Christmas is upon us

Wow, a lot has been happening in my life this year.
I have been knitting a lot off and on. I have some projects on the needles for Christmas gifts, hoping to have them done in time. My knitting has slowed a lot since my Dad died in August. I am trying to get back to a daily habit of knitting but it just isn't happening some days. When I was staying with my Dad and taking him to appointments and such I took my knitting with me all the time and made great progress. It amazed him how much I could get done in a day. It was fun knowing he was keeping track of what I was doing. Then in August he was gone and my knitting stopped entirely. I didn't knit for weeks, I was just too busy and distracted to pick it up again. But eventually I did pick it up and started new projects. I am still really busy on weekends taking care of his estate and winding things up. It has been hard.

I love spinning as much as I do knitting. Maybe I should spin a while and it could help settle things down, but I say to myself wait till after Christmas knitting is taken care of. Spin after the first of the year. I thought about taking a spindle with me to Christmas Pageant practices, but they have changed the way we do that, there is not much sitting idle time anymore so I really would not get any spinning done, just for the first few minutes while we are waiting for everyone to show up and get started, so that did not happen this year.

Rickreall Christmas Pageant had it's 72nd run this year. It is over for this year, last night was the final show. When I moved back to this area I looked them up and joined the group again. I have been in this off and on over the years doing different parts and jobs. It is a community project and I got started in grade school, the 6 grade girls of Rickreall Elementary get to be the little angels in the Shepard scene. When I hit 6th grade I did not get to be one of the angels because I had pneumonia and the doctor did not want me exposed to the cold night air and possible wet feet, so I sat out. Then as the girls become seniors in high school they get to play the part of the water girl in the neighbor scene. Well my senior year came and there were more girls than nights of the pageant so my best friend and I sat out but in the Choir. Two years later my sister was a high school senior and there was just her and one other girl to play the water girl, trouble is the girls were also on the basketball team and there was one night that they could not be the water girl. I was volunteered for the part and got to do it two years late.  Then I was away from it for a few years, I got married and moved away. When we moved back my Mom, the pageant director, asked if I would be interested in helping put makeup on people, I said yes that sounds like fun, so I did that for a couple of years. Then more children came along and I was not free in the evenings to run out there and do makeup anymore, now 20 years later I live in Rickreall again and have joined the cast. It is fun and I recommend it to anyone, if there is a community Christmas activity in your area look into it I bet they need volunteers of some kind. It is a good way to connect or re-connect with your neighbors, friends and community. Enjoy yourself.