A Curious Statistical Anomaly

When a year changes, I find that I’m much more introspective than I am when my birthday comes around. Maybe it’s all the talk about new year resolutions and changes to be made and habits to be dropped. So, when the new year arrives I find myself looking over my shoulder at the past year and trying to see the highs and the lows. I look forward to what I hope to accomplish in the coming year.

I looked at a few blogs earlier this evening and the Yarn Harlot‘s really struck me with her talk of change. Change seems to be the only constant in life. We change every day. I’m not the same me tonight as I was this morning when I got up. I’m certainly not the same me that existed 365 days ago. I’ve changed, grown, learned new things, forgotten other things, gained some skills and hopefully didn’t make the world any worse for my living in it.

I’ve got some resolutions of my own for the coming year. I hope to exercise more — yeah, I did pretty good last year til the fibro kicked in big time. So, I start this year with a clean slate on that front. I’ve got some resolutions about my writing and we’ll see how that works out.

I’ve got some plans to set a schedule for knitting, spinning, writing, and reading that I hope will see me through what is already shaping up to be an interesting year — rather in the sense of that curse “May you live in interesting times.”

I’m chairing a convention in 2010, Capclave. I’m hoping I don’t disappoint the people who gave me this opportunity for living in an interesting year. Check out the website and if you think you’ll be in the area during the convention sign up. It’s always a good time for those who enjoy science fiction and fantasy.

So, I’m looking forward to more changes in my life and hoping that they are always changes for the better. I also hope that all of you have a great new year filled with your own opportunities for positive change.

The Christmas Magic by Lauren Thompson is a simple story of Santa Claus who lives alone in the woods. As the Christmas holiday approaches he can feel the magic and opens his workshop and prepares a bag of toys for the children listed in his book. He polishes the sleigh and the bells and gets ready for deer to come to fly him on his rounds on Christmas eve.

The illustrations are beautiful and simple in style with deep rich colors. Santa’s orange-colored wooden house has a bright and cheerful red door that makes it look very inviting. The snow is brilliantly white with a rich deep blue sky at night and lighter blue during the day. It’s a story of the season that sets out Santa Claus as a being who is used to the magical holiday traditions.

I can see the story’s appeal to young children as it slowly shows Santa preparing for his big night. However, I wonder just how many children can hear this story or read it to themselves and not ask questions based on what they know about Christmas. Where are the elves? Who made the gifts? How do the names of naughty and nice children get in his book? How can he just show up and pack the sleigh with presents? Where did they come from? How do the reindeer know to show up?

While it’s a wonderful story and very much in keeping with the season and the holiday spirit, this is so out of line with the accepted givens of the Santa story and myth — that it may take a lot of talking to get children to understand that some people may believe that things happen in ways other than what we’re used to hearing.

Not that this is a bad thing. It’s actually nice that children would get a chance to explore some new ideas about Santa and Christmas traditions.

Bear Update:
When last we left the little bear in a previous post, it was rather scary looking. Parts scattered all over the place. I’d managed to make a back, front, two arms, and two legs. However, I couldn’t find my buttons for joints or my needle. So, things got put away.

Finally, I managed to dig out the buttons and find a workable needle. I needed buttons big enough that a child can’t swallow them even though the buttons that make up the joints are inside the bear and a child can’t get to them without a severe desire to dismember said bear — shivery scary thought. The intended bear recipient is rapidly growing since she was born in Feb and I’m totally behind.

What’s needed now is the face– eyes, nose, mouth. Those are embroidered on so there are no pieces for a child to pull off and choke on. I just need some time — a good movie should do it. As soon as I find the thick velvety cord I use for this. It’s in the house somewhere.

Baby Fan Mitts:
I’d seen Patons Silk Bamboo yarn at A.C. Moore and fell in love with the sapphire color. It felt so soft and silky but I couldn’t think of any reason to get it — I just didn’t have a project in mind or planned.

Then as these things tend to happen, I was reading the Rainey Sisters blog and saw the Baby Fan Mitts. Perfect. One skein of the yarn would make the mitts (which is true if you don’t waste any in a long tail when you cast on the stitches. Of course by the time I picked up the yarn, I couldn’t remember how much I needed so I got four skeins.

The mitts came out beautifully and fit and feel great. Much closer fit making them a bit dressier than some others I have. But as I was making them for me and after making two cowls for the moms for Christmas. I got to thinking that a nice matching cowl would then make a nice dressy set. So, out came all the stitch dictionaries and I found a cable-fan that I thought would look like a close match but would also be warm and pretty. Here’s the bit I’ve got done after a bit of experimenting and changing the pattern a bit.

I think it’s going to come out just like I want. I made it a bit loose so that if I decide it will work I can make it longer to pull up over my head to cover my ears if it’s really, really cold (like it has been the last week or so).

