and keep looking.  Funny, they increase in value unlike a car.  However, not surprisingly….it is a fit! I am so happy for him and all I will say is that it is being kept locked in a secure location.  grrr. 

I’m hoping we get something accomplished this weekend.  We’re recovering from weddings and I need to get some kind of order restored to our house.  The bride isn’t anywhere close to getting moved out of her room but little imp will inherit the room.  We can start getting geared up for that and shovel out the corners of the rest of the house.  My stash will move upstairs to the room the imp vacates.  Yahoo!

Technorati Tags: imp, knitting, blessings

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or why blogging has changed my life 

First the knitting….

I am really enjoying the Francie socks.  This is halfway through the pattern.  The increase rows can be a little awkward but not impossible.  I’m using size 0s and slipping 2 then passing those 2 over a purl stitch gets a little tricky.  Also left and right purl lifts…but it looks right so no worries.

The suggested yarn is a more solid color to show off the pattern but when I found this yarn in my stash, I actually thought this out.  The green in the sock represents the tree, the brown the bark and the bleakness of the neighborhood.  The blue is the sky that Francie would see through the leaves when she laid on her balcony under the tree.  That was one of my favorite parts of the book, she was so able to find beauty in the midst of such need.  I need to re-read the book, as I said, so I can refresh my memory…but the book so affected me in her ability to see what so many people would miss.  Poor hubby had to listen to hours of my interpretation of her insight. 

And now to the mom part.

Since I have started blogging, it’s funny how I can look at things differently.  Instead of getting frustrated and angry over a situation, I begin to see the humor of relaying it to others.  I’ve commented to friends a few times, “my life is a blog!”  haha.    Funny how that will change an attitude, but it does.  I’ve always tried not to fall into the pit in my thinking, but sometimes it does happen.

I wanted to share the little snippet of therapy yesterday.

I can do this from Sherri Knits on Vimeo

Last night, I looked at my Mother’s Day cards again.  I think it’s so funny how when you read things when everyone is watching, you miss what things say.  This is my card from mama-to-be:

This is what I missed originally

Thanks, sweetie, I needed that.

Technorati Tags: blessings, family, littleimp

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In a week it will all be over.  I have so much running through my little head right now, so many details to think about.  The little imp’s tux is altered and safely at Auntie’s house so he won’t be tempted to put it on.  (it had dirt on it when she took it home because he’s put it on more than once)

He has been doing his job almost daily:

He gets so intent on spraying the grass that he missed his favorite person in the whole world coming to pick him up.

Oh!  There’s my dad!

The grass is going to be on the tables.

Last Saturday it was 80+ degrees here, very unusual for us.  This Saturday?

Snow!

We didnt’ get any more than this, but places not far from us got 6 or more inches!  We have no idea what to expect for the wedding…hot, cold, or anything in between?

Friday night, we ate in the car on our way out of town for our date.  This gave us extra time so we drove out to our favorite place…it was cold out but the sun was shining and the climbing rose vines are looking pretty good…someone has already been taking care of them.

We watched a sailboat for awhile and then drove to the bookstore.  We’re both so tired but we really needed the down time.  We read for awhile and drank coffee and decided to head home early.  While I was returning my book to it’s home, some friends of ours showed up and we ended up having a party because after we’d been there awhile, the mama and papa-to-be showed up, too.  We had a great visit and it was an hour and a half later when we finally headed home.

Hubby told me that while he was waiting for me to come back, he could have laid his head on the table and fallen into a serious sleep.  He didn’t want to get up and walk around carrying my purse.  It’s funny how you can revive when people show up.  They hadn’t expected to find us anywhere around but we said it was our last time to play before the wedding.

We hit snow on the way home, not sticking but wow it was really coming down.

Since this IS a knitting blog…here’s a sad attempt at something.

Another burp rag and the latest Simply Knitting and toy that comes with it.  This is actually kind of cool.  I don’t know if I’ll actually use it, but it’s a row counter.  Does anyone else love getting the toys in the magazine?  I’m excited for next month’s…a little clear bag with 3 holes in the top for the yarn to feed through.  I actually do use the knitting bag I got from them last year.

And now, I am going to try to take a nap.  It was a tearful time during church today…as the bride-to-be sang two songs during worship, I started thinking about the fact that her childhood is over, next week she’ll be married and she’s still my little girl.  Then I got even more overwhelmed over the fact that my kids have all found such wonderful people to share their lives with and we are so fortunate.  All 3 of those coming into our family love the little imp and will be willing to take an active role in his life.  Can’t beat that!  They were good tears I cried, but it is an emotional time and I do hope I make it through this week.

So, not sure when I’ll be around, I’m sure at least once in the coming days.

