A special Christmas surprise.

Imagine my shock when I saw a Canada Post truck on a Sunday! And then - it stopped at my driveway!! And left a box on our stoop!!!

A box from Deanne Fitzpatrick that contained
• an amazing little mat that is a likeness of me (in case you couldn’t tell – sorry for the bad pic, but my digital camera chose last night to die and this is a phone pic)
• a handmade soapstone hook that feels unbelievable in my hand
• a Christmas card and lots of other newsy bits.

You may be wondering why I should be so lucky as to receive this amazing gift from this talented lady, so let me tell you the story.

When I attended the symposium in Amherst, Deanne was quite taken with one of my homemade sweaters – so, after mulling it over in my head, and knowing that her knitting prowess is limited to scarves, I offered to knit her one. If she provided the yarn, I would provide the sweater. It was a relatively easy pattern – so I knew it wasn’t a crazy thing to offer. She offered to pay me to do so, but I figured we could come up with a better barter than $$.

Before I finished the knitting and sent the sweater to her, she emailed with an idea. She wanted to hook a little mat of me wearing the sweater. (See, I told you there would be something better than $$ - way better.). I was thrilled.

And that was what was inside the box delivered on a Sunday by Canada Post.

I love the mat. It is bright and cheery and makes me smile. I love my sparkly hair!!! I love that she hooked the little sweater in yarn - so appropriate. There’s something so personal about this – so much better than any other trade I could have imagined. And, as Deanne wrote in her diary a while ago, it was such an easy trade. No effort at all to make it happen. I think it was just meant to be.

I will have to take a better picture when my camera is either repaired or replaced, so you can truly appreciate how wonderful it is. But I just couldn’t wait to share it.

Tonight as I am wrapping all my gifts – many of them hand made – I will feel proud to give them, because I have been reminded (in the absolutely best way) about just how great it is to receive something that was made just for you.