Ho ho ho- it's OVER! (picture intensive)

This is going to be long, and actually have *gasp* KNITTING related content! Woo!

I hope everyone had a very, very happy holiday, whatever you celebrate. I had a great Christmas. Andy and I do Christmas for ourselves on Christmas Eve, as Christmas day is so divided between our families, we'd either have to get up extremely early, or wait till we get home, completely exhausted, to open our gifts, or, just open them with our families. So, instead, we have our little Christmas Eve ritual, where we get up when we want, open our gifts in our pajamas, maybe watch a movie or two, get dressed, and get dinner out- usually Chinese or this year, Thai (mmmmmm, yum).

I had a heck of a time trying to make gifts this year, and missed out on making 3 (1 of which wasn't my fault- the yarn for it wasn't shipped till basically the beginning of December, and it was a shawl. A very, detail oriented, shawl.)

Here's what did get finished though. Two birthday scarves (given out November 15th, and December 16th) for our mothers, a hat for Andy, and a scarf for Andy, a scarf for my dad, and a scarf for my sister. My Dad got an Irish Hiking Scarf, out of green Pingoin (not sure on the spelling, and not looking it up) wool that has been discontinued, but I love. It's always on my eBay search list. I believe the finished picture of that scarf, and Andy's mom's scarf are in my side bar photo albums. My mom's scarf was the recently finished green Liesel. Andy's scarf, and JoAnn's scarf were finished mere days before Christmas, and are shown blocking here:

Andy's scarf was done in Noro Kureyon, from a pattern featured in a Vogue Knitting Special for men's knits. JoAnn's scarf, was shown done in a very bulky thick 'n' thin yarn in a Japanese book I own. I ended up using Manos, and looooved it. Blocking, it looked like crap to me, and it rolled a lot, but finished and worn, looks so cool.

I wish I got a picture of JoAnn wearing it, but she was wearing her pajamas, as she had slept over our parents' house that night (lucky, lucky girl), and probably wouldn't appreciate her PJ'd self splashed on the web.

Mirror shot, and the above was a self timer. Thank god for the self timer.

Andy's hat, was a hard project. I had to save it for doctor's offices, and occasionally during the day when he wasn't home, as I was trying to have at least ONE secret knitted project. It was made from a web freebie pattern, Lamb's Pride, and Philadelphia Eagles colors:

On December 23rd, we celebrated something that's pretty near and dear to my heart, even if it is a little hard to think about at that time. My best friend received a life saving double lung transplant on Christmas Eve 4 years ago, and we celebrate the anniversary every year. While it was someone else's tragedy, I thank God that Dee got this chance to become an adult- a happy one at that- that Christmas.

I never said we're classy people.

Especially me.

But we try.

At this time of year, we also celebrate that my friend Geoff also got HIS life saving double lung transplant, a year before Dee. The miracle of that transplant is really a strange one. Dee got called by the transplant team that Christmas, and couldn't do it...she just wasn't mentally prepared to go through with it at that time (what 17/18 year old IS?), especially since she knew one of her friends, Geoff, was dying so much more quickly. Dee was number one on the transplant list, and Geoff was seven, so she BEGGED to change places with him. Obviously, the organ bank couldn't do that, and Dee went home sad, but sure that she'd made the right decision by not going through the transplant just yet...and the next day, someone called her to tell her Geoff DID get those lungs. There was no way Geoff would have survived without that transplant...the transplant team said (and sorry if this is too much information, or you get sick by medical stuff easily) that Geoff's lungs literally fell apart when they were opening him up.

So Christmas is truly a time of miracles for me.

Anyway. Story time is over. (please sign your organ donor cards!) Public service announcement time is now over, as well.

Christmas Day was fantastic. I got great gifts, and I'll spare you all the loads of pictures and only show you the knitting related gifts:

Although someone else said they look like balls, they're NOT. Dee made them for me, and they're LUNGS. On her one year anniversary, I made her a cake in the shape of lungs...one pink, healthy lung, and one lung with some green food coloring covered pudding, to represent her old, mucus-y lung. So many people ate that, not, but Dee and I laughed our asses off. Since I still have my "old" lungs, Dee made the green lung to represent MY junky lungs. I LOVE them, and can't wait to knit with them.

Two hanks of dyed sock yarn from KnittingSunshine's  Etsy store, in Starry Night and Caribbean Sky from Andy,  the lung markers from Dee, Chloe on Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles, one of the Treasury of Knitting Patterns books from Barbara Walker and Knit Socks! both from my parents, as well as Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmerman from my parents.

