Life's blessings

Life is full of blessings, sometimes you have to look a little harder to find them.

Such has been the case for this year's Christmas for us.

Being on assistance meant not having anything for Christmas since we had no money to spend. But circumstances, friends, family brought home to us that the true Christmas is having friends and family and appreciating them. We already knew that, but we needed a good solid nudge to be reminded.

My darling sister soul gave us some very thoughtful gifts, of which my favorites are the book Crochet Master Class edited by Jean Leinhauser whom we lost this year. A great loss to her family, friends and the crochet indie design industry.

I first came across this book at our local library. Fell in love with it and it was moved to the top of my crochet wish list!  And now, lucky me, I have it thanks to my darling sister! She also gave me a second book, Bring Colour to crochet. A beautiful collection of stitch patterns done in colours that make each pop off the page!

After those, a new windup toy! Yes, silly things please me such as small wind up toys. This latest addition to my growing collection is a Santa Claus riding an old fashioned train. Love it! :)

My husbands favorite was the Belgian chocolate letter of course! quickly followed by new socks and warm mittens.

Then from a sweet friend we received some much needed supplies (paper towels, tp & tissues)... the super soft expensive ones! Two of her gifts also pleased my husband to no ends, Belgian chocolate truffles and cookies!

I also received windups from her! One is of a cute penguin and the other is a Santa and both were lovingly put to bed in a super cute Winnie the Pooh gift box. Love love love them!

And a surprise came to our door earlier this week. Someone I got to know in the class I was taking this past fall received a turkey as a gift from her job, but she already had more turkeys than she knew what to do with. She offered it to us! So sitting in my freezer waiting for New Years` is a lovely 15 lbs turkey! A most pleasant surprise since our hamper from the Salvation Army held potatoes, cabbage, squash, peas/carrots, but no meat. So there is our meat! :)

So for all those who despair and feel that this season has let them down, consider that there are people out there a lot worse off than you are. This season has certainly reminded us to be thankful for small blessings and wonderful friends.

So to all my friends, family, crocheters and knitters around the world; I wish you all a Merry Christmas (or a Merry Celebration of your choice) and keep the faith in your heart. When things look at their bleakest, open your eyes, look around and reach out, ask for help, you matter and that is the most important thing to remind yourself of.

Merry Christmas to all & to all a good night

Christmas has come and gone. 

At least we have heat, a roof over our heads, food in the fridge and our medication.  My darling son came and spent Friday with us which was a treat. He's maturing so much now. Every time I see him, his mental capacities have improved. His birthday is on Monday, 26 years old then.

I'm down with a cold I'm trying really hard to not let get any worse. I have COPD and a cold for me is not a good thing. Colds have a tendency of turning into something a lot worse through no fault of my own.  Let's hope I can stay our of the ER this year!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night

Sleigh Ride the Amigurumi way

Another video done by U900, the amigurumi ukulele duo. Watch the piano playing bear, even his foot taps to the beat! A lot of attention was paid to setting up each character for the stop motion filming.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas, Festivus, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa to all!

May you find peace, warmth, and a home to spend this night with friends, family, neighbors...

The Huron Carol ('Twas In The Moon of Winter Time)

'Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled
That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;
Before their light the stars grew dim and wondering hunters heard the hymn,
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

Within a lodge of broken bark the tender babe was found;
A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped his beauty round
But as the hunter braves drew nigh the angel song rang loud and high
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

The earliest moon of wintertime is not so round and fair
As was the ring of glory on the helpless infant there.
The chiefs from far before him knelt with gifts of fox and beaver pelt.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

O children of the forest free, O seed of Manitou
The holy Child of earth and heaven is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant boy who brings you beauty peace and joy.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

Words: Jean de Brebeuf, ca. 1643; trans by Jesse Edgar Middleton, 1926
Music: French Canadian melody (tune name: Jesous Ahatonhia)

Surprises!

To continue on the same subject of why I haven't posted since the 12th...

2 weeks ago, I received more books from my dearest friend in Chicago. I so appreciate these books. They are an awesome series as I've mentioned before. These will go on my cherished books shelf.

Last weekend, a very special friend gave us a gift of money to cover the purchase of my insulin and testing strips. Without that heartfelt gift, I would be out of meds now. So this more than anything else has made our Christmas special. She knew how bad things were for us financially and after praying with her family, a concensus was reached that we would receive a gift from them. I sincerely hope one day to be able to repay this gift in one form or another.

