Christmas, and knitted Teddy Bears

Well, here I am again. I still haven't found the cable for my digital camera. That's such a bummer, because I see such beautiful blogs, and mine is going to be pretty boring for now.

Well, Christmas was wonderful around my house. Have you ever noticed how as you get older the presents you recieve get less and less exciting than they were when you were younger. After all, they don't make as many cool toys for adults. Yes you get some "Nice" things, and a new book is always appriciated, but nothing like the pure excitement that you once had as a child getting up at 3am and peeking in the stocking to see what Santa had left you. It didn't matter that you knew Santa was really your parents, or that you probably asked for half the stuff that you got, it was still exciting.

These days, I live for my kid's excitement. They are 4 and 2, and just barely learning what Christmas entails. This might be why I have been so excited about Christmas for them. There are no expectations, or pouting sessions because they didn't get what they wanted. They're excited to get ANYTHING. But the look on their faces when they opened their presents, and then their total attatchment to them for the rest of the day made everything exciting for me again. Just like when I was younger. That, I think is really what Christmas is about. I wish I could always find the perfect gifts so that everyone would appriciate them as much as my 2 yr old loved her new baby doll.

In the hopes of kicking my Final Fantasy habit, I have taken up knitting once again. I've been on a knitting kick for proabably a month or a little more now. I have also realized that since I'm not mindlessly sitting on FFXI (Final Fantasy Online), I have spent WAY too much time reading blogs, surfing websites, and checking my e-mail. I keep hoping that someone has e-mailed me, and when they haven't, I sigh, and go back to my surfing. I should be cleaning up the living room, or playing with the kids, or heaven forbid doing laundry! But, no, I sit here and surf the net, as my connection to the outside world. I think I need more variety of sites to visit. On one of these long excursions through cyberspace, I ran across a free teddy bear pattern here:

I imediately ran out and bought some Bernat Boa yarn in black and completed the bear with some Red heart grey yarn I had in my stash. I gave it to my niece for her first birthday on the 18th. I have a picture of it in my camera, but like I said, I still can't find the cable.

Well, after that bear turned out so fantastic, I went looking for more toy patterns, and ran across a couple of awesome books: "The Knitted Teddy Bear" by Sandra Polly and "Teddy Bears" by Debbie Bliss. I am currently engrossed in making the Aviator bear from the Debbie Bliss book. I have great plans to make lots of clothes for these little bears, but have no idea what I'm going to do with them after that. Currently I have 2 legs, 2 feet pads, and 1 1/2 arms completed. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out!