Christmas is coming...

I have all but one mitten done out of my Christmas knitting. I should be working on it now, actually, instead of getting caught up on the KR Forums and typing this. But oh well. I'll felt this pair at my parents' tomorrow night, hopefully without my mom finding them, but if she does, I'll explain the process to her. She'll either be really interested in it or not interested at all in it, but she will definitely enjoy the thought of handmade mittens! Still have to finish Bubby for Gift Elf. I'm probably a terrible gift elf. She'll get it after Christmas. I'm going to take the mittens, Bubby, and the Sockotta socks with me to my parents'. I doubt I'll get much knitting done there, but I do have all that airplane time, and all of them are fairly close to completion.

I got a phone call from my friend Matt, whose son Ethan was the recipient of the Scallop Baby Afghan I made a while back. He said that (for some reason) they just recently got it, but he and Misti (Ethan's mom) both love it and the baby himself has been sleeping with it since it showed up. That warms the heart, the picture of a little one curled up nice and warm in a New York winter because of something I made.

And I needed that news, particulary on the day I got the message, because:

The opera is kicking my ass. After coming home in rants the past week, I finally had to break down, put my foot down, and say "No, I am not coming in to run rehearsals for the first two shows. I am not contracted to work on those shows. I am not getting paid anything extra to do any work on those two shows. I have already rehearsed two full operas. I am not spending more of my time and energy to start a third one, much less a fourth one, even if they are just being reblocked. That's why you hired another stage manager, remember?" It went over surprisingly well. Of course, as Steve pointed out, what were they going to do? Fire me for not doing work that wasn't my job and they weren't paying me for? If they try, I'm gladly leaving, and I'm taking my books with me. That includes all of the paperwork I've generated. All of the blocking notes. All the props lists. All the scene change choreography. All of it.

So now I have just over a week mostly off before tech starts because the other two shows are in rehearsal. I'm suddenly feeling much more confident and energized about it. I can now do this again. It's a nice feeling. And I'll get knitting time again. After Christmas, so it will all be for ME! Muha!

Steve and I are doing Christmas tonight! Yay! I get to finally give him Pasha! And a few other odds and ends, of course =) We're going to have a nice chicken dinner, including pumpkin pie, Christmas music, and presents. And relaxation. Which reminds me, I have to wrap the last of his presents and go to the grocery store.

After I finish this row...really...