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Happy Solstice, Xmas update, and the Letter B
2006-12-21 - 10:38 a.m. Happy Solstice! It is funny. I suppose this is the actual turning over to the New Year. So it seems reasonable to reflect on the old year. Which I was doing this morning anyway, as I walked in to work. I have to write the Christmas letter, and that's always cause for reflection. Also, it's the last day of school, and nearly the last day of work, and that too is a sign of things coming to an end (before they start up again), and cause for taking stock. I finished one more apron last night, and started a batch of cookies. I guess I'll have to finish the rest tonight. I wanted to decorate the tree tonight, but there has been some arguing for doing it tomorrow, which really will be the first day of vacation. I suppose we can wait. I took a picture of the aprons completed so far, and they are pretty cute. I also went out to do a bit of shopping last night, and found some great stuff. That's good, too. Also, I cleaned the kitchen, and now we are ready for the great Christmas bakeathon. Which brings us to the letter B. Harriet gave me the letter B for boxes, boxes boxes. So let me think. The first and most obvious is books. I do love books. I love to read them. I love the way they feel in your hand. I love their variety, both in form and content. I love the way they can be absolutely transporting, or sometime hilarious, or sometimes just interesting. The best book I ever found at my job was a book of regulations for Prussian metallurgical mapmakers which contained detailed notes laying out which color of pencil was to be used for deposits of each mineral. One of my favorite books ever was a set of books, actually -- a set of Proust in dusty cloth covers which my father-in-law have to me when I'd finished my paperback Swann's Way. He was delighted to regain the shelf space, or so he said, and he had a french edition, anyway. I do love books. Next comes babies, I think. Sadly, I really do love babies. I never much liked them until I had two, and then I realized that they're actually pretty fascinating. They change so quickly, and it's so much fun to watch them figuring out how the world is. Plus they smell nice, and are so soft, and are so sweet when they sleep. How odd it is to realize that everyone started out as a baby. I wish we could have one or two more, but I think I'd have a hard time convincing K that that's a good idea. Sigh. Here's kind of a funny one -- berries -- especially the red ones you see at this time of year. My beloved N was born a week later than predicted, and I spent a considerable part of that week wandering around a local nature preserve, wondering if she would ever be born. It was cold outside and the bushes were covered with red berries, and I speculated that when she was born she would be like a little red berry herself. And she was. Although not especially red. Okay, here I'm pushing it -- balls of yarn and bolts of cloth. I do love balls of yarn, because you can knit with them, and bolts of cloth, because you can sew things with them, which, although I'm not all that skilled, I really enjoy. I don't really even know why, since both pastimes tend to be somewhat frustrating, and turn out objects that are never quite as wonderful as the idea of them was. So maybe the balls and bolts are the possibilities before you've had time to muck them up by cutting wrong or using the wrong needles and being too lazy to start over again on the right ones. I'm not sure why I like to make things so much, but in fact, I do. And lastly, I think, baking. How appropriately seasonal. But I do like baking, and I'm somehow much better at it than at any other sort of cooking. It pains me, but I just really don't have an innate sense of what to do with meats and vegetables. But baking -- that makes sense to me. Yum. And maybe boxes, too, since although it's not fun to have thousands of them clogging up your life, your front porch and your bedroom, and while the odd box full of old National Geographic maps from your great aunt Clara, two broken extension cords, a broken (but useful?) mirror and a shoe may fill you with despair, sometimes a box may be opened to reveal your missing mittens! the measuring spoons! your warm scarf! Christmas presents from your mother! (!!) Also, once emptied, boxes may be useful in helping you to cart it all all away to the Goodwill. Happy Solstice!
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