Preparations . . .

After removing the epaulettes from the long, hunter green wool coat we found as a possibility for Daughter #1 for her mission, and then having worn it to church, she decided that it would indeed work, if I lengthened the sleeves.

OK.

Later on in the evening, she turned her big, hazel, puppy-dog eyes on me and said, "Maman, could you, very sweetly, knit me a pair of mittens and a beret to match my new coat? For my mission?"

I considered the long list of Things I Have To Get Done, more specifically, Things I Have To Get Done Before Christmas, and figured I could fit in another one before 14Jan2009. If days were extended to 26 hours. I said, "You want mittens? Or would you rather have gloves?"

So today I went out to my local yarn shop, The Wool Cabin 2020 East 3300 South, Suite 11 (at East Ivy Place) Salt Lake City, UT 84109, 801-466-1811mailto:84109801-466-1811woolcabin@gmail.com, and looked at different yarns. I really wanted to make them in merino wool, which isn't itchy and is still very warm. All the info I have on Korea is M*A*S*H reruns, as I have said, and they were always freezing in that show. But the lovely and informative proprietress talked me into an acrylic/wool blend which would be less expensive, washable, and also came in millions of colors, including a hunter green that exactly matched that coat.

I am halfway done with Glove #1, and waiting anxiously for the beret pattern to show up in my email box, since I've already paid for it. Anxiously . . . waiting . . . anxiously . . .

And I'm not the only one who is excited. Here is an exerpt from Daughter #1's blog:

"It's amazing what having five weeks will do to you. I have suddenly discovered the energy to attack my life instead of just dragging myself through it for lack of anything better to do. My bed is made, my room is clean--I've even managed to do my hair, actually do it, with a hairbrush and accessories, in the morning. And when I'm not plowing through the Book of Mormon or playing phone-tag with the bishop or the International Travel clinic, I'm flicking through my "Let's Learn Korean In A Big Hurry" flash cards, muttering to myself. I want to get things done, to be ready, to get going. . . . I keep going to bed early, the sooner to be in another day in which I'm that much closer to going to Korea, and the better to be functioning for phone-tag and flash cards. My call letter promised me that serving a mission would bring me joy beyond anything I'd known before. I think that the second I read the word 'Korea' may, in fact, qualify as the happiest single instant in the whole of my life to date, and I've been generally more thrilled about everything in the past week than I could have pictured myself being. I know the Lord's promises are sure, I just didn't think they'd kick in before I'd actually left. I'll go eat breakfast now, in case you're having a crummy morning and I'm grating on your nerves."

You wouldn't know, from this entry, that Christmas is a week away.