Crafts for Christmas Retreat

I am back at my little house in the North Carolina mountains, rain pattering outside, peppermint mocha in my mug.  I made a quick trip back for a Crafts for Christmas retreat that's happening this week-end.  

I am remembering past autumns when I would make a quick trip to the mountains for a planning week-end for Create in Me.  I could never figure out how to come to both the planning week-end and the Crafts for Christmas week-end.  This year, my schedule is more flexible, there is no in-person planning week-end for Create in Me, the drive is shorter, and I have a house at Lutheridge with a spouse here doing work on the house.  In short, this year I have many more reasons to come.

Yesterday, I got up and was on the road by 4:15 a.m.  Even so, there was more traffic coming out of the city than I expected, and some road construction on I 66.  Eventually, the traffic thinned, and the fog rolled in, which made the merge onto I 81 feel harrowing in the dark.  The trip became much easier after 6:30, once I had more light to see by.

It is a lovely drive, mostly mountains, and yesterday, not too many big trucks barreling by.  I listened to various NPR shows, and marveled at the life of Queen Elizabeth, who died on Thursday.  On Thursday night, I made this Facebook post, which I want to preserve here:  "While many corners of the world discussed what the death of Queen Elizabeth would mean for the larger society, both in and out of England, I was in Church History class, learning about a much more ancient empire (first century Rome). And then I walked back across campus under a mostly full moon, which made me think about empires ancient and modern, how they come and then they go, and the moon shines on, oblivious."

I also loved Monica Hesse's article on Queen Elizabeth, with this insightful summary:  "Was it a fairy tale? Was it feminism? The highest-ranking woman in the world, and her power came not via her hard work or via a wedding ring on her finger but via a chaotic ladder of genealogy reaching through centuries: beheadings and infertility, abdications and overthrowings, all leading up to this singular woman holding the throne longer than anyone had before, or likely ever will again."

Back to yesterday's trip.  Soon enough, I was back home.  We talked about HVAC options, talked about what to have for lunch.  I took a shower while my spouse went to the grocery store. We ate lunch, cleaned up, and talked about a few more house renovation decisions that are coming up.  Then I wandered over to the retreat.

It's held in the big, ramshackle house where my family gathers for Thanksgiving and where my spouse and I stayed for Music Week this summer.  Yesterday, the tables were arranged in stations with a variety of supplies at each station.  As with the Create in Me retreat, there will be so many options to try.

Last night, I made a potholder, in the way that I made potholders as a child, with a loom and loops.  Why did I make a potholder?  I only have one at my seminary apartment, and I'd like to have more.  It was fun until the end, when I had to get the very tight loops off of the loom.  Even so, I marveled at how much progress I've made with my right hand.  Not too long ago, I wouldn't have been able to do this at all:

A few women joined me to make potholders of their own, and we talked about our memories of potholders.  I remembered my grandmother, who kept the potholders that I made for her when I was a child.  They were in her kitchen drawer when she died, even though she hadn't needed them in years.

Then we had pizza for dinner and more conversation, and I headed home to sleep in my own bed.  

Today will be another day of creating for me, while my spouse goes to a church choir retreat to work on music that they will sing from now until Christmas.  I look forward to seeing what we all create today.  What a gift to be able to be here for this time.