My gifts are a total hit (MEGAPHEW!). I have added a tiny stripy hat for Harry, like Dermot’s but much smaller. I get a great picture of both of them wearing the Jenny Q Collection for Young Men. I’ve also embroidered words on a bib for him, so it says BURP MACHINE. I get fairy lights from Mum and Dad, just what I wanted for my room, and a brilliant calligraphy set from Gran and a totally cool T-shirt from Dermot with an illustration of ten guitars on it that he got made especially for me. Dixie is SO going to see a merchandising opportunity there.
If Ten Guitars get through to the next stage of Teen Factor X, Dermot says he might wear his Jenny Q creation on television!!!!
Maybe the other nine will want one?
Maybe I’ll be knitting for SLB!
YIKES.
The day after Christmas, Stevie Lee actually visits with a gift for Harry, and I am under the mistletoe so I get a peck on the cheek. I am so startled I move to one side and accidentally brush my lips against his (!). I nearly faint.* It is v v brief contact and lovely, I am happy to report, though it kind of burns me due to my passion for him.
Dermot is beside me and SLB says, ‘Love you, mate, but no tongues,’ to him and they hug and do a blokey, funny peck.
I haven’t been able to speak to SLB since. Well, nothing beyond ‘Lo’, which is as close to ‘hello’ as I can manage without falling over. This lurve stuff is v draining.
I’m sitting on the sofa planning some baby knits and thinking about the year and how I freaked when I heard I was going to have a new brother or sister, and how selfish I was to only think about how that looked for me. Who cares how things look?† That’s not what’s important. I couldn’t be prouder of the Quinn family right now. And I think I’ve learnt how to trust those closest to me a bit better too. I nearly lost Dixie through not trusting her, and Uggs through trusting him too much with information he didn’t need or want.
Maybe we’re all like a piece of knitting. Gran says it’s our mistakes along the way that make us unique. As long as we learn from them, we’ll be stronger, better, and they’ll have been worth making, as painful as they may sometimes be. It’s good to know mistakes are OK. Nothing is perfect.
Except for baby Harry Quinn, of course.
