It's now the weekend before Christmas weekend, which should really be the weekend that everything gets wrapped up. Yet I've been putting off getting into Christmas, that by the time I get into the spirit, Christmas will have already come and passed.
This weekend was really stressful and busy for me. I hadn't realized that I'd have so little time to make the gift I had intended for my brother before he leaves for Japan/Taiwan for the holidays. I wanted to make him a pair of fingerless gloves to wear around Japan. I peeked at my yarn stash on Friday, and the only yarn I had that was the right weight, quantity, and not-too-feminine color, was the two skeins of Classic Elite Portland Tweed in a light gray. I thought it would be too girly, but again, I was on a short time frame, so I cast on and started knitting.
Saturday, I ran a few errands in the morning, and then joined my friend in New York City to do some shopping. We went to Chinatown, stopped by a couple of places in SoHo, and worked our way back up to the Macy*s on 34th Street. I figured the city would be crowded, and sure enough, it was. One of my stops was Purl Soho, where I had hoped to pick up a darker shade of gray yarn for my brother's gloves. Selection wasn't as varied as I'd have hoped, but I did pick up a yarn, only to figure out later on that I liked the first yarn I chose, even if it would come off as feminine. The remaining challenge was that the pattern took a while to knit, and I've since had to settle with the assumption that I wouldn't be able to finish the other glove (I finished one over the weekend) and ship it overnight to him.
I've established my reputation as the "crafter" in my workplace. However, I have one coworker who works some really beautiful projects with her Cuttlebug and Cricut machines. I suppose I took it as a challenge, subconsciously, to have handmade cards, since she'd be making her own cards, as well. This added to my stress over the weekend, because it was one more thing to do on my list. All in all, I was supposed to make about 15 cards, 3 pairs of fingerless gloves, a scarf, a cowl, and two amigurumi minions from the movie Despicable Me.
Now to the point of this post- the reason why people start earlier and earlier this year could be, in part, because there's so much to do before December 25. And yet, who are we really doing all this for? I wanted to accomplish all that knitting, crochet, and cardmaking, but is it really for the recipients of my gifts, or is it for me? I was too focused on making this the perfect Christmas, but it was perfection by my standards. The only Christmas that was ever perfect was the very first one. The one where Jesus came as a baby, lying in a manger. No other Christmases after that could possibly match the importance, scale, and scope of the first one.
Another complaint about this season is that it's too commercialized, and it's true. I had probably assumed somewhere along the line, that making most of my own gifts would make me a better person than if I were to buy all the gifts I planned on giving. Yet I still missed the point, and I got caught up in the concept of giving out gifts, forgetting that the real gift this season is more of a reminder that the Messiah was born. I've spent too much money, too much time, and too much effort in making the season perfect by my standards. But as they say, "Keep Christ in Christmas." And really, that is what we should remember this Christmas season.
I apologize for such a somber post; I do have plans to post pictures of what I've made for others, but that can wait, no?
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