2. I actually disagree to some extent with Janie on the homemade gift thing. I loved your monsters!

But the homemade gifts can be confusing and perplexing. Sometimes.

OK, let me back up, because I really did like your yarn animals. I don’t think it MUST be this way with the gifts that are homemade, but in my life experience, it often has been. Gifts that someone actually spent more than about $1.75 to buy me more often seemed directed at my individual qualities with which that person became familiar via actually knowing me. Meanwhile, gifts that were homemade often seemed mass-directed.

I mean, I get it, I really do. You want to be all holiday-esque and give your peeps some stuff, and it’s way easier to make 10 batches of the same cookie recipe and hand them out to all. And it’s always nice when others think of you, it is.

So why don’t I just buck up and feel festive that someone gave me anything at all? Well, back to the perplexing part. Mostly, about what to do with some gifts.

No, I really can’t eat a dozen cookies made with wheat. Nope. No can do. So, should I regift them? “Hi there, here’s some homemade cookies. No, actually I didn’t make them. Someone you don’t know did. But they’re fine. I just can’t eat them because they’d make me ill. But not YOU! You’d be fine. Really! YOU should eat them.”

I’ve also been gifted a homemade vest made from yarn all the colors of the rainbow, with gold and silver flecks too. And bells on the edges. The giver did say she gave the same thing to several people.

Anyone who gives me rainbow-colored gold-flecked clothing, then acts surprised when I don’t wear it in their presence . . . just really hasn’t been paying attention.

I think with homemade clothing, some adults set aside all concerns regarding color, size, style, etc., and just substitute the word “homemade” for all of them. What color is it? Homemade. What style is it? HOMEMADE! And then assume that HOMEMADE is the one-size-fits-all that everyone always loves.

Doesn’t always work so well, at least with clothing. That’s all I’m saying.

(It works way better with monsters.)