Autumn's Birthday Blanket...

....so we had a little family birthday party for Autumn at my parents' house. We actually had the party on Thursday, the 31st...yes, Autumn was a New Year's Eve child. She came screaming into the world a few weeks early and landed right in the middle of not only New Years Eve...but my wedding day as well. So I married the love of my life and got my beautiful, precious granddaughter on the same day!

Anyway...we had this little birthday party for her. It was fun but rather bittersweet too. It was the first of the many separate birthday parties she will have as this divorce her mother has chosen fragments our family. But, the divorce and my feelings about it....and I have MANY feelings about it...are another subject for another day. Let me go back a couple of weeks and give a little history of the birthday gift I gave to my sweet girl.

I crochet. I just recently began this craft again after setting it aside for a few years so Autumn had not seen me crochet until recently. I was croceting a lap blanket for the prayer shawl ministry at my church and Autumn saw it and asked me what it was. I explained that it was a small blanket I was making to give to someone who was sick or going through a hard time and needed to know that God loves them and people were praying for them. She was fascinated by the whole process and with her big blue eyes sparkling at the thought, breathlessly said, "Oh Grandma Honey, I have a great idea. Maybe you could make me a blanket too!" You would have had to have been there to see her face as she said this...it was as if she had asked me to give her a treasure. So, of course I agreed that it was a wonderful idea and asked her what colors she thought it should be. She replied that it should be "all the colors of a rainbow."

That week I went and bought pastel, rainbow colors and set to work on a blanket for her. The next time she came she looked in my bag and saw the blanket and remarked, "Oh Grandma Honey, this would be a beautiful blanket if it was the colors of a rainbow and had my pink in it." So of course I asked her, "So those aren't the colors of a rainbow? Maybe we should go to the store and you should show me what colors are in a rainbow."

This is the original one, with the colors I picked



So..off we went to look at yarn. She was so cute and went directly to a bin of BRIGHTLY colored varigated yarn of neon pink, orange, turquoise, yellow, and green. Not at all the colors I would have ever picked! She was so adorable picking out the colors that she actually drew a crowd of people watching her choose! So we purchased the bright colored yarn and the pastel afghan was put on the shelf without her ever knowing it was intended to be for her.




As we were paying for the yarn, she excitedly told the cashier that her Grandma Honey was going to make her a blanket of her very own,with all the colors we picked and she turned to ask me when it would be ready. I told her that I would have it for her birthday. The following week when she saw that I hadn't started working on it yet, she was incredulous! She just looked at me with that "I can't believe this!" look on her face and said, "Grandma Honey! you haven't started on my blanket yet?!" It was too funny...and I started on it that day...LOL.

As her birthday drew closer she began giving me reminders that the day was coming and letting me know in her little, almost four year old way that she expected her blanket to be ready. "Grandma, my birthday is in 7 more days."..."5 more days"...."it's almost here"..LOL. I think that somewhere along the way she decided that it wasn't going to be ready or that she wasn't really sure...I don't really know. But for whatever reason...she was surprised when she opened the package and found her blanket inside. She was so excited and her reaction made several of us women in the room cry!

Here's how it went...

She was opening her packages and it came time for her to open the one with the blanket in it. As she pulled the paper out and realized what was in the bag she just lit up and exclaimed, "It's my blanket!!!"



Once she was able to get it out of the bag she hugged it to herself and began to jump up and down and dance with it, finally running and showing it to her Daddy and explaining to him, "Grandma Honey made me my very own colorful blanket so I'll always be warm!"

Yes...it made me cry...LOL







When I had the idea to use my ability to crochet to spread love and encouragement to those facing difficult things I never dreamed that my precious granddaughter would be one of the first to receive one of my creations. It's funny how God chooses to arrange things sometimes...don't you think?