Anyway, tomorrow is major last minute house cleaning. Pick my son up at the airport. Buy the Turkey and catch up on his life. Just what he wants: the mother interrogation. Naw, we’ll all have fun. We’re planning to go see the new Sherlock Holmes film. I may or may not be able to post for a while. So, everyone have a great holiday if I don’t get a post or two in.

Tonight we watched the Muppet Christmas Carol. I love that film and the music. Believe it or not, it’s closer to the original story than many of the serious versions (of which I own about 6). We read the book (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens) a few years back and were surprised to find that some of the lines in the Muppet version that we thought was just Muppet humor was actual Dicken’s humor.

Anyway, found this Muppet version of the Ringing of the Bells, which is one of my favorite holiday songs, and well, words just can’t quite explain this one, so just enjoy this bit of Muppet holiday humor —

Today was another day of snow shoveling to clear our driveway. The road part of our driveway got plowed by someone early this morning. So, we’ve only got to do our 5-700 feet to allow the delivery trucks (FedEx and UPS) to get here. So, tomorrow will be even more shoveling…and more…and more. Maybe I should play this video a few more times to get my spirits up.

It started snowing last night.  We made it home from a WSFA meeting.  Of course the usual 45 minute ride took slightly over 2 hours and had its moments of sliding and slipping but nothing too bad.  We did meet a nice woman who couldn’t get her car up the hill because she didn’t have front wheel drive.  She warned us of the abandoned car at the crest.  We made it up with no problem and finally got home.  Slow and steady seems to help even non-turtles get where they’re going.

But, that experience last night on the way home was what fed our unbelievably silly actions today.  Pride goeth before a  fall and while we didn’t fall — well we did slip and slide and have lots of other adventurous stuff happen.  You see … we’d sold some books on Amazon and we thought we could mail them out on time if we did it today.  The snow didn’t look that deep.  Really, it didn’t– maybe a foot.

Well, dressed and packed and in the car, we started out.  We’d agreed if when we got to the real road and it was not looking good we’d turn around and come back. Those of you who have been reading for a while know our mailbox is about a quarter mile from the house and that’s where the real road is — the road that is our address. So off we started on our adventure.

We got about 1/2 way to the road when disaster struck. We hit ice beneath the snow and slide and fish-tailed and other fine movements of driving adrenaline surges. That stopped our slow and steady pace and we just never got it back. Hyperion walked back to the house for the garden shovel (we intended to buy two shovels while we were out, the one from last year had mysteriously vanished) and some gravel. He came back with the garden shovel and the stiff plastic broom and a bucket of gravel. He shoveled. I swept. We cleared out a large area around the car and under it.

Seems the snow was deeper here — maybe 15 inches and it was dragging on the undercarriage of the car. You can probably guess the rest. An hour and a half later we’ve shoveled a good percentage of the road/driveway maybe 30-40 feet (if added all together) and we haven’t really gotten enough stability and movement to turn around. I’m really dragging. We’re both soaked. So, we headed home — walking. Luckily only about 1/6th of a mile. In snow which is by now 18 inches deep. Even walking in our tire tracks didn’t make it much easier.

To shorten the story. We peel out of the wet clothes changed and got into dry things. Took a short break with hot chocolate and lots of hind-sight evaluations, head-shaking, sage but too late advice to each other, and the knowledge that we still had a car sitting out there in the driveway and not quite far enough over to let a snowplow (which we devotedly hope to engage tomorrow) to get by.

After several rousing games of rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock– I got to stay home and do the wash and get supper started and Hyperion went out with shovel and a heavy heart to see about moving the car either into the tire tracks and home or far enough off to the side for the wished-for snowplow (if it can be made to appear) to get by. He didn’t have much time, we were losing the light and it was still snowing.

He managed to move it over. Get home and once again dry off and dress warm. We made Shepherd’s Pie — can’t think of a better comfort food item for today. It’s still snowing and is expected to all night tonight. [Photos taken this evening.]

Tomorrow is another day. Maybe. More humbly, we’ll be able to retrieve the car. Find some real shovels and put this all behind us. Can’t believe we were this clueless. It must be the scent of Christmas just fogged our brains.

November and start of December have seemed to pass in a haze at times. Hyperion and I have both had swine flu. However, we both had lots of commitments — things that just can’t be pushed off. Some days it seemed like pushing that boulder up a mountain just to do it over and over and over again.

However, I did find a December coffee cup. I spotted this at Home Goods and just burst out laughing. After the rough few weeks I just had, anything to make me smile, let alone laugh out loud just had to be the December cup. The only drawback to this design is it has to be used right handed. So, good ole lefty me has to remember to pick it up with the right hand.

