cause i'm just that stupid...

my family chose many years ago to celebrate our 'family christmas' on martin luther king weekend. we have grown into such a large, unwieldy lot, that it just made sense to find a time without all the insanity of the holiday bustle to come together and enjoy. now, my mom is in her nineties, my sisters share a large age range, their children have children, and folks live out of state, so it is a  huge deal to gather us all together. as is often the way, it is the estrogen owners that really make this tick. we plan the menu, choose the time, muster the troops and have passed down the glue to keep it together. this year there will be about thirty of us meeting in my big old house for an afternoon of food, drink and gifts.
the tradition has been for the ladies to craft their gift. back in the day, you crafted for everyone. when we were up to 15 gifts, we let that craziness tradition go and went to a simple name draw. we even added the option that while the gift had to be hand-crafted, it need not be by your hands. then there were the kids. they span in range from diapers to teenagers so we adopted the name draw for them.
anyone who has been reading knows that my name will be the happy owner of a wine cardigan. it was touch and go there for a bit as they were all being scooped up, but i saved an extra special one. i knit it with hand spun and used buttons from mom's button box. add in a lovely finger lakes wine and voila, gift!
here's where i went off the rails. the kid's name draw could have easily become a gift card exchange. in the true spirit of the season, i felt that we should try to mirror the ladies gift and craft at least a part of the gift. (it seems i was under the influence of a sassy merlot when i came upon this plan) the young lady we have will get a super yummy set of flannel pj's and a pair of hand-crafted earrings. so far, so good. the young lad, well young lad should say it all. i knuckled under and went the itunes route, but then learned that he has taken to the slopes, learning to ski. well, that was all the info i needed to decide that a neck warmer would be perfect. the family agreed, but what to knit it from? i searched, fondled, passed skeins around, debated about color and finally had to admit that i didn't have any yarn that would do. stop laughing! yes, there is un-tallied pounds of yarn, fiber, and so forth on the premises, but i needed something specific. so off i went to the yarn store today and found a lovely alpaca/wool blend in charcoal. ideal for a teen boy at a price point that won't break my heart if he hates it.

notice the use of my electronic device? i'm quite please with my leap into this century. if only it could knit it for me. by saturday.