Happy feast of our blessed Lord’s birth! We’ve had a lovely holiday here in our new home. It’s so much quieter than we’re used to, which translates to holidays being less work, so we’re thankful. We went to a community feast Monday night:
We had a family birthday party for Jesus last night,
Spent yesterday afternoon at a kids Christmas carnival:
Threw Jesus a birthday party at home, complete with games and finger food and candles, then Jared did a late Christmas Eve service while I had some late night spinning time.
This morning we played it cool, making like we’d stick with our usual practice of doing presents on the 26th since Jared has so much work on Christmas Day. But after arriving at church I made some excuse to sneak home and play Santa.
Church was fun; a communion service with lots of people and caroling. Church is hard work for me these days as I’m the self-appointed kid wrangler, so no pictures. The kids enjoyed today’s craft and mine were totally not expecting presents at home. It was worth it for the surprise on the kids faces!
We’ve gotten to FaceTime with family, play games, eat lots of treats, and are generally winding down.
I’ve tried to live into the intermixing of Advent and Christmas by remembering those we’ve lost this year. Seems like I know a lot of people who lost a parent or other close loved one this year. I’ve thought a lot about my anaananguaq.
Another way of seeing a celebration as an anticipation is to think of it as a memory of the future. Like in the Eucharist, in the anamnesis, we’re remembering Jesus sharing the last supper with his friends and making a new covenant, but we’re also anticipating the wedding feast to come. Christmas is a celebration of the incarnation, but in remembering those we used to celebrate with in the flesh, I can’t help but also anticipate celebrating with them again in heaven. So memory of the past turns into a sort of memory of the future.
This isn’t what I set out to write about. I set out to write about towels. But so go Christmas feelings.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, the big weaving project I worked on through October and November was a big batch of tea towels to send for Christmas presents. Now that they are (almost) all in the hands of their new owners, I can tell you about them!
I wove through Liz Gipson’s 201 class, which is all about beginning colorwork. I actually made 14 towels, but close enough. Over this Christmas season, I’ll talk about what I learned, which was a lot, and show you the exciting results. If you thought the possibilities were endless with knitting, just wait till you learn about weaving!
I’ll start tomorrow with the first pair. I hope you’re having a special day, and that even if it’s a sad Christmas for you, that the incarnate Christ meets you there with his resurrection joy. God bless you.
Osborn Fiber Studio 