Okay. I'll Wear The Hat.

But You Will Pay.

"Okay. I will wear this stupid, ratty, Santa Claws hat. I will wear it for exactly fifteen seconds and then I will try to shred it, as many cats before me have attempted, ever since you knitted it in a moment of cabernet-induced inspiration. Even cats know that you should never actually do something if you think it is a good idea when you are drinking...

...and, by the way, you have seven seconds left ... so you better take a picture."







And so it was done, the annual Cat-in-The-Santa-Claws-hat picture, and thank you very much, Annie. It was your turn, after all. Bella was Santa Claws last year.

So it's Christmas Eve.

Our little tree is decorated in the living room, and outside, due to the lack of a hard freeze so far this year, Plantzilla remains robust, so she has been adorned with lights ....





...and the picture above is maybe a great excuse for someone to hint at my husband that all I want for my too-close-to-Xmas birthday is a tripod, so I can do night shots with a long exposure without it looking like I have had maybe too much of the Bailey's.


Knitting is done, except for Dave's vest, which he will have to get on Boxing Day. Years, ago, we adopted the fine tradition of Boxing Day, on the 26th, to begift one another and to begift friends.

Mom's pullover is done and wrapped. Why do garments look so awful on hangers? Sigh. But a hanger will have to do for display purposes, as I have no Mom-like model and this is a surprise. It's done in a superwash wool for easy care and casual wear:




And gifts are wrapped, with a little help from Bella and maybe also from the aforementioned Bailey's. In the photo below, Bella is inspecting some of my handspun.

It's so easy for a knitter who spins to think of something to give to other knitters. Knitters never whine and say, "but you gave me yarn last year!"





And best of all, two years and four months after Katrina, Mom's house is done, inside and out. That is a long time to wait for your house to be fixed, but it's done. There are a few window screens left to paint and to re-screen, and a few other little details remain, but Mom's house is essentially finished, down to the exterior paint job:

The color is called, "Enchanted Sea," and I'm quite fond of it. If you're not from the area, you may not know that many New Orleanians paint wooden houses in bright, cheerful colors -- cerulean blue, hyacinth, carnation pink, mango orange, you name it. It's a local tradition, and so much more interesting than the whites and neutral colors you see in so many other cities. There is also an old New Orleans belief that bright blue keeps evil spirits away (particularly when applied to the front door). You'll find this belief among the Gullah people in the American Southeast as well.

So I'm relaxed and happy this Christmas Eve. We had gumbo for dinner, the cats got treats and catnip, and I got most of my knitting done. I've talked to lots of friends and family on the phone. I am as done as I'm going to get.

Happy Christmas. Thanks for being a reader. I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday and that Santa leaves you sacks full of yarn.