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love it. I love the smiles, the happiness, the anticipation. The happy holiday wishes from everyone. I don’t like buying gifts, wrapping them, or doing all that other stuff. But I love the feeling behind the holiday, not the commercialism. Heck, today is December 11th and I’ve only watched two holiday films so far this month. Well okay we’ve been watching the Star Trek (original) movies and just finish The Undiscovered Country but still I miss not seeing the Christmas ones. The ones I did see are The Polar Express (this is the 25th Anniversary of the book) and Love Actually. Maybe if I finally get caught up on my writing and reading I can watch some more as I quickly knit to finish off Christmas gifts.

Last year I complained because we’d looked and looked and looked and couldn’t find a tree topper. We ended up buying a Santa that was made of white painted tin in a conical shape that fit on the top though it wasn’t an actual tree topper. This year, we stopped at one store and looked and found this one. This one looks much better lit up than in the box. It’s sort of poinsettia shaped and has lights inside it. It took a while to get it up since the cord is short and the tree we have has the lights already on it so the cords for each section go all the way down. Took two days to find an unused extension cord. But it really does look good at night.

We didn’t feel like going all out for Christmas this year, so just did the tree and put out my collection of Santa statues — or most of them, some are still packed. We’ve been collecting Santa and folk art ornaments for years and the statues were just an extension of that collecting. If you look very carefully at the tree you’d see that most of the ornaments are Santa variations, bears, or folk art type, or some from our childhood trees.

My son is coming down for Christmas this year. He normally only comes down for Thanksgiving, but this year he couldn’t make it then and will be here for Christmas. We’re looking forward to his visit and we hoped to put up all the decorations since he hasn’t seen the house fully done up. We normally put up the tree the evening of Thanksgiving day or the day after since he lives in a small apartment and has a teeny tiny tree when he bothers with one at all. We may do more later but probably we’ll call it enough this year since we still catching up. I feel like I lost November all together.

However, I hope that you’re all enjoying getting ready for the holiday and forget the stress and the rush and just enjoy the spirit that’s in the air– I think it’s pine, cinnamon, and spice.

A bit late to say so but it snowed most of Saturday. We didn’t intend to go out but realized that mailing deadlines were approaching and some things just needed to be finished so we could mail them out. So, we got all the odd jobs taken care of on Saturday — driving wasn’t too bad actually as the snow was mostly melted or slush.

Today, we got the tree up and the ornaments on. I’ll post a picture tomorrow. It’s been a quiet day of decorating the tree, catching up on all the volunteer work we’d said we do, and then watching The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I managed to nearly finish a Christmas gift.

The cough is mostly gone — I’ll be glad when it’s completely gone but finishing a project — or nearly so just makes me feel that things are looking up.

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a great holiday weekend. If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, then have a great Thursday.

We’re having Turkey and the trimmings — the picture is not our little bitty smoked turkey but one from Amazon — looks great doesn’t it?  Ours doesn’t look that polished and pretty but it sure will taste just as good. Hyperion and I are having a very low key Thanksgiving this year. My son couldn’t make it for Thanksgiving but will be here for Christmas instead (normally he does Thanksgiving with the parental units and Christmas with his friends).

Traditionally, we put up the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving Day dinner. This year with us both suffering the after affects of a cold/flu thingy — we’ll get it done this weekend. I’ll post a photo when it’s up. Christmas is my favorite holiday but for the spirit of it, not the gift giving/getting of it. In fact we do very little in the gift giving area except for our mothers and my son. And we keep telling the mothers to forget the gifts for us and get something for themselves that they normally wouldn’t get and tell us about it — that would be gift enough for us, but so far no agreement on that front.

For Thanksgiving, though, it’s traditional to give thanks for the blessings and joy in your life so here’s some thanks in bullet points:

For being able to work at home. With my health problems, sitting in an office eight hours a day is not an option … but putting in that time at home is — wish more employers would twig to that fact of health problems.

For life. I’m a cancer survivor and every major holiday is a joy that can’t be measured. Each day is a special event and no matter how much I complain or whine, at my core I’m well aware that every day is a gift. Now if I could manage to stop squandering that gift I’d be ecstatic.

For my husband. I’m one of the luckiest women in the world to have someone who supports me and is such a match for me — I don’t know many other men who’d sing the grammar rock songs with me or laugh hysterically at the funny bits in Hogfather, or just quietly hand me a tissue during Pride and Prejudice. He’s a gem and I’m totally thankful.

My family. I love them all. Granted sometimes they drive me crazy but that doesn’t mean that I love them any less.

My friends near and far. I have local friends I see often and I have made some amazing friends through various activities and groups on the Internet who I’ve never met in person. My friends have given me hope, advice, shared a shoulder when I needed it, and been the means of keeping myself centered and moving forward. Thanks to all of you for your wisdom, advice, and caring.

Lord knows I could go on and on but I’ll spare all of you the wee minutia of my thankfulness. So, enjoy the holiday and make your own lists of thankfulness.  Maybe I should have included the fiber thankfulness…hmmm.