Welcome back everyone! My friends, my tree is up and lit! I claim zero credit. The poor thing stood sad and bare for over a week before my mother had mercy and decorated it for me. This morning, I'm sitting on my couch watching the lights twinkle and it is making me feel very content with the world. If you're all thinking, wow, this girl is super spoiled, yes, yes I am. My mom absolutely loves me and I shamelessly lap it up.
My parents occasionally ask me when I'm going to get married and produce offspring and I look at them like they're crazy. I have the greatest deal in the world. There's no way I'm giving it up. There is not a single person in the world who will love me as much as my mom. Never mind that as soon as I have kids, my mom is immediately going to love them more than she loves me. They are guaranteed to be way cuter than me and that’s just not going to work for me. As far as I’m concerned, my mom sealed her own fate.
The worst part is that I’ve been tormenting her tons lately. John and Ash came for a quick visit a couple of weekends ago and there was a brief moment where it looked like they weren’t going to make it before we found out they would. I’ve never seen my mom go from despair to joy so fast. I’ve teased her for years about how John is her favourite child. John likes to pretend he’s super neglected but he has always been everyone’s favourite. I heard him crack a joke once about how he gets to do whatever he wants and everyone will still love him and I laughed and said that I was glad he recognized the truth.
The conversation about favouritism has been going around my family lately. I went to visit an aunt on the weekend and she said there had been a whole scene at her house the day before on the topic. I laughed because I could see how that would play out. I’ve known who her favourite was for as long as she has had two daughters but she loves to live in the lie that she doesn’t have a favourite. Now I’m not a parent but I’m pretty sure that all parents have a favourite and I’m also pretty sure all kids know who the favourite is. Unfortunately for her both of her daughters know who the favourite is so I don’t know who she thinks she’s fooling. I’m sort of dreading the day when Mila and Paige find out. I’m not naming names but I definitely know who it is.
I think the one that is the least favourite will always wonder, though, what makes them different from their sibling. When my aunt told me that she didn’t have a favourite, I felt empathy for my cousin because it’s kind of gotta suck to not only not be the favourite but then to also have your feelings on the matter negated. I don’t know when I stopped caring about who was the favourite but I think I was still pretty lucky because there was still a lot of love to go around. I didn’t mind that John got a little extra love because I loved him a little extra as well. I also recognized that my mom and I always had a special type of bond of our own and that was good enough for me. Now that we’re all adults it hardly seems to matter. John gets to be the favourite because he’s the youngest, the only son and also the one that’s away but I’m always going to be the lucky one because mom and I get to be best friends and that definitely counts for something.
I’m still plugging away at my Christmas making. It’s going very slowly but we’re getting there. On top of all of that I, impulsively, signed up for a sweater test knit for Annie Haas (or @this.bird.knits for those of you on Instagram). I’m hoping to have her finished by next week and once I get the go, I’m really looking forward to telling you all about it. I’m also working on something for Ash and I’m worried that I’m not going to pull it off. It’s a surprise so I’m not letting anything slip but if I do pull it off, I’ll let you know after Christmas.
That’s it for me for this week! Until we speak again PEACE to you and yours, and as always, happy knitting!