A Gift

A dear friend of mine sent me one of the most touching gifts recently, I need to share.  It was a gift certificate with this message:

In remembrance of your nephew. May you continue to find peace and healing through knitting.

And to be even more fitting... it was from the most wonderful Three Irish Girls yarn company.  They are sort of like the Cadillac of yarn dyers.  They are among the most well-loved yarns in the knitting universe and recently cleaned house in awards at Sock Summit 2009.  In fact, they are in such high demand right now, the turnaround is approximately 8 weeks.  Which actually totally perfect because that gives me time to finish all the things that need finishing.  Sort of like forced discipline. 

What colorways did I go for you ask?  How about a little Irish Sea?  And perhaps some Roisin?  Sock yarn folks, and it doesn't get better than this!  I've picked out patterns for each already... but my mind will likely change as the spring sock patterns make their way onto Ravelry. 

Thank you Kelly.  The best part of this gift is that it came from you... I appreciate it so much. 

A World Older

"We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, we greatly err. For the animals shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings. They are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth." – Henry Beston

Needfulness

Okay, all that nicey stuff I wrote yesterday still stands.  Along with the nicey, there's the needful, childish "I gotta have it" that comes along too....

To that end, I want this bag.  I can't explain to you how awesome this bag is.  I thank the Yarn Harlot for her fantastic shopping guide for non-knitters who want to buy something for the knitter in their life. 

And then there is this beautiful straight needle roll. Again, I can't explain it and to a lot of folks, this seems expensive.  But the thing holds 60 pairs of needles!!!  All of them tucked away neatly and safely from little hands that like to bend needles. 

And lest we forget... there is really cool silver necklace pendant that warrants purchase. Yeah, so scroll down this page and find the Sterling Silver Needle Gauge necklace.  Non-knitters will be like, "Wow, that's really cool modern art/cheese grater as jewelry."  Knitters will be all, "Dude! That needle gauge rocks!"  Cause apparently knitters and surfers sound alike.

Of course, there's always a Web's gift card too. 

Okay, I feel better having gotten that off my chest.

A walk down 2005 memory lane

This is what we were doing 4 years ago.  Pretty funny!

Vespers and remembering what its about

Last night, I went to Vespers at Mount Holyoke.  This is a tradition here on campus that dates back to the late 1800s.  The chorale, glee club and jazz singers put on a show that was so wonderful.  They were accompanied by three percussionists, two piano players, a flutist and string bass.  The opening of the evening had the entire chapel in darkness, only the circular stained glass window was lit, 2 of the singers lit the advent wreath candle and so quietly from out in the atrium... you could hear the voices of the singers.  As the volume increased, two by two, they walked the aisle, each holding a single candle.  It was so lovely.  It was something I certainly needed and I think my parents felt the same way.

Christmas 2008 sucked.  It started out with these thoughts which still ring true.  And then there was the 2007 "dog on the run" event preceded by a serious plumbing issue.  Of course, right before this day... I was thinking about my mom's gift to her children and grandchildren:  a lifetime of happy Christmases.  I would learn that this was her way of honoring her own father's memory and his love for the holiday.  That he passed away only a couple of days before Christmas is one of life's cruel mysteries. 

Christmas season 2007 started off with my coming to terms with JP's diagnosis and finding a way to "be."  I finished that post with this:

And now we say goodbye to it. And we move and we breathe and we love each other. We forgive. We look ahead and shrug it off. Because we're Currans. And that is what matters.

The comments on the post speak to me now more than they ever have.  Go ahead... read them.  I'll wait here.  I look back and read the optimism and the love from my two sisters and my mom.  We seem so, so.. untouched by events to come.

In 2006 I wrote about my father singing.  I wrote about how much hearing him sing would soothe the soul and take us back to simpler, more innocent times. 

Last night, I got to hear him sing again.  Christmas songs too.  And there, in a stuffy church, in the heart of a cynic and a questioner... I got a little of that back.  A tiny taste of what it felt like two years ago at this time.  In my heart, I knew he was listening with me.  I knew there are quite a few angels around us and this time it felt more like peace than pain. 

Here's to it friends.  Here's to making it great for the kids like my mom did for us and her father before her.  Here's to the madness, the food, the shopping, the presents.  All of it.  Its never a perfect day no matter how hard we hope for it.  Its about rolling with the punches, taking stock and saying thanks for every little bump along the way.  Its about picking ourselves back up and finding our way together when the bump is more of a mountain and the valley is more of a canyon.  Its being able to let go and let God, whoever he may be to you. 

This year, I just want our day to be happy.  I want to remember with a smile, or at the very least shed a few tears and then do the smile thing.  I have no aspirations or great reflections about 2009.  We survived.  We're here and we're all doing better than we had ever thought would be possible.  We're stronger.  We know a little more about important things and understand a little less about worrying the little things.  Perspective. That's what we have.  Perspective.

And from my perspective... its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Snowman!

I am not sure how they did it, but somehow my sons and Aaron managed to make this snowman out of 1 inch of snowfall!  That's determination right there.  And two very happy little boys.

Turkey, Basketball and Yarn.

Hey! Its been a week almost since my last post?  I'm such a lazy ass.

Thanksgiving went down like this:  we ate a lot of food, we fell asleep early.  The end.

Saturday brought forth two pretty cool things: Alumni Basketball Game and yours truly turned something like 37.  36?  No.. def 37.

The Alumni Game was awesome!  TPCP was a part of it: we were all there in our homemade green t-shirts cheering on the young and not so young players.  Three games of Granby High alums re-capturing some glory from the old days.  We raised enough to extend our gift of team jackets to the JV basketball teams too.... how cool is that?

And then, the magic of gifts!  Ah yes.  My daughters bought me new pajamas, slippers and Dove chocolate.  Did I mention I have the greatest kids on the planet?  Seriously.  Perfection.

And then... Aaron bought me something I have been coveting for about ooooooohhh... 9-10 months.  An all wood, handcrafted yarn swift.  What is a yarn swift and what the hell does it do you ask? 

Pretty fricking sweet right?  And now, I'm the coolest person I know.

And now for some basketball highlights....

brought to you by the person least likely to ever write or say that....

The 1000 Pointers (minus 2 I think)

What its all about!

 

The Boys in White: Game 1

Emre and Anabel Evren sang the National Anthem.  I saw Anabel sing at a talent show I judged here in town.  She sang In My Life by The Beatles and I sat there fighting the urge to bawl my eyes out.  It was absolutely one of the most endearing and beautiful things I've seen.  Her father played guitar while she sang.  I walked into my front door later that night and told Aaron I had found our wedding song.  I wonder if I could ask her to sing it (whenever that day happens, that is)?

Okay, there are about 237 more shots of this day.  You can see it by clicking on the image below.

2009-11-30