This charming fellow was the gift of a dear friend, who designed, hand-carved, and painted him. The windway (the place where you blow) is on the bottom and the window (the opening where the sound happens) is carved into the back. It produces a soft, clear tone. We always put this ornament somewhere prominent because just seeing it makes us happy.
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Tagged Christmas, family celebrations, family traditions, holiday traditions, ornaments
As sometimes happens, I’ve been caught up in the activities of the season, the most recent of which was decorating. We spread our holiday decorating over the four weeks of Advent, so the final Sunday is very festive indeed. Part of the fun of decorating the tree is telling the stories of the ornaments, where each came from and what memories we associate with it.
This little ceramic bell is one of three that hung on the trees of my childhood as far back as I can recall. I have two siblings (both sisters) so our things tended to occur in batches of three. I don’t remember how it came to us, but it seemed old to me even as a child, so I suspect it may have come from the household of a great (grandparents or aunt and uncle). It makes a sweet sound and remains one of my favorite ornaments from childhood.
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Tagged Christmas, family celebrations, family traditions, holiday traditions, ornaments
We kicked off our Twelfth Night celebration last night by having pancakes and eggnog for supper. Then we played Bananagrams until about an hour past our usual bedtime, read aloud Chapter 5 of On the Blue Comet (a Christmas gift) and finally turned in.
The festivities continued this morning with the entire household sleeping late. Even the cat refrained from walking on our heads until almost 8:00. Unheard of! Everyone had surfaced by 10:00, at which point we agreed to watch the extended edition of The Two Towers. Breakfast was chocolate- and caramel-covered Boy Scout popcorn and soda. (In our defense, the caramel popcorn did have fancy nuts in it.)
Between discs (yes, this four-hour epic requires more than one DVD) we made pizza – Pillsbury’s whole-wheat pizza dough is a nice alternative to frozen pies. We rounded out our Tolkien overdose with more soda for the kids and hops-based beverages for the adults. It was 4:00 by the time the credits rolled, and we all needed showers.
Some shoe shopping, some ice skating, then supper at Culver’s. Now we’ve settled in at home again to watch the Vikings and the Pack face off at Lambeau Field. Tomorrow we’ll remove the decorations and put the tree on the deck to provide shelter for birds coming to the feeder, but for one more night it graces our living room with twinkling lights and the delicate scent of fir.
Some star ornaments will linger about the house through Epiphany, reminders of the star that beckoned to wise men of old, the morning star that shines for the peoples of the nations, and the people themselves, more numerous than the stars.
Even twelve drummers drumming is not loud enough to drown out the wonder and mystery of the silent night that began this season.
…today.
Many years ago, one of the kids brought home a lovely ornament made of simple construction paper triangles. Inspired by the clever but easy fabrication technique, we made a bunch of triangles and came up with some fun designs of our own.
This is the original ornament: twelve triangles glued together, one side of the finished snowflake/Star of David dipped in glue and then in glitter. Elegant and beautiful in its simplicity.
The Kitty-Cat variation: pipe cleaner whiskers instead of glitter.
The Christmas Tree variation, in dark green; it shows up much better when NOT on the tree.
The Christmas Tree variation in colors that work better on the tree. Probably could use some glitter.
If I get industrious, I may post a how-to, with photos.
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Tagged children, Christmas, construction paper, glitter, glue, ornaments, pipe cleaners, snowflakes, Star of David
Today we have ice on top of the couple inches of snow that fell before the “warm” front moved through, so naturally school was closed. (Whatever.) That means the kids were home with me today, so we took advantage of this opportunity to get some holiday baking done: specifically, cookies for teacher gifts and classroom parties.
In two hours, we cranked out what my son very eloquently described as a “crapload” of cookies — 120-some, to be more exact. We only had to put four out of their misery: a reindeer with a broken leg, two maimed gingerbread men, and a decapitated angel. We will decorate them this evening, as they will be completely cooled by then.
Just as we finished baking, the doorbell rang and a several neighborhood kids invited them to play outside. After about an hour of chasing each other around, throwing ice at one another, and cleaning off my car (!), the boys flocked back inside to chase each other around imaginary worlds on the Ninetendo and throw virtual grenades at one another. (I detect a pattern here…) In addition to a symphony of surprisingly high-pitched shrieks, I just overheard the following dialogue:
M: I just have one question: why did we all die?
E: Because I blew us up.
M: Oh.
E: This time I promise to THROW the grenade.
[A moment later…]
Run away! Run away!
Ahhh…there’s nothing like a houseful of 12- and 13-year-old boys. Good thing I put the cookies away before they came inside.
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Tagged baking, children, Christmas, cookies, gingerbread, Nintendo, parenting, snow day, Star Fox, video games
The Daily Compost 