MIA again/Christmas!

I've been MIA again, haven't I?

Sorry! But you know what? It's Christmastime! Ok, not really. But it is Advent & that means getting prepared for Christmas. This past weekend was awesome- filled with holiday parties, friends, good food & lots of great conversation. On Friday we had a surprise birthday dinner for one of my favorite guys. On Saturday I went to the Grove, the LA Farmers Market & tini (which is way cooler than it appears on the website) with two girlfriends & then built a gingerbread house at my BFF's apartment. Sunday I had coffee & watched Kitchen Impossible with some friends and then had an awesome sushi dinner & watched New Year's Eve with some more friends. Really amazing weekend.

I started to freak out a little about how behind I was on my Christmas Shopping. Thanks to Google Docs I am very aware of who I'm buying for, what ideas I have for them, what's already been purchased, what my budget is and how much I've already spent. It's really been a lifesaver in years past. Unfortunately, this weekend it was just reminding me how much I HAVEN'T done yet! But I remedied that today. I used my VIB gift card at Sephora (free 20 bucks!!). I thought about what I already had in my "this might make a good gift for someone" stash & assigned it to people. Now I have only 3 presents left to buy. So exciting!

How is your Christmas shopping going? Are you making anything? Got any great sales to tip me off to?

FO Friday: Hiphop-o-potomus

My friend brought her little 9 month old daughter to my birthday brunch. Baby G is so freaking cute. She was super well behaved & was quite amused with the dozen adults passing her around. Her momma mentioned that they like hippo things for her. I stayed up a few nights and through together a hat & booties for her.

The hat was just off the top of my head as I went along. The hippo applique was fun. I adjusted the sizing by skipping a few rows for the ones on the shoes. 

I followed GoodKnits' pattern for toddler shoes, but again skipped many rows because Baby G has teensy tiny feet that have barely grown since she was born.

For something I threw together in a couple hours, I'm pretty pleased. If I hadn't been making up the hat & trying to figure out how to reduce the hippo pattern on the fly I think it would have taken half the time. I wrote a little card to Baby G thanking her for coming to my party and sent it off in the mail. They were well received and I can't wait to see her in them!

Naturally, the deets have all been Rav'd.

Lia's Big Adventure: Remember the Alamo

I'm spending the week in Texas visiting my dear friend Christina (from my NET team) and hanging out with my cousin, taking advantage of the fancy suite her work put her up in for a training in Dallas.

The first half of the week I hung out in Georgetown with Christina & her family. Christina is one of my favorite people and her mom is awesome, so it was really fun to get to hang out with them. Chris and I went out for bar-b-que and did a wine tasting at Georgetown Winery. I spent time at the local coffee shop doing my Cyber Monday shopping and bought some books at the used bookstore. We sat at her home talking and I taught her to crochet.

On Tuesday we took a mini road trip down to San Antonio to see the Alamo. I don't know what I expected but when I got there I was really surprised by how small it was.

It was beautiful though. I had never thought about how it was both a mission AND a war memorial. It was so interesting to see details like the names of Mary and St. Anthony statues along side tributes to those involved in the battle.

As a Catholic Chicana this was kind of a weird stop on my trip. I celebrate Mexico's defeat of the French Army on May 5th. I'm very aware that some of my family has been in the Southwestern United States since it was Northwestern Mexico. So is this the site of Mexico's last stand in Texas? Or as an American do I "remember the Alamo" as a huge defeat that became the rallying cry that lead to further victories against the Mexican government? Or as a Catholic do I view it mainly as a sacred place where Mass was celebrated? When it came down to it, all those conflicting feelings obscured each other and it felt like a generic tourist destination for most of my time there. Still, in the quiet moments before it closed, I was reminded of the sacraments celebrated, the lives lost and the sacredness of the space. Later, on the Riverwalk we took a tour boat and the operator told us one hotel was built several stories shorter than planned when it was discovered a taller building would have cast a shadow on the Alamo at sunset. That sort of respect is remarkable and something Texas clearly does a lot better than California, and I'd be willing to bet MOST other US states.

God bless Texas.

Yarn Along: October Leaves

Ginny says: ~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ 

I'm in Texas this week visiting a friend in Austin and later hanging out with my cousin in Dallas. As is always the case, although I have a million books I need to read at home I managed to get to the airport without anything to read on the plane and had to buy one in the airport gift shop. Luckily, The Immortal Life of Herietta Lacks is FINALLY in paperback! You can see my little Anderson Cooper cutout bookmark peeking out the top. I'm about half way through and LOVING this book.

