Nearly everything was ready for Christmas this year. I needed one more day, and I would have finished this rainbow slouchy beret for Rachel. She knows it’s coming, though, and it won’t take long.
As I was furiously knitting, I kept thinking about this adorably cute card I received from my friend Julie. That’s a lot of knitting! I quickly turned a scan of the little knitting critter into my avatar for the holiday week. I also received a hand-written letter from her, and I’m excited to have the time in the coming week to hand write a letter in return. The art of letter-writing is long lost these days, so it’s a nice treat for us.
Christmas is a different now that the girls are older; we can sleep late (8:30 and beyond!), take our time, and it’s fun to see the girls taking the time and care to look for just the right gifts for each other. We had a few last-minute additions to our decorations, including a large egg decorated by my mom (and 4/6 of new egg ornaments that made the journey from NC to MD safely) and a Barbie leg lamp ornament custom-made by Katie.
The tree was decked out with gifts, and the stockings were ready. Thankfully, we slept in and didn’t make it downstairs until nearly 9:00 AM.
When the girls first came down, they were cold and still sleepy, and they all wanted to hide. Silly girls! There were fun gifts of all kinds… crazy straw eyeglasses, cereal and Pop-Tarts for the girls (Santa knows what makes ‘em happy!), and stuff the girls have been asking for, like a ukulele for Becky. She immediately played a full song for us – she can sing AND play pretty well already, so it will be exciting to see her musical abilities grow.
She was a little bit excited about a gift certificate for the computer games of Portal and Portal 2. Just a little bit…
Katie was thrilled to find the Corset Calendar in her stash. She was already talking about which ones she’ll need to make to go with which period outfits.
Emilee had received her larger gifts – new roller derby skate stuff – a few weeks ago, so she didn’t have much to open today. In order to make her gift cards a little more fun, I wrapped up a gazillion (maybe 40?) credit-card-sized pieces of cardboard… in this pile, there really were three gift cards, but it took her a while to find them!
Rachel had been eyeing some pearl jewelry, so I picked out some from an Etsy seller.
I was happy to patronize some smaller vendors this holiday season, as well as making several gifts for other. I knit several hats for family members, and made little golden snitch ornaments for a few friends and gift exchanges. The girls gave meaningful gifts to each other, too, with lots of thought going into making things a perfect fit. Rachel picked out My Little Pony and Lisa Frank coloring books for Becky and Rachel – a huge hit!
Katie was able to pick up a huge back of 30-35 My Little Ponies. She’s been spending time rebuilding them… changing out the hair, repainting them, using clay to build and change the body shape. She crafted this Mason Dixon Roller Vixen pony for Emilee, including the MDRV logo as the cutie mark and changing out the hair from red and white to blue!
Rachel was a busy crafter as well, and she cross-stitched this Star Trek-themed piece for Chris.
The girls were very mindful of their gift choices this year, and that was probably my most favorite part of the day. Katie designed and hand-sewed the lovely iPad cover and made the black and burgundy necklace for me. Rachel picked out the green stone necklace from my favorite store, specifically choosing one that will go with many of my work outfits. And Emilee gave me some cranberry honey – I can’t wait to try it in some tea.
My big secret gift was a last-minute one. I had gone all season without a really good gift idea for Chris. I snagged a USB mic that looks like a Star Trek communicator, to use with Skype, etc., but I didn’t really have anything special. Yesterday, while Rachel and I were out doing the grocery shopping for the veggie tray we were taking to Chris’ mom’s house last night, I got the idea of replacing the wedding ring that Chris had lost nearly three years ago. He had been shoveling, snow-blowing, getting gas, and working outside for quite a while when he realized that somewhere along the way, his wedding band had slipped off. Though we looked, it never turned up. He had purchased a $12 replacement, but it was clunky and ugly, and he didn’t like it. So yesterday, Rachel and I made a couple of fast stops, and we were fortunate enough to find something nearly the same as the original he and I had picked out back in 1988. Home it came, and I wrapped it several times in nested boxes and bags (my creativity was shot by that time!), and saved it until last for him to open. Looks good, and it was a perfect fit!
