Christmas Eve

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring except for Daryl, who was hunched over a sink for five hours rinsing warps.”

Don’t feel too sorry for me, I would have done this yesterday, but my husband and I went on an adventure…

My husband Kevin and I both travel a lot.  When I travel, I almost always stay with a member of the guild who has hired me to speak or teach.  My husband though, gets to stay in hotels.  I’m not sure who has the better deal, the luxury but lonely anonymity of a hotel, or the home like comfort of another fiber person where you instantly feel like you’ve known them all your life.  No matter, but there is one perk my husband can claim, occasionally he gets a free bonus night in a hotel.  So he came to me with this free night, which had to be used by the end of the year.  Gee, where could we go for one night right before Christmas?  🙂

Well that wasn’t hard.  We drove east to Manhattan, a whopping 30 minutes to the tunnel, and then an hour and a half to actually get to the hotel, since, well, you can’t make rights or lefts in Manhattan between 2-6pm during December!  We finally gave up, crossed our fingers and made an illegal right hand turn, and made it to the hotel Intercontinental on 48th street, and turned over the keys to the doorman.  🙂

NYC in December is spectacular.  It was cold and bright, and beautiful, the decorations didn’t disappoint.  We dumped our bags, and walked across town, passing Rockefeller Center, the tree, and the snowflakes on Saks Fifth Avenue which turned out to be animated on the hour to some terrific music.

The colors were wonderful, the lights were bright, and it was such a treat to be with total strangers, trading cameras, and celebrating the season of light.  I think the colors in the soldier match one of the palettes I’m working on…

We continued across town, stopping at a restaurant, where I had a pomegranate margarita.  🙂

My jacket colors actually competed with my drink!

We continued across town and ended up at the theatre where we had tickets to see Altar Boyz at the New World Stages, where we were last month with our daughter to see Avenue Q.  I enjoyed the musical, the boys were adorable, the dance numbers wonderful, and the whole show was hilarious.

On the way back, we took a small detour to Times Square, the ball is in position on top of the center building, ready for next week’s countdown.

And then I dragged my DH to Saks, where I checked out the window displays, the clothing was beautiful, and their famous animated windows for the holidays were full of color and shape, and whimsy.  I think I saw that palette of colors in my layouts as well.

We drove back to NJ, after a leisurely morning, a quiet breakfast, and a quick cruise through the wonderful architecture of Grand Central Station.  The space is so large, and so ornate, photographs just can’t do it justice.

And so I began the tedious process of just sitting on my butt, on a loom bench parked by the bathroom sink, I like that sink because the porcelain doesn’t get stained from the rinsing dye.  30 yards of warp, and a bunch of miscellaneous skeins and a couple of rayon scarves and five hours later, I got this. 🙂

I won’t know how accurate I was until the warps are completely dry, but I don’t really care.  The palette I was working from was just something to get me going.  I like the colors I’m seeing, and I think the warps will mix well when they are all integrated together.  Anyway, I’m having fun.

And that brought me to dinner time.  The past few years, we started a tradition of All you can Eat Sushi at a local Sushi Bar, with our neighbor and her kids, but she is traveling this year, so we all loaded into the car, and the four of us ate ourselves silly.  I hate all you can eat, because I always overeat, but boy it is fun!  The plates brimming with gorgeous rolls, artfully arranged on colorful plates just made me want to grab my camera for more holiday creative inspiration.  So my family sat rolling their eyes, chopsticks in hand, while I ran around the table taking pictures.

Merry Christmas!