Thanksgiving Eve

It's 8:30 on the night before Thanksgiving.  ML will be in later from a friend's movie-watching party.  And Andrew is on the other side of the world.

It's hard having him so far away at Thanksgiving.  I keep reminding myself that he is just on the other side of the world.  But I miss him.

One of my eighth grade students brought a hand-knitted hat to me on Monday.  "It's for your son in China," she said.  "My mom made it for him because it is so cold there."  I was deeply touched.  I meant to take a picture of it--but remembered after it was already packed.

He is not real warm. He stays bundled up, but the temperature is hovering around 0 degrees.  He has heat in his apartment, but it's on the first floor--and heat rises.

Today I packed a small box with that hat, the scarf I knitted earlier that was to go in the box we couldn't mail (found out too late that you can't mail used clothing into China), a "gator" which Mike says keeps your neck warm, and a Carolina knitted hat just to make him smile.  I also included gluten-free snacks--not because he is on a gluten-free diet but because he said that that if you state that on the customs form, it helps get things past the censors without their looking into packages.  (Apparently none of them are gluten-free.)  And he said there is someone there who will be glad for them.

I walked into the post office with the package at 4:37.  And discovered that the post office closes at 4:30.  Se la vie, or however you spell it.  Guess I'll send it on its way on Friday instead.  And hope and pray that the censors really are gluten-free.