I've been doing a fair amount of Christmas knitting these past couple of months, so there's not much I can show right now. (Just in case...you never know.)

I did manage to squeeze in time to make myself a new hat, which I love.


(Raveled here)

6 days ago was the 6 month anniversary of Chuck's death. We celebrated our first major holiday without him, Thanksgiving. My MIL and hubs lightheartedly joked about it being strange not having him commentating on the food and barking orders about how to prepare everything. But there was this unspoken sadness and uneasiness hanging over that day. I imagine Christmas is going to be the same way. It's been sad for me to not have the yearly quest of finding a suitable gift for Chuck, who was the most difficult person in the world to buy a gift for. Finding something that was the right balance of practical, useful, and cool, was admittedly something I looked forward to. I miss it.

The family has finalized plans to scatter some of his ashes this coming June in Edisto. It's weird because I'm looking forward to it but dreading it at the same time. It's going to be hard to say goodbye all over again but I think that it's also going to give Lillian the chance to say goodbye since she didn't really get to. I know that it will be better for her to say goodbye this way, when everyone has had a year to grieve already and when we are on vacation, making happy memories at the same time. But it's going to be weird to be in South Carolina without him *really* there. Maybe I'll finally be able to talk Jim into taking Lilly fishing.