Stasia's Place Of Grace

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

 

Thanksgiving Eve

I have a sore throat. I have a fever. I have... stomach trouble. I have a headache. I have felt like this for two days. I am not a happy camper. I finally realized it was not an FMS flare-up but a bona-fide virus.

But I am thankful for my grade school nurse, Mrs. Asplund. (Yes, we called her "Mrs. Aspirin.") She taught me to gargle with hot salt water, and I happened to remember it at 3 a.m. last night, and finally got some sleep after doing it! Thank you, Mrs. Asplund, wherever you are - hot salt water is better than cough drops, tea, or anything else I tried!

I am thankful that the five visits to the emergency and regular vets are over, that our houseguest from California has come and gone, that the house is generally in order and the dogs are generally back to normal, and that I can just rest now.

But I would be even more thankful if I woke up feeling wonderful tomorrow...

I am definitely thankful that Starbucks will be open tomorrow so that we can meet friends Dave and Di there for a quick celebratory get-together. That ought to jump-start Thursday!

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I am especially thankful that every single member of my crazy family has gone away for the holiday so I don't have to feel a smidgen of guilt for just wanting to stay home with Jeff and the pets!

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I am thankful that my good friend Nancie put it into my head to skip the Thanksgiving turkey (ok, it was an organic chicken, but the same amount of work) and instead to cook cornish game hens... which we're going to grill. No muss, no fuss, cute little roasted bird, same effect! Great idea, Nancie!

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I am thankful for the nifty Hanukkah ornament my friend Kary sent! She made it in the preschool class she teaches. Isn't it neat?! It is hanging on our Hanukkah tree...

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I am thankful that I finished Jeff's yarmulke/kippah in time for Hanukkah. I don't even know if he's supposed to wear one, but he wanted to while saying the grace. Val models it as well. He looks Hasidic, doesn't he?

We have decided that Tori and Chester are Lutheran, Valentine is Jewish, and Fiona is definitely Pagan. (We have also decided we spend way too much time humanizing our pets!)

Anyway, I knit this in variegated crochet cotton, starting at the center with eight stitches on four needles. I put a marker in the center of each needle, to create eight sections; I knit every other round, and then on alternate rounds I increased one stitch at the start of each of the eight sections. It makes kind of an outward-going spiral shape. At the final six rows, I did every other one in purls to prevent the edge from curling up. I think I ought to have stopped increasing a little earlier on, so that the final rows would be more cup-shaped.

I tried to wash and block it on an upside-down bowl, with some spray starch and a blow dryer, but it's still kind of floppy. And not really cup-shaped. But it will serve its purpose, I think.

Now I just have to figure out how to get this to stick on Jeff's head...

This site has a picture of a leather yarmulke that looks like a basketball! Maybe I should have just purchased one for a Hanukkah gift instead?

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I am thankful I don't have to go Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Yikes!

I'm going to take Sarah Ban Breathnach's suggestion and make some turkey vegetable soup and start wrapping Christmas gifts and listening to holiday CDs instead of going out and braving the malls.

I think I will bake some challah bread, too. Our Hanukkah isn't exactly traditional - we eat meat and dairy at the same meal, and things that don't necessarily "belong" at this time of year - but we try to honor the holiday and traditions in our own way, just as we celebrate Christmas/Yule. I think it's important to make holidays "one's own," especially if your holiday memories aren't exactly perfect. The good thing about holidays is that they continue to come around, so you can continue to improve upon them!

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I am thankful for the movie, "The Bishop's Wife" with David Niven, Loretta Young and Cary Grant. (Don't you just love Cary Grant? He and Audrey Hepburn...)

If you ever saw the movie, "The Preacher's Wife" with Whitney Houston, well, "The Bishop's Wife" is the original (and much better).

If you're a little tired of watching "It's A Wonderful Life" every year, try renting "The Bishop's Wife" for the holidays. It's funny and sentimental and sweet. "Christmas In Connecticut" is another really cute one. It's funny as heck!

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I just received the book "Knitting On The Road" by Nancy Bush - a book of sock patterns. I got it from Interweave Press and it's the second edition so there should be no more mistakes.

Now, you all know I like to knit my socks toe-up, and to make them up myself. But I also love looking at socks that others have knit, to get ideas.

It isn't like I need any more sock yarn, and it isn't like I enjoy two-color knitting, but there are a couple of patterns that are calling to me. However, I'd need to change the colorways a bit. I tend to like jewel tones more than the earth tones which were used for these particular socks.

However, I am really bad at putting colors together, so I need your help!

If you were choosing four colors (one of which should be a purple...) to go together from The Wooly West's Happy Trails colors, which would you choose? TAG me and let me know!

(I like their reds, too... hmmmmm.....)

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I am grateful for a husband who unexpectedly surprised me today with chocolate, a get-well card (with a dog on it, of course), and a bar of my favorite lavender kitchen soap from Williams-Sonoma... the scent of it always makes me feel better when I have a headache. He picked it up when he returned some clothes for me on his lunch hour. (!)

He then proceeded to make me a dinner of very spicy (organic tenderloin!) fajitas to clear out my sinuses and chest. It helped!

All this, after I crabbed to my friends about what a poop he was, bringing home a houseguest for me to cater to after all that stuff with the dogs earlier this week...

Sometimes husbands will surprise you. ;-)

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I am thankful that you take an interest in what's happening in my little life enough to check in here! Thank you for being here... Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and weekend!

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