"I'm gifting you in my mind."

If you are a Hutchings, immediately avert your eyes--do not ruin your own Christmas! I'll be very bitter. I'm counting on the idea that you guys never come to this site!

So, pretty much every Christmas--and occasionally some lucky person's birthday--I get wrongly inspired by the well-intentioned thought of gift-giving. And always totally last minute.

To date:

*Several years ago, I purchased a nifty book of hat knitting patterns, complete with fair isle knitting (two or more colors at once), ear flaps, etc., and decided to make all of my Anchorage family sweet homemade gifts for Christmas. I still haven't handed out some of the hats from 2002(?). Maybe it was 2003? All Rod's needs is a tassel and cords (and a liner inside for his sensitive head), Chandra's just needs a tassel and cords, Greg probably tossed his awhile ago (I wasn't very impressed with how his turned out--but at least I finished it!), Amber never even got one, Kaeli's was too big, Chelsea grew out of hers in about two seconds, Robin thought hers was BROWN even though it was a lovely PURPLE--and hers still needs some cords and a tassel.

**I promised my nephew, Tommy, that I would knit him a sweater for his birthday. Last year. We went about it all wrong, buying the yarn first without a pattern. Then finding a pattern that didn't quite fit him (or the thickness of yarn that we bought), but decided that the pattern would be a breeze to alter. I got the back done, then realized that unless I submitted the design to into a calc-based data processing pattern interpreter and waited 200 years for the calculations, my sweater would end up having questionable proportions.

***I knit my sister, Amber, a sweater for that same Christmas as the hats, I think, but never sewed the pieces together, or inserted a zipper. Honestly, there's an almost-made sweater just chilling under my bed, ready for my finishing touch once I sooth my fears of zippers.

****I knit my sister, Chandra, a cardigan back when I lived in Utah, and all it needs is buttons and to be blocked. Have I done this? No. I'm not even quite sure where it is. It's a lovely charcoal, though. I think she'd like it. Also, I have a complete-except-it-has-to-be-sewed-together ballerina sweater completed for her daughter, Brin, keeping Amber's sweater company. She'll likely grow out of it before I get back to that project. Anyone else having a girl? ;o)

*****And so on . . .

In our family, we divvy up the gift-giving this way: Each family buys for one other family (limit $75), rotating through the families every year. Amber and I, by the way, totally score on this system, as we each count as our own separate familes and don't have to split the gift with others. (Please ignore how un-Christmas spirit-y that last sentence sounded. I'm not as selfish as all that! If you look at it objectively, it's not like we're getting a whole lot of other presents, being the one-person families that we are.) This year, I have Robin and Rod's family. What do you give a family? DON'T SAY BOARD GAMES. I love board games, but their family doesn't even really play the ones they have.

Thanksgiving week, I decided to be ambitious and record books on "tape" for them. Rather, books on "mp3". I borrowed Amber's Mac laptop, settled down at the kitchen counter in my housesitting house, and began to read aloud, much to the consternation of the two dogs peering cautiously around the corner at me. I started with Chelsea's book, having a clear idea in mind of what title to pick (a Battle of the Books book--AK school trivia competition), and thinking that hers would probably be the shortest read--"short" being a relative term. Did you know how much longer it takes to read out loud than to yourself? My word. That 290 page book took something like 5:40 to read! I must say, too, that it was hard not to interject comments along the way--I totally figured out the mystery way before the main character. Which should not be something I brag about--it's a book designed for ten-year-olds.

Anyhow, I've decided on the following:

-The Book Thief for Robin and Rod (yeah, that's RIGHT, they'll have to share--that book is long) because it's her next book club book (and I've always wanted to read it).

-Walden for Madison because it's her next book she has to read for school--I figure it might be easier to listen to, if it comes to crunch time. You should have seen the other choices--Grapes of Wrath (over 600 pages), The Great Gatsby (my fine ASD education has permanently scarred me by over-analyzing that book), and other titles I can't remember. Why oh why didn't they save Of Mice and Men until after Christmas? That one's short! Despite owning it, though, I've never read Walden. Maybe it will make me more thoughtful and reflective. Well, that's what I thought about hiking around Mt. Rainier, too. Hmmm . . .

-Still torn on what to read for Kaeli. She's my nearest "kindred-spirit" niece when it comes to reading. What shall I indoctrinate her in next? So many choices. TOO many choices. Sigh.

-And, of course, you already know Chelsea's.

And THAT, my friends, is much more than you ever could have possibly wanted to know about my Christmas prep for this year. Gotta go and find a willing computer to chat to now!