Technorati Tags: blessings, wedding

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Haven’t really been sleeping well so I’m not sure I can pull my thoughts together.  I’m not stressing at night about the wedding, but I think I am more keyed up than I realize.  We’re on the countdown now!

Yesterday, we had to have the little imp try on his tux so his auntie could do the alterations needed.  This all occurred while she was working and he refused an help getting everything on.  What do you think?

He won’t get away with no help on the big day. 

I have to say a big thank you to Susan!  I won her bloggyversary drawing and yesterday I got this in the mail!

Every knitter needs a little journal to stick in her knitting bag and I am due for a new one so that is where this will go.  I love, love, love journals so I will enjoy this one a lot.  Thanks so much, Susan!

Today I had an interesting experience.  I had to revisit a very painful part of my life.  Looking back, I can see some very good things coming out of it, but it was difficult at the moment.  You know what is good about having to go back and face something that is very hard to look at?  You can measure whether there has been healing in the time that has passed.  I was happy to see that I have indeed made a lot of progress in my emotions and I found some very good thoughts buried in the midst of the pain.  I have worked hard to get to this place, still haven’t “arrived” but am definitely on my way.  I don’t like circumstances to dictate my feelings, but they often do.  It’s nice to know I am at peace and to know, also, that I have good friends around me.  Tonight, I rest in the gratitude of that as I continue to sort through my thoughts and emotions so I can actually journal (somewhere else) what is going on inside me.  It’s like the thoughts are floating around in my head and I need to grab them and put them together in a way that I can make sense of it all.

To end on a happy note, I got to read the little program the bride and groom put together  for the wedding and it was so sweet.  Wow, it is really something to know that your little daughter will only be living in your home for a few more days and then will embark on a whole new life….leaving us to wonder how this all happened so fast.  It didn’t really help when she said to me the other night, “You know, when I pack to leave…I will never come back to live here again.”  Even she realizes that might not have been a wise thing to say to an already emotional mom. 

Technorati Tags: blessings, friends, littleimp, wedding

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It’s been an interesting week.

I already mentioned that I won Susan’s blog drawing.  Then I won another one!  This one led me to another fun thing but I am getting ahead of myself.  I belong to a group on Ravelry called “I love someone with Down Syndrome”.  I visited Melissa’s blog through that group.  From there, I jumped over to see Just RK and had fun reading a behind the scenes account of her trying out for Deal or No Deal!  I so enjoyed that that I visited again and saw she was having a contest to win some Baby Legs by leaving a comment.  I told her that we had just been to visit the doctor so the little imp could hear the baby’s heartbeat and if we won some, I would let him give them to the new baby.  Well, guess what!  We won some…not in her original drawing but she decided to be nice and give out 5 more pairs just because.  Soooo, he will definitely get to give them to the baby and I’m really excited!

Well, on another visit to her blog, she had a link to a new site she had found.  This happens to be a documentary being made by two brothers, one of whom happens to have Down Syndrome.  They have posted several videos of Dan Drinker and I have become a frequent visitor.  This special fellow is quite a bit older than our little guy, but oh my gosh, I cannot believe the similarities!  And you know what else?  I have seen the love of his family and how they have captured the every day situations that make life with him so special.  I have laughed and cried through every video.  Visit him if you get a chance.  His favorite songs are also High School Musical 1 and 2 and Hannah Montana….just what we hear all the time!  Like our little guy, he has also searched out videos on YouTube of his favorite songs.  He’s quite the dancer!

I am fighting off that cold and I don’t think it’s going to get really bad.  I’m good at staying down and resting because I hate to feel bad.  I didn’t go to work until late today (after they called me twice with customers having problems).  When I got there, my good friend came in early for knit night and we got to spend the whole afternoon quietly together.  She brought in my dinner when she came so we just had a very pleasant afternoon.

Then….people came for knit night and I got to spend a great time visiting with another dear friend.  And look what I was blessed with.

A DellaQ knitting bag and not only that, but her mom sent me some recipe cards from Debbie Macomber!  I just feel so blessed.  I am so grateful for what returning to knitting has brought into my life.  I’ve made so many new friends and I am so amazed at how good they are to me!  The bag is for when we get away for a few days (our big hope) after the wedding.  She wanted me to have something fun to put my projects into. 

I’m ready to close the toe on my sock and will probably finish it tomorrow depending on how I feel.  I’d be in bed already but it’s just the little imp and I home right now and I don’t trust him to stay out of trouble….you just never know.

Do you ever think about the good things that happen in your day that you may not notice if you weren’t looking for them?  I am trying to live with an attitude of gratitude every day.  There are so many good things every day but if I’m not looking for them, I would miss them.  When I sat down here tonight, I hadn’t put them all together until I started writing about them…and that, my friends, is why I have enjoyed learning to blog!

Have a great day and be blessed!

Technorati Tags: friends, knitting, blessings

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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!

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