Never give up, that's my motto...

I love Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  As a child, I only knew it as the written story.  Then somewhere along the line, probably on late night tv, I saw the 1938 film with Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge. Of course, I've since seen a lot of newer film versions, too, including a modern adaptation, Scrooged, with Bill Murray.  And, I remember at least two animated versions, one that must be a Walt Disney interpretation starring one of Donald Duck's relatives and another with Mr. Magoo as Scrooge.  I admit it -- if there's an adaptation of Carol, I'm likely at least to give it a chance.  (There's even a free audiobook version available through LibriVox on archive.org.)  But it has to be pretty darn good (and few are) to merit a second viewing because Dickens' words are wonderful all on their own.

For 11 years I've been planning to see A Christmas Carol at Blackfriars Playhouse.  It's Dickens' work adapted for the stage, it's nearby and it's always performed by talented actors -- this year ASC's Almost Blasphemy Tour troupe.  Every year, I remember to check out the performance schedule months in advance and even go so far as to write in a few "good dates" on my calendar.  Then other things come up.  Things that, like this play, are only happening during the Christmas season.  And another year goes by.

But early last week a friend forwarded a note about a full dress rehearsal scheduled for Sunday evening and open to the public.  It wasn't on my calendar.  And we didn't have anything else on the calendar for that night, either.  So we finally made it to Blackfriars to see Carol.  And, boy, am I glad we did.  It was great!!  Now I just need to put it on the calendar for next year because we want to go back and watch it all over again...

It's started.

There are a lot of things I should be doing.  But earlier this week I spent some time crafting -- working on a Christmas tree-themed gift for a swap on Chickens in the Road.

Once again my camera's failing me on color translation but, trust me, I think I'm channeling Dr. Seuss this year.  The green in the green-and-red print fabric reminds me of the Osage-orange globes my mom gave me this fall. (Osage orange trees are rare around here so naturally I want one...)

I went searching for handmade gift ideas and quickly found the appliqued tea towel pattern.  From there it was easy to decide on the knitted dishcloth I found through Ravelry and then, when I had a few scraps of the printed fabrics leftover, I found the patchwork ornaments through a fun November challenge titled "No Ugly Ornaments".  I think I'm going to try #19, the origami dress ornaments next.

Today it's back to regular chores and I need to put up some more taco soup as DH and DS finished the last jar in November and are demanding a refill.  But 'tis the season and all that, so I'll be back with another project to show off share shortly.