Two more books from the Treasury of Knitting Patterns books, Sweater Worshop and A Gathering of Lace from my parents, and notecards and stitch markers that came with Andy's order from KnittingSunshine.

25 Bags to Knit and the Yarn Harlot's new book from my parents, and Lantern Moon ebony needles from Andy :)

Don't I have the best friends and family?

Unrelated, pet photos:

Cats in boxes.

My parents' shih tzu, Holly, enjoying a Christmas bone (and ignoring her old one).

And current works:

A Hurry Up Spring Armwarmer from Stitch N Bitch Nation, in Kureyon 128. Love that colorway. I got it from a Crochetville Secret Pal swap thing, and am just finally using it. I just need to make the left one now.

The Peace Fleece Lighthouse socks, intended for Andy's mom. My first stab at true intarsia (I tried it once when I had no clue how to knit, really, and failed miserably). I worked on it some more tonight, and have gotten more on the buildings surrounding the lighthouse. There are a few mistakes, but I think they're unnoticeable, so NOT going to frog this monster sock. It's evil. But it's evil because of me. I really should have planned it a bit better. At least there's nothing that ruins the sock, just sort of ruins my pleasure in making them. I'm still trying to decide how to gift these when they are finished- right away, as a late Christmas gift, Mother's Day, or just stash them for next year?

I knit on them while listening to the box set of Garth Brooks that Andy got me for Christmas. I've always thought one of the best things about relationships, is when they bring new obsessions into your life. You're trying new things to see why a person likes them, and sometimes, you hit on something you never knew you loved, but you do. Garth Brooks was one of those for me, and I got a completely new respect for his music in a past relationship that I had when I was an eighth grader.

Billy Joel was one I got when I was 22, but that's a completely different story.

So tonight, I'm knitting on my lighthouse sock, when "Unanswered Prayers" comes on, and since it was a live concert CD, a very huge chunk of that song, all you can hear is the audience singing along. And I found myself in tears, as I realized the reason most of them are singing along, is that song truly touches something phenomenally fundamental in all of our lives...what if we really had gotten everything we ever prayed for? What would have become of us? I would still be married to a man who made me miserable, but I "loved". I wouldn't be with Andy, I wouldn't be happy, and I would probably cry every day of my life. I spent many nights praying to God to just make that marriage work...and yet, somehow that just wasn't to be, and thankfully, someone knew better than ME. And I thought to myself, while listening to that song, and those people singing along...how many stories like that are out there, just in that one audience?  How many of those stories are out there, right now, even just reading this one blog.

"Sometimes I thank God...for unanswered prayers..."

Comments

[carrie m]

thank you for such a wonderful, thoughtful post. i'm so, so glad that geoff and dee are both ok. (you too look lovely in the pics, by the way.) and i love your lung cake story -- sometimes you need a sick sense of humor. happy new year!

[Siow Chin]

Your dropped stitch scarf looks really cool! I think it looks much better than a solid coloured one. And thanks for telling us the very touching story of Dee and Geoff. Here's wishing you a fabulous new year!

[maryse]

i love your lung stitch markers. it's a little sick, but i think it's great that despite so much that you have to go through with your disease, that you still manage to have a sense of humor about it. i guess that's a prerequesite.

here's to your good health, and the continued good health of your friends.

[Stacie]

I also thank God for unanswered prayers. He always knows the right ones to answer. What a wonderful post. It brought tears to my eyes. Hugs to you and your friends.

[elisa]

Wow - what a great post, and one that really resonates with me. Thanks for sharing the transplant stories of your best friend and Geoff. Sometimes it's too easy to forget that we have *so* much to be thankful for.

Oh - and the manos scarf? Love it!

Best to you and yours in 2006!

[Pam]

Great, great post. Sucessful organ transplants are a welcome miracle at any time of the year, but more so at christmas. May you all be enjoying lung cake for many more christmas eve eve's.

[Bookish Wendy]

When I was younger my best friend's brother was killed in a horrible car accident. He was 16 years old. His family donated his organs. His parents, family and friends took an enormous amount of comfort knowing that their loss was someone else's (or possibly more than one person's) new life. It makes his memory richer for some reason.

I personally think that it's awesome that you all celebrate in such a quirky fun way. I would love to know that when I pass on my organ's will be used to inspire random joy in the lives of others.

You go girl.