monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
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How was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
Okay, the tree is up, and the wreath is hanging on the door, and that's all the decorating that's going to be happening at Chez Oozaroo.
When I woke up at 12:30, thanks to Buffy barking in the barkyard, I stumbled downstairs to find that Rich had been out to buy a tree. It's not a big majestic tree, no, it's more like a shrub. I don't care about Christmas trees, especially live, needle-dropping ones, so I usually have as little to do with them as possible. I believe I've mentioned here before that my job in regard to putting up the tree is to stay out of the way. One of the best Christmas tree experiences I've ever had was about 6 years ago when Rachel and Joe took Kim, who was about 8 or 9, and went out to buy a tree while I was at work, and they had it all set up when I got home. Joe told me recently that they had sawed off the bottom of the trunk in the living room, but what I don't know won't hurt me.
So Rich and Scott went up to the attic and carried down the boxes of ornaments and decorative crap treasures that we've collected in 25 years together and then Rich discovered there was a plumbing emergency going on in the cat's bathroom, so he had a minor nervous breakdown and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to fix it. We have to call a plumber on Monday, and we're not happy about that.
Kim and Scott and I tiptoed around a bit, and decided to just get the tree done with minimal effort and put everything else back in the attic so that the house wouldn't feel cluttered, thereby adding to the holiday stress. Once that decision was made, I went back upstairs for a nap, and when I woke up again, there was a string of white lights on the tree, along with the string of purple Halloween icicle lights, and Scott had started hanging the new silver and purple balls I bought on sale a couple of weeks ago. He had discovered that the boxes of new balls contained only balls, no hangers, so he was vandalizing some of the old ornaments for hangers.
We went to the store, not to a big store, but just to the small store a couple of blocks away and bought hangers and a box of Diet Pepsi. Just the necessaries.
I sat in the living room and drank a pop while Scott hung more balls, and we discussed using the wide silver ribbon that had been tied around the boxes of new balls to make the tree pretty. I cut it up and tied some big bows with it and Scott hung the bows on the tree, and it looks good! Scott said he felt pretty gay after decorating a color-coordinated Christmas tree, but he'll get over it. It'll come out in his therapy with everything else.
Then I hung the wreath on the front door and Scott put the craft show moose on the porch, and that's it. We're done decorating. You know what? It looks good, and I'm not feeling all edgy and like the house is a big Christmas mess! Usually once the tree is up and covered with all of the old ornaments and multi-colored lights and crappy ancient garlands, I hate it and feel crabby and defensive about it until it finally comes down on New Year's Day, but this looks good! It looks festive!
The cat was chewing on a low branch of the tree later, but I ignored it. I don't care if the animals eat the entire tree, as long as I don't have to clean up any pine-smelling puddles of vomit later.
Yesterday I agreed to knit a pair of wool socks for someone and I've finished the first one today. They're worsted-weight, on size 3 needles, so they are going along quickly. I'm using some dark green wool that I've had for several years, and I added a white stripe around the toe, just before starting the toe shaping. I don't mind doing these at all, and I'm charging enough for them to make it feel like it's not a chore.
Other than that, I have the gloves I started for Rachel, in some autumn colors sock yarn that she had in her stash. She had started a sock with the yarn, and I ripped back to the ribbing and started knitting the glove from that point, but after the thumb stitches were put on a holder, I counted the remaining stitches and saw that I had too many! I didn't want to start over, but I did. The previously used part of the yarn was so kinky when I ripped it out that I unrolled it and made a skein that I washed in the sink and hung up to dry. Then I re-started the glove with the yarn that was still on the ball. I'm letting the gloves rest while I do the socks for sale.
I found a half-done sock from the Joan's Two Strand Woolease Socks pattern while I was looking for something else in the yarn room today, so I threw that in the basket of current projects, and added a finished mitten that needs a mate. The first mitten was made using a pattern from Fox and Geese and Fences, but I can't find the book! I looked around the yarn room today, but it's not just sitting out in plain sight, so I'll try to make the second mitten by copying the first one. I'm sure the book will turn up, maybe before I am finished.
What else is happening? Rachel is still planning to move back here in January, and Scott is teaching Kim to speak Russian. I'm sure that will come in handy some day...
11:12 p.m. - 2004-12-18
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