Valentine's Socks

Okay, I know it's oh-so-close to the end of April, and it's not the time to be thinking about Valentine's Day, but I want to share with you a story. A sweet story. A sweet, darling, guilt-ridden story.

My niece and nephew are very cute. Evidence?

(This is an old picture... from 2006, in fact. But they are still very cute. Trust me. And look at those feet. Those are some fine-lookin' Valentine's socks.)

My niece and nephew have gotten Valentine's socks each year (Calvin's 2007 brown socks are in this photo), and the hand-knit-sock-wearing behavior is strongly encouraged by their mom (my sister-in-law Morgan), who, herself, loves to partake in said behavior (Mo's pink b-day Pomatomi in this photo).

This year, however, I had incredible difficulty getting motivated to knit... well... to finish Valentine's socks. I started them, but I'll save myself the embarrassment of showing them here. So, needless to say, they didn't get Valentine's socks this year. You would have seen them by now if they had. I felt bad about this, but thought it would probably be okay.

Then, I talked to Morgan. My niece Maggie is apparently quite the little chatterer, and they had a little conversation that went something like this:

Maggie (putting on socks while chatting about how socks don't have to go on the left or right foot, they can go on either...): "mama, when's valentines?"

Morgan: "what?"

Maggie: "when's valentines?"

Morgan: "valentines day, maggie? when is valentines day?"

Maggie: "yes"

Morgan (trying to decide if she has a mental disorder that causes such a strange question): "two months ago, sweetheart"

Maggie: (quiet for a while)

Maggie: "i bet annie grook is working very hard on my socks then. it's okay that i don't have them yet. i can't wait to get them!"

-----

Oh my. So, they haven't forgotten. However, Morgan and I talked about how maybe it would be better if, instead of Valentine's socks, they got autumn socks, because then they could wear their socks all throughout the cold winter months, and how that would be nice, because then if the cold weather got depressing, they could put on their nice wooly socks and be happy and warm and remember how much their Annie Grook (Auntie Brooke) loves them. It seems to work well for Morgan, who gets birthday socks in November, so maybe we'll try that this year.

How well we knew thee, Valentine's socks.