monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
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For unto us a child is born.
I finished the Big Surprise Sweater for Rachel! Yay! The last little bit took about a month, because I was afraid to try to put in the zipper, but Thursday morning I woke up very early and just sat on the floor with the sweater spread out on the coffee table, and finished the sweater! I cut, I sewed, I wove in the loose ends and wow, it's done and it looks great!
With that done, I worked a little on the first sleeve of the Nagano sweater - I'm not working on the body, it's resting while I do the sleeves, because after doing the Norge 2002 sweater, sleeves first, I know how nice it is to finish the body and have the sleeves right there, waiting to be sewn in.
Then I started thinking about the other half-done sweater, the fair-isle that I started for Scott a year ago, and I worked on that one last night and today. The sleeves are done on that one, and most of the body is knitted, up to the beginning of the fair-isle design. I worked on it for a couple of hours, then noticed a mistake in the patterning, but decided I could live with it. Later I noticed another, more obvious mistake, so I ripped back a to the start of the design, and that will enable me to fix the first problem, too.
So Rich and I went shopping this morning, and was that a mistake! The stores were full of people, in fact, there was a line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot at Walmart, so we didn't even go there. The parking lot was full at Shopko, too, and we decided not to give the girls pajamas this year, so we went to the grocery store (also crowded), and bought stocking stuffers in the grooming aisle.
Nobody thought of buying wrapping paper, and I hate shopping when there are lots of people out, so I never get any at the after-Christmas sales, so we have been recycling the gift bags I've saved from presents received in the last year or so. We had just enough to bag up all of our presents!
Kim and Rachel cleaned the bathrooms and vacuumed today to earn a little extra money, and then they went out shopping this afternoon, but all of the shoppers from the morning must have gone home because they said it wasn't bad in the stores at all!
When Rachel came home on Wednesday, she taught Kim to play a game called Mankala, using an egg carton for a board and some markers they borrowed from another game. They've been playing it non-stop for two days, so I told Rachel to buy the game when she was shopping, but to tell Kim they were getting it for me, and then I cleverly packaged it and put it under the tree for Kim! That was her one present that she's allowed to open on Christmas Eve, and they were playing it when I left to come to work.
Rich's parents got here about 3 in the afternoon, bearing food and gifts, and they went to their motel at 7, promising to be back in the morning when I get home from work. I was planning to go to bed as soon as everyone is done unwrapping presents, but then Scott called tonight to let us know what time we can call him tomorrow, and he wants us to call at 9! So I'm happy about talking to him, but not so much about staying up until 9 to do so.
Rachel read the story of Christ's birth in Luke tonight, and she read all the way to the part where he is found in the temple talking to the priests, which was a nice addition to the story beyond what we normally would have read.
Merry Christmas.
12:01 a.m. - 2003-12-25
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