A Christmas Reminder

Twenty-seven years ago, my mother-in-law passed away on Christmas Day.  From the time my first child was born, she had presented each of the grandchildren with an ornament for Christmas.  When she was gone, I continued the tradition, choosing appropriate ones for my sons each Christmas - a tooth with a little mouse dentist when DS2 thought he might want to be a dentist, ski and bike ornaments for DS1, soccer and baseball for DS2 and EMT and nursing ornaments for DS1, and so it goes.  

This year is sort of a low key celebration.  Neither of my sons could make it for Christmas Day and, without any grandchildren, the time of shopping for just the right toy or electronics has long passed.  DH and I did a little shopping, but we forgot the ornaments, despite reminding each other about the tradition.

On Christmas Eve afternoon, with the baking and decorating finished, I sat at the piano practicing.  There was no one else in the room with me and we no longer have any pets.  There were certainly no drafts in the room.  Suddenly I heard a tinkling of ornaments from the tree.  There was absolutely no explanation for it, but it suddenly reminded me that we had forgotten to buy ornaments.  I called the Christmas Loft and they were still open.  We jumped in the car and sped off to buy them as we traditionally did.  I felt as if my mother-in-law had sent me a reminder.  

That night, at the Christmas Eve service, a member of the choir sang “Ave Maria” for the first time in the twenty some odd years that we have attended Trinity Church.  It was the one piece that my mother-in-law had requested at her funeral.  Both DH and I sat there with tears rolling down our faces as we thought of her with love (and a thank you for the reminder).

What Happens While You're Sleeping

So do you ever wonder what you cat(s) do while you are sleeping?  Well, I’ve found the answer to that question and all you need is a skein of yarn.

Two weeks ago I had rotator cuff surgery and our two four-month-old kittens have been shut out of our bedroom because of all the cords involved with my cryo-cuff and TENS unit (both of them love to chew cords) and to keep them from jumping on me when I was trying to sleep.  They have been annoyed at being excluded and last night they let us know.

DH got up early to take the kittens to the vet to be neutered and spayed and informed me that they had gotten into some yarn.  I’ve been keeping my yarn out of reach or in covered container because they love to play with it.  However, unbeknownst to me, there was skein of yarn that I had brought home from my mom’s when we emptied her apartment 4 years ago (See blog entry for July 8, 2008 to lean more about this yarn.) stuffed in the bottom of the basket on the stairs.

When I came downstairs, I followed the yarn, rewinding it.  It started in the basket, went through the dining room and the kitchen into the family room where it was wrapped around DH’s computer chair.  From there it went back through the kitchen and the dining room and around one the legs of my spinning wheel.  Next to my spinning wheel was a tangled mass of yarn.  The yarn maze continued around one leg of the newspaper holder and then on into the guest room.  It went under the bed (where there was another tangled lump of yarn) and back out the same side of the bed.  Then it went over the top of the bed (another large tangle right in the middle of the bed) and down the other side.  There was another messy mass of yarn on the floor before it went under the bed and out the other side.  On it went back through the dining room, around one of the dining room chairs and into an open basket that they use as a playground.  In the basket was another tangled mess which led back to my spinning wheel, around the leg again, back under the guest bed and ended with a tangled mass of yarn back at the bottom of the stairs where it all began.  

It took the better part of an hour to follow the trail, untangle the yarn and roll it into a ball.  Luckily the kittens were not here to assist in the project.  The yarn has been stored in an out of the way place, but at least now I know what they do at night while we’re sleeping.