Post Thanksgiving Thoughts and Christmas Knitting

I'm a little more than halfway through the food and family extravaganza that is a Thanksgiving holiday and in some ways what's up ahead is the nicest part. Only in some ways, of course, because what can top a room full of beloved friends and family lifting glasses of wine in a toast of thankfulness. Thankful for each other, thankful for the bountiful table, thankful for safe journeys over the river and through the woods to TheCastle - even thankful for the warm sunny day with bright clear skies so that we could take an after dinner stroll in the gathering glow of evening.

I did get out the camera to record this year's festivities, but while we were gathered and lively and energetic I forgot to take any photos, though there is photographic evidence of preparations



and recovery.

Friday followed a pattern set in place 5 or 6 years ago when my parents grew too old to make the trip to my house. LD and I drove into the city and spent a lovely hour with Mama, looking at old family photographs. This year had a bitter sweetness to it because Daddy is gone and Mama is more faded each time I visit. It left me feeling a little disconcerted too, because the timing was off. The Friday visit used to take all day but Mama is good for only about an hour's visit and we were home well before dark.  Even BD was alive to the poignancy of this shifting of the generations and needed a hug when I got back. Before long we will be too old to host the feast and young things will stop by on the Friday after to let us know we are still loved.

I'm about as far from a Black Friday type of person as it's possible to get, but I do start my Christmas preparations during this long weekend. I put away knitting for TheQueen and pick up Christmas Socks. I also start working on my Christmas cards and this year there is another sadness to deal with. I've been drawing my own Christmas cards for a few years - a cartoon of ThePrince and me, our 3 dogs and Mr. & Mrs. Bald Eagle celebrating. But last spring the eagles moved south over the property line to a fresh new empty pine tree and in the early summer our Priss died. I just don't have the heart to draw such a truncated family this year.

So on the way out of the city LD and I stopped at Barnes & Nobel and bought Christmas cards and perused the magazine rack. I was a little puzzled to find no XRX publications at all - neither fall nor winter Knitters issue was in the racks and alas - there were half a dozen other knitting magazines in tight plastic envelopes. A number of them are European so I understand why they ship in sealed bags but why the stores don't open up the bags to display them is beyond me. Who buys a knitting magazine without looking through it first? If I trusted the publishers and editors that much I'd subscribe! And while I loved the colors in the Norwegian sweater on the cover of Verena ... I already have everything I need to knit or even design one. The issue of Interweave Knits was just not quite interesting enough for me to purchase but as I thumbed through it I found an ad for one of their specialty magazines that did tempt.

Wisely, the folks at Interweave put photos of a few of the designs in the advertisement and the red long sleeved cardigan with puffs at the shoulder captured my attention and stimulated that familiar knitlust of curiosity. It's sold out. They're sending back-orders as soon as they receive them. I will count mine as an early Christmas present to me.

And so - I have before me two glorious days with virtually no chores. Oh - I'll fix meals for menfolk. I may even run a load of laundry (which, shhhh. Don't tell anybody. I consider a pleasure, not a chore. It's just that - what the guys don't know won't hurt them.) But basically I get to play with my toys all day and that's what makes the latter half of the Thanksgiving holiday such glorious fun!

Happy Play With Your Toys Day to you all!