Since we are going to celebrate Heather's birthday tonight with dinner at Provino's, I thought I would go ahead and dedicate today's post to her...especially since I have to go to the ophthalmologist later today and probably won't be able to see the monitor clearly to post anything this afternoon. However, I'm not going to talk about birthday stuff today because I still need to try to catch up with the Christmas season. So, here goes...
Heather moved into a new apartment recently so she wanted some practical things for Christmas. I was able to oblige with a Revereware tea kettle and my dad added to the practical side of things with a bread knife, cheese grater, and a couple of travel mugs. It's always fun to start accumulating the necessities of life when you have a new place and I find great enjoyment in knowing that some of the things I don't really use much anymore (especially since Heather got me a darling teapot for Christmas last year) can be recycled to other family members. It seems to be a trend with us and I'm sure Giuli is going to end up with way more things than she will ever need if we keep this up.
In one of her more cryptic text messages before Christmas, Heather asked each of the family members to choose one of the following: cow, pig, or duck. Ded chose duck and I chose pig, having no idea what this said about our personalities or what ramifications our answers might have. Well, I don't have a close-up of the results but if you look very closely in the next picture, you will see our take on the Llama, Llama, Duck song as Ded and Giuli show us their ducks...ducks that shoot out laser lights and quack loudly...and Heather and Mary model their llama hats.
I received a Christmas cd by the Rat Pack (which I promptly told Heather to rewrap and give to Grampa - noted earlier in this blog - because I knew he'd love it), so I am awaiting my replacement copy and Ded and I are anxiously looking forward to Burn After Reading, which Heather had to order for us. The nice thing about this is that my Christmas season lasts even longer since I still have presents on the way.
Ded gave Heather a copy of The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang, a book he and I each own, also. I had already knit some goodies for her (note she is wearing the fingerless gloves) which makes it a little bare under the tree, but she has been happily warmer at work pre-Christmas than she would have been if I had insisted she wait for her handmades. Actually, I ended up making hats for Caitlin, Mary, and Giuli and gifting them before the holiday, too, so we really had a sparse amount of wrapped gifts.
Now, lest you think that we are boring and practical (heaven forbid) I shall note that my dad also gave Heather a copy of Bioshock for her Xbox. The thought of him negotiating EB Games just really amused us as he has absolutely no experience with anything to do with gaming. But he ended up with the right game and the right platform - Go, Dad!
This last picture is of Heather and Caitlin choosing their favourite scarves from a great collection that Giuli fingerknit for them. Once I showed my youngest how easy fingerknitting was, she couldn't stop doing it. I don't know how many she ended up making but, suffice it to say, she had lots of fun and her sisters reaped the benefits of her creativity. And, believe me, this family is nothing if it's not creative.
On the reading front, I'm tearing through the lastest Artemis Fowl, The Time Paradox, which I didn't even realize had been released in 2008. Ded gave it to me a couple of days ago as an early Valentine's Day present - a complete surprise. I'm about a third of the way through and so far, so good. On the knitting front, I have been working on a design of my own for a cabled chemo slouch hat and am nearly finished. It just dawned on me that I may not be able to finish it today since my eyes will be dilated - drat. I also need to take pictures of the ginormous blanket I made for Caitlin so I have something to post tomorrow for the continuing saga of Christmas 2008.
And, one more thing (I am feeling very Columbo-ish), I want to thank my buddy, KnittingDragon, who Plurked yesterday about a really cool knitting podcast he was listening to. (He also has a podcast, Sweaters for Dragons, and I'll have to talk about it in a future post.) I wandered over to CogKNITive--A Knitting + Psychology Podcast and promptly listened to 18 episodes until the wee hours of this morning. I guess you could say I'm enjoying it. Indeed, I am thoroughly enjoying it. The podcasts are only about 20 minutes long and are divided into four parts: the obligatory "what's on the needles/hook"; a "strategy for life" (great advice for dealing with our everyday issues like making lists, how to apologize, sleep on it, etc.); "something I really like" (in which Dr. Gemma, the author of the podcast, shares knitting as well as non-knitting favourites); and "blather", in which she shares with us her work experiences as a psychologist at a prison. Gemma is funny, entertaining, informative, and touching. You really don't have to be a knitter to appreciate this podcast so check it out. Remember the Reading Rainbow catch-phrase? Don't take my word for it...
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