I'm using Dream In Color Everlasting Sock in "basalt" to make some October Leaves Fingerless Mittens for a Christmas gift. Unfortunately, I really detest dpns & I ALSO managed to leave my circs at home. SIGH. I'm not sure this present is going to be made on time. 

This past Sunday my closest friends had brunch with me to celebrate my birthday. I had every intention of giving a little speech, but many many mimosas prevented that from happening. I'll try to express here what I meant to there. While this is addressed specifically to a group of 15 or so that were there that day, it represents my feeling for all my friends and family who have shown so much support over the past month.

This month started out with the worst week of my life. A couple people have been surprised when I've said that. It turned out well, so how could it have been worse than when my mother died? But it was. Sitting by my sister's hospital bed, in the same ICU I sat in multiple times by Mom's, thinking this amazing woman who is like my sister, best friend and daughter all rolled into one might die-- it was worse. But she's better now and there's no way my father, Harold & I could have gotten through that week without some pretty amazing people.

I am incredibly grateful for the people at this table. You visited us at the hospital and made us get out in the fresh air. You talked to me on the phone for hours about my sister, her health, her doctors and stupid drama that had to do with nothing to do with any of that. You translated doctor-speak for my family and helped us understand what was happening. You text messaged asking about Sarah and my dad and me. Even those of you who didn't really know until the crisis was over... you provided inspiration and hope even when you didn't know it. You listened to me vent. You cried with me, showing more empathy and love than I could have imagined before this. You emailed and called and prayed and facebooked and tweeted your love. You loved me and you loved my sister in your own individual ways and now you even showed up on short notice in the rain to be here with me. 

There is no way to express how much all of that means to me. I am so thankful for each and every one of you. I am continuallly surprised by the number of wonderful, quality friends who have opened their hearts to me and can only hope that I am worthy of you. From the bottom of my heart and the depth of my soul, thank you for your friendship and love.

Yarn Along-- While She Was Sleeping

Participating in Ginny for Small Things's Wednesday Yarn Along. Take a picture of the book you've been reading and the knitting you've been...er... knitting and share it with her readers!

I had a LOT of time to read while my sister was in a coma for a week. It started out with a book my BFF re-gifted to me. I purchased The Beauty Of Humanity Movement for her when Kath from Whip Up brought it to my attention. My BFF LOVES pho (that amazingly tasty, simple Vietnamese soup) and Beauty of Humanity revolves around a man who makes it for a living. It was a beautiful book, exploring themes of love, loss, war, revolution, art, bi-cultural issues... it was so wonderful. Next I read The Nakesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, which I purchased at a little second-hand bookshop in the mountains the day before my sister was hospitalized. It was a great follow-up to Beauty of Humanity because it also deals with love, loss and American-born children dealing with bi-cultural issues. I loved it so much that I bought Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize winning book of short stories Interpreter of Maladies. It was also very good, but I think sometimes reading all the work of one author tells you things about them that you perhaps don't want to know. Lahiri seems to have some serious issues with marriage. It reminds me of when I fell in love with John Irving after reading A Prayer for Owen Meanie. I bought all his books and after reading the third weird-sex-ridden book I swore off him forever. Finally, my cousin brought in several magazines and one of them recommended Irma Voth, which I thought would follow my theme of American culture vs culture of birth. Irma is a Mennonite woman who is struggling with tradition. I haven't enjoyed it as much as the others and am still working through it.

The week prior to my sister's hospitalization was a tough one emotionally as well. A big issue was that a friend of mine, who also happened to be the intended recipient of a project I had been working extremely hard on, proved to be very VERY unknitworthy. I was so disappointed that I pulled out all my best yarns- the ones I bought after lusting after them and spent way too much on- and went through my Ravelry favorites and finally decided to cast on a beautiful scarf in some Malabrigo Silky Merino in the colorway I stalked for months- Arco Iris. It's turning out beautifully and I can't wait to wear it. Silky Merino is so soft!

Thank you for putting up with me going missing for so long. My sister is doing SO much better! She's at home now. She's still on an oxygen machine and a ton of meds but just being able to talk to her and see her walking around on her own is amazing.

Hop on over to Small Things and share your projects or just see all the other great knits & reads there!

M.I.A.

I've been missing in action due to a family emergency. My little sister (24 yrs old) has been in the ICU since last Sunday. Prayers are appreciated!