Puttering and pondering.

Good news is that even though my trusty Bernina slowed and stopped last night, this is a Saturday, and I can take her to the shop and get her back in time to sew the other 96 money bags for Night in Old Bethlehem. And the Christmas stockings are done for both Lark and Willow. I can prep the pieces for 1BDH’s stocking while my sewing machine is in the shop and continue to tidy up in my studio.

Had a lovely visit with one of my friends yesterday afternoon. She needed help debugging a knitting pattern, and we got it figured out, and then I watched the tail end of the third Harry Potter movie with her and her daughters.

I have about an inch to go before starting the decreases on the second missionary hat. And the smallest of my three birch cable needles, which had gone AWOL, rolled out from under the couch and made itself known to me. After an “oh baby, I have missed you so much, your big brother didn’t want to dive into those stitches for me” talking-to, it is back on the coffee table and waiting for me to wander over to the couch and get back to work. Which I may do at any minute, as the fireplace is humming sweetly and I seem to be awake for awhile.

I am enjoying my re-reading of The Five Love Languages, and I think I am getting more out of it this time around. It has certainly sent me down memory lane, trying to figure out how I might have been more effective as a wife to Hubbies One and Two. Not in a beat-myself-up way, but more a musing upon how I might do better should there ever be a Round Three. If nothing else, I have a far better idea of what questions to ask, how to ask them, and what it takes for me to be happy in a relationship.

Know thyself. [And then forget thyself in service to others.]

This four-day weekend is a lovely break. The weather has turned cool again, which puts me in a holiday mood. I might get out the folk art Christmas tree and decorate it sometime today. Have to love a tree that crams so much festivity into less than a square foot of floor space.

I do know I love having a clear path through my studio to the closet where the tree hangs out when it is not here in the living room [which is often far past Christmas; I get distracted by the demands of daily living until I realize that I either need to put the tree away or hang valentines or shamrocks or Easter eggs on it].

The moostletoe holder has been up all year. Didn’t exactly need one when I was dating NintendoMan, and I probably ought to take it down before I feed the elders and the new guy next Saturday.

Feeling a little ADD at the moment. Think I will bundle up the sewing machine and put it by the front door and then go knit a few more rounds on the hat and try going back to bed.