Last Minute Gifts

My daughter called to let me know she was planning to spend part of Christmas Eve with me. So we planned to go to the mall, have a chai and watch the last minute shoppers hurry about. Before I had children I would do this with a good friend each Christmas Eve. I had to explain the "tradition" to my daughter.  

Pillows with Dog Images

While we were out I asked if she had finished the gifts she was working on. She had decided to make some decorative pillows for her boyfriend's family. They were customized with silhouettes of the family's pet dogs. She said she had not finished them yet, but would be working on them tonight. I thought sometime around midnight she might be calling to have me help finish them, but I did not hear from her. 

On Christmas Day, I had just placed a turkey breast into the oven when the phone rang. It was my daughter asking me if I could help her with about five minutes worth of sewing because she was having trouble with her machine. At first I asked if she wanted help with the machine but she just wanted me to sew instead. I said I would help her, but I knew the five minutes estimate was just lunacy.

When she arrived she was already an hour and a half late to her original destination, so I hoped that she was going to be able to be patient while I helped her finish the pillows. She wanted me to stitch around the designs, sew in the zipper and sew up the pillows. There were four pillows, so four zippers and several dog designs on the pillows. I zig-zag stitched over the designs, added the zippers, sewed up the sides of the pillows. She trimmed the corners and turned the pillows inside out, added the pillow form, and gift wrapped them as I finished each pillow. 

All the while, I was having my son check the timer I had set for the turkey breast to cook. As the time counted down I was telling him which item to add to the oven, or start working on. It took a couple of hours for me to finish all of the top stitching and sew the pillows for her. By the time we had finished working on the pillows Christmas dinner was ready to serve and all I had had to do was start the turkey and make the gravy after everything else was finished. That was probably the easiest holiday meal I had ever made, thanks to a lot of help from my son.

 

I think my daughter's pillows turned out pretty nice too. I wonder if she will need help again the next time she decides to make something.

From  Etymology Online Dictionary

lunacy (n.) 

1540s, "condition of being a lunatic," formed in English from lunatic + -cy. Originally in reference to intermittent periods of insanity, such as were believed to be triggered by the moon's cycle. The Old English equivalent was monaðseocnes "month-sickness."

assist (n.) 

1570s, "an act of assistance," from assist (v.). In the sporting sense attested 1877 in baseball, 1925 in ice hockey.

assistance (n.) 

early 15c., "act of helping or aiding," from Middle French assistance, from assister (see assist (v.)).

assistant (n.) 

mid-15c., assistent "one who helps or aids another," from Middle French assistent, adjective and noun, properly present participle of assister (see assist (v.)).