Christmas, 2011

As I did not get these photos loaded in a timely manner, I take you, belatedly, through a few little parts of my Christmas home.  The Adorables helped to decorate the tree, Jordan was so kind as to move furniture in the sun room to make room for the Hogwarts Express (which Ethan and Granddad put together so charmingly), and Charles carried boxes up and down the steps for what must have seemed like miles to him.

It is so nice to find ornaments again, reminders of Christmases past, and though there are some things still missing, they MUST be here somewhere.  There is something very soothing about finding misplaced objects after years of searching, so I shall look forward to next year's Christmas for the treasures that may be uncovered.  There are some badly labeled boxes in the garage and storage room!

Here we see Charles reading "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" to the children (of all sizes) Christmas Eve at Jordan and Julie's house:

He really enjoyed the role of the Grinch just a wee bit too much, as Julie must have realized:

Back home, the tables had been set for three days, and I changed the centerpieces, chose other glasses, moved napkins and discarded first and second choices . . .

On the mantel we collected the snowmen.  I had no idea I collected them, but as the boxes were opened, an entire community of little snowpeople emerged!

Around and about, some favorite decorations.  These three angels date from about 1970, about the time Jordan popped into the world.  They are a gift from his Grandmother, Celina, after I had admired hers.  She toned hers down with a good wipe of dark stain, but ever the bright-color aficionada, I left mine to flaunt their (now) retro style down the years.  They have every nuance of the 60s-70s, except to have "Flower Power" and "Love" written on them somewhere!  I have never ceased to love these paper maiché dears:

And I will never give away my old glass ornaments, no matter how shabby they become:

The lovely beaded curtain was made by Marge Courville, and these two little guys seem as taken by it as I am!

And so Christmas came, the family assembled, we ate and exchanged gifts, and now the New Year has been rung in.  Life as it should be lived!

White Christmas

My family gathered at our house for Christmas Brunch, and we had the pleasure of watching three little children go into uber-excited mode as the snow began falling.  The snow was even more fun than their gifts— for a moment, anyway.

There has been no snowfall on Christmas Day since 1896, according to stats from the Oak Ridge laboratory monitoring air quality, so we Southerners are quite excited over the event.  People moving here from more northerly points don't have our sense of awe over snow falling.  We also aren't acquainted with "snirt," which a North Dakotan explained to me several years ago was a combination of snow and dirt (our snow doesn't linger long enough to mingle with dirt!).

Some photos of the snow-bound yard:

I thought our three inches of snow was unparalleled excitement, but my New England friend Mary Kate has a photo of her outside table and chairs that eclipses  this paltry snow— the table is completely hidden, and only the tops of the four chairs peek above the pile of snow on the deck!

And the front yard from the entryway.  Not a day to make a jaunt to the mailbox!

Christmas Week

The Adorables were with us yesterday.  When they entered the house the first thing they noticed was the hearth covered with wrapped presents.  Ethan's little face became a study in happy absorption as he asked, "Which one is for me?"  Bethy, though, didn't ask.  She went directly to the hearth and studied the labels, finally announcing, "That one is mine.  I see the 'B' on it."  I did not dispute this, as her tone was not a question, and she needed no reassurance.  A woman who knows how to get the job done!

We moved from the house to the studio, where Ethan climbed into my lap to make more Christmas ornaments at one of the work tables, and Bethy chose to look into every nook and cranny of the studio (there are many!).  They can recite the lines to "Santa Claus is coming to town."  We do it as a call-and-response:

Me:  "You better watch out. . ."
Adorables: "You better not cry. . ."
Me: "Better not pout. . ."
Adorables: "I'm telling you why. . ."
All Together: "Santa Claus is coming to town."

This through the entire song!  They both went to great lengths to assure me that they are on the "Nice" list, that they have both been much too good to be on the "Naughty" list.

I think Christmas Day will be the loveliest day we've spent in a long, long time!

Little Ornaments!

I was challenged by my son to find something creative to do with a bag of wine corks.  My initial thought was that they would make good trivets, laid on their side and glued to a piece of plywood, trimmed out on the sides with narrow wood.  They were not all one size, however, so they did not lie in a neat, level line that would be safe for resting hot pots or plates on the surface.  Fixing that problem meant actually dragging out a saw and miter box and doing serious work.  Serious grunge work.  I was looking for something with more gratification and less work.

Moving on, I thought about the challenge of the corks for months.  Last week I finally decided to just jump in and make a Christmas ornament with one.  It was awful.  I, however, had been challenged to make something creative, and I kept slugging away at those corks with whatever fabrics and threads I could find.  Eventually a lovely tree ornament emerged from the piles that had started forming on my worktable.  This morning I engaged C3's services to hold the cork still while I stapled a lining in place, then I began to decorate over that lining.

The result was a small box of eight wine-cork ornaments for the Adorables and their Christmas Tree.  Some of the efforts:

If I could have found my bag of foil candy wrappers, this would have been a cinch!  The ends of the corks are the hardest thing to decorate.  Sparkly paint might have worked, but cork always looks like cork, so I was trying to cover it.  Unfortunately, I could locate only one green wrapper!  Everything else was done with fabric and thread.  This is Mr. Fuzzy-Cork:

This is the Snow Queen:

These little felted guys came originally from The Container Store.  They were a little plain, so I added wings and put Ethan and Bethy's names on the tall hats . . .

And this is my interpretation of a tree that might have grown in Whoville:

Enjoy!  And Merry Christmas!