7 Quick Takes (Vol 146)

How the time doth fly! How the blather doth pile up. Remember the rules. Read, digest, comment on and generally take in my blather. Then click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of Santa’s reindeer, over to Conversion Diary.

Blatherty Blather McBlatherson

1.
What a week!  Tonight is the last “party” of the season here at Chez Knit and it is really just 4 other couples that we get together with regularly. It will be relaxing. We will laugh. I am not doing all the cooking. It is sort of my reward for all of the other partying that has gone on around here.

And there will be lasagna.

And there will also be Rosemary Infused Baguettes.

Also a glass of wine or two.

I can hardly wait.

2.
I believe that I have accomplished all the Christmas shopping. Well all except for some stocking stuffers.

One of these days I am going to do a brain dump about our philosophy on Christmas presents here at Chez Knit and how it has evolved since the progeny were little. That might be a soap box post and I will leave it for another day.

I will say that there have been years when I was still shopping the day before Christmas and that is such a stress increaser for me. It is so much nicer to have everything done at least a week before hand. Then I am not so crazed.

Or at least more crazed than I usually am.

3.
I went to an ornament exchange at a friend’s house last night. I knew you wanted to know this.

My sister of the heart, Dottie. She is standing to my left. In fact everyone in this picture was there last night just as an aside.

But I digress.

I love Dottie. Love. Love. Love. She designed my kitchen. We commiserated together during our “Summer Horribilus” when her hubby had a heart attack and HHBL had the broken ankle/cast for weeks/multiple blood clots in the lung incident. And she is my employer. But best of all she is my friend.

And I had such a good time last night that, even though I had brought the camera with me, I didn’t take a single picture. I was laughing too hard and eating too much and talking loudly with people I don’t see very often and with people I see all the time.

It. Was. Fabulous.

AND I got to see Tracy who reads the blog but whom I never see anymore. HI TRACY!!!

Oh and I won a chocolate Santa. Not one of those hollow ones. Oh no, this is a SOLID chocolate Santa that weighs a boat load. I might as well apply it directly to my hips.

AND AND I brought home a Snow Woman for the mantle piece. Of course I stole it. How long have you been hanging around here!! That makes it all the sweeter. And all the Snow Men are very happy with me cuz now there is a woman there.

4.

Look! The Bluebirds of Happiness are here at Chez Knit. There will be a longer post about the birds later, maybe next week. You knew it had to happen since I seem to be obsessed with them. I have seen the Bluebirds flitting around the neighborhood but they have never hung around here. However, I put a suet feeder out this year and they REALLY seem to like that. At one point this morning there were four of them waiting their turn to peck at the seeds in the suet.

I have pictures. 

Now if I can just get a good picture of the Pileated Woodpecker.

5.
Our church, Christ Community Chapel, has a Christmas tradition that I just love. We call it the “You’ve Been Gifted” campaign. I am not sure when we started doing this but everyone looks forward to it.

During the Christmas season we blanket the area with 10,000 acts of random “giftingness”. There are cards that are printed out that you can give when you gift someone. You could buy someone in line a cup of coffee, or a tank of gas, or an entire cart of groceries. You could do something nice for someone. Whatever the Lord presents for you. And on Sundays Pastor Joe tells us about one or two of the stories that come back to him through the emails that people send. Amazing.

I had been looking for my opportunity to use my one card. Waiting for it, knowing that the Lord would show me. Well this past Monday I bought a man some much needed diapers for his son. The man didn’t know me. I am sure that I will never see him again. I wasn’t even sure that I got the right size diapers. But when I handed him the box you would have thought that I was handing over a pot of gold.

It just made my day. Which isn’t really the point of the “You've Been Gifted” program but just a side benefit.

6.
I am telling you now, come the first of the year, or after Shoe Queen goes back to school, we are having a “purging of all sweets and bad things from Chez Knit”. There are cookies here and candy and sweets of various types and cake and all manner of other temptations.

They must go.

And then HHBL and I will be very grumpy for a time because we will be coming down off our weeks long sugar high. It will not be pretty but it will be very necessary. Otherwise I am going to have to buy all new clothes to cover my holiday jiggle.

7.
And because it is my favorite scene in a movie that is full of my favorite movie scenes.

NUTTAFINGA!