Kat with a K

A WEEK?

A week until Christmas? How did that happen? I'm floored. I don't know why I'm so surprised, but I am. Odd. It really seems to have snuck up this year. I am starting to realize I need to let go... no, not of the Christmas knitting madness, don't be silly. I'm still trying to do everything that affects others. But I have let myself recognize that it's really okay if I don't put up all the decorations I'd planned to put up, read all the Christmas books I'd planned to read, etc. It's supposed to be fun. Going through a mental checklist of the "essential Christmas movies I need to watch" is not necessarily fun, and if I want to spend an evening letting Buffy accompany my Christmas knitting instead, that's totally fine.

I did have that Moment last night. You know, the Moment when you realize that all this stress and all these deadlines aren't a thing in and of themselves... that when it ends, it's actually going to be CHRISTMAS. Wheee! And that's why I started getting really excited and feeling Christmassy. (And feeling like I really shouldn't have to go to work for the rest of the week. Alas, that part is not true.)

One thing that is making this week feel particularly Christmassy is the amount of snow on the ground. Now that I've forgiven the snow for ruining my plans last weekend, I'm completely loving it. I always think there should be a lot of snow for Christmas, and there very rarely is. But at the moment we've got about a foot and a half on the ground. There are mounds in my driveway as tall as me. It's great. I hope it lasts. (You know what's not great? The way people are driving. People! You live in New Hampshire! You have seen snow before! This isn't a surprise!)

You know what, guys? I realized last night that I have finished making 38 Christmas gifts thus far. THIRTY-EIGHT. 25 of them were needle-felted ornaments, and therefore quite quick, but... still. Oh, and I have a follow-up on yesterday's musings about how long it takes to make dishcloths. In the interests of Science, I decided to investigate this today. During my two 15-minute breaks at work, I took my knitting to the breakroom, checked the clock, and knit for exactly 15 minutes. I got ten rows done each time. Not quite the "minute a row" pace I was hoping for, but fairly quick. (I think. I actually have no idea how quickly most people knit, and am somewhat insecure about this.) Amazing how much more quickly these things go when you're sitting in a barren breakroom just knitting, and not watching TV, reading blogs, and/or checking e-mail. Huh.

Okay. Twelve gifts to go, all knitted. Two for the 22nd (one in progress), seven for Christmas Day (two in progress), one for the weekend after Christmas, two more (one in progress) by January 6th (the end of the 12 Days of Christmas, and therefore my self-imposed absolute deadline for Christmas knitting). How's everyone else doing? Keep knitting. We can do this.