I'm Home Again

We went to my mother's for Christmas. We weren't supposed to. We had spent Thanksgiving at my parents house and were supposed to spend Christmas here. But my mother knows me well and when she starts the "I guess there's no reason for me to bake" and "We probably wont even put up the tree" stuff, she has me and she knows it. It was a nice Christmas though and she did promise to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house next year.

Really, it would be better for them to come here in a way. I know it's a two hour drive and they are getting older, but mom really doesn't cook much any more and it wears her out to do the big meals. I ended up cooking most of the Thanksgiving dinner. I guess she felt guilty about it because she didn't let me help as much for Christmas. We did it together. I don't know, I'm not sure what the right thing to do is. I'll just have to pray about it.

My husband and I bought gifts for the boys and my parents but not for each other this year. We had, had to spend $300 on insureance for our sons car, $200 for new tires, and we still have to replace a fuel pump on one of the vehicles which will cost around $150. We also need to purchase some propane this week. That will come to around $150 - $200. So we said that we would wait until after the New Year.

I couldn't stand to see my husband not have a present though, so I made him a lap quilt. He caught me at the end. I was cutting apart an old pair of work pants of his to use in the boarder. He looked at me and asked "What you doing?" and I replied "oh nothing." He just smiled. Later he caught me ironing the pieces after I had cut them into 4 inch strips and again he asked "What cha doing?" and again I replied "Oh nothing." He stood there a minute smiling and then said "It doesn't look like nothing." I looked over at the pile of dark blue 4 inch strips of ironed cloth that I had turned his pants into and thought hard for something to say that wouldn't give it away. I opened my mouth to speak and out tumbled "Your pants seem to have some holes in them." He looked at me with a wide eyed, my wife has gone mad look for a seconded. At that point I said "It's okay, I can fix them. We have the technology." He looked at me for a second more and then doubled over in laughter. I said "No really I can." He walked out of the room shaking his head and laughing all the way to the living room.

I stayed up after he had gone to bed all night Saturday and a fair part of Sunday night tying the knots to hold the top and back together. I placed it in a shoe box, wrapped it up and put it under the tree. I got to bed around 2:00 in the morning and was up again at 6:00 so the boys could open their presents. Needless to say I was tired but I was also nervous because I really wanted him to like his gift. When my husband opened his present from me I didn't know what to think. He didn't say a whole lot. He pulled it out of the box, unfolded it, and then just sat there smoothing the the cloth with his hand while he looked at it. He didn't say a word. He still hasn't but when we were watching TV today, he sat down beside me and wrapped us both up in it. When he went to bed he took it with him. He has carried it around the house kind of like Linus does his.

It really wasn't much of a present. It's not very fancy. Just a bunch of scrap fabric I had on hand, sewn in a pretty simple pattern because I didn't have much time; but I think he likes it. I hope he likes it. I just wanted him to know how special I think he is. I just wanted him to have a present.