Then my daughter and her husband surprised us as well. I knew they had rented a car to go visit her husband's family for an early Christmas dinner since they'll both be working around Christmas. What I didn't know was they were planning on dropping by on us on their way back home this past Tuesday night. It had been mentioned, but not really finalized, so this was a really cool surprise. How much of a surprise, I didn't realise until they picked me up from work.

We headed back to my apartment to drop off bags and pets since I was told we were going grocery shopping. I thought it was for dinner that night since we didn't have enough out to feed 4 people. My husband came along leaving my son in law to care for the kitten and canary they had received as part of their Christmas presents from his family. Gambit was rather curious about the kitten which was odd in itself since he usually does not tolerate anything with fur or feathers to enter his domain. More on kitten later.

So off we went to the grocery store where my darling daughter informed us that part of our Christmas present was groceries! What an incredible godsend that was for us. We picked up groceries to last us a month, plus fixings for dinner that night. She even got us a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree! which is perfect for our small apartment. We had roast beef with herbed potatoes and steamed asparagus with lemon butter sauce. Dinner was delicious!

While supper was cooking, my darling daughter starts handing out presents! Something we were totally not expecting. She sits down and looks at the bookshelf and says, hmm.... bookshelf. I didn't clue in at that point why she was saying that until my husband pointed out there were stockings hanging from it! Wow, blind or what LOL We opened our stockings to find chocolates, and 2 bags of assorted buttons in all shapes and sizes in mine. Then came wrapped presents, the first of which was a brand spanking new router!!! since ours had died and reduced internet access to one computer which really sucked.

I received 2 bags of lovely partially recycled yarn (8 balls of dark red and 10 balls of blue), some foam squares for blocking knits and books as well. My darling husband got some fleece pants, books, and more chocolates! I've always loved For Better or For Worse. And both my husband and I absolutely go gaga over Calvin and Hobbes. We didn't have that one book so this was an absolute treat for us.

I had put my daughter's present on hold since I needed her to try it on for final adjustments. I made her a cat ears hairband and a furry black cat bikini. The bikini top was fine, but I needed her to try on the bottom to make sure I had enough rows to cover the important bits. She was ecstatic when she realised what she was trying on. I'm really happy that I got to see her wearing it since if I had gone by the pattern, it would have been too short. Once it's completed, I'll get her to pose wearing it :) She plans on wearing it with a body suit to the next sci-fi convention.

For her husband, I checked with him on some manly cabled wristwarmers in black and a watchcap in black as well. So those are next on my need to knit asap list.

We played with their new kitten, ooh'd and aah'd over their new canary. My daughter already has one canary and this was to replace the one that their cat had mistaken for a canape.

Overall, it was the bestest Christmas ever!

Christmas on TV

Last night we watched one of my favorite Christmas season stories.

Frosty the Snowman! When my daughter was little, this was her favorite seasonal show to watch. She would get so excited when Frosty came to life and would cry when he melted away. The biggest reason she loved it so much was that she and the main character share the same name. When she was 4 and she realised the little girl in the movie had the same name, she thought the show was about her. It took quite some convincing to get her to understand that no, it wasn't about her.
For weeks later, she'd see a train and would want to know if Frosty was aboard heading for the North Pole. Even now, she's all grown up, but I'm sure she still enjoys the show :)

Other seasonal shows that I've always loved, Dr Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. My favorite part was the people of Whoville who came out and sang even though everything was gone. That, is the true spirit of Christmas :)

Another that I enjoy watching year after year is A Charlie Brown Christmas. I enjoyed reading the comic strips by Charles Schultz over the years and the animated special did not disappoint. I do my best to watch it every year but sometimes I haven't had any luck finding it or have missed it.

A new seasonal show that has joined my favorites is The Polar Express. An odd but rather endearing movie with the voice of Tom Hanks as the Conductor, Hero Boy, the Hobo, Scrooge and Hero Boy's Dad. Quite the repertoire for one person, but he does it very well.


It reminds us all we should believe in the spirit of Christmas, what it should mean and not what commercialization has made of it.

And I previously posted about A Christmas Story which is still very much at the top of my favorites list for some much needed belly laughs.