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
If you thought I might have dropped off a cliff in November, you didn’t miss the mark by much. I had a major project due in early December and another in mid-January, which was truly horrible timing, what with all the folderol and family drama of the holidays. I’ve had neither time nor brain cells to devote to much else, but now that both the projects and the holidays are behind me, I hope to return in some degree to my former life. This is a photo post (even though I am a poor photographer) but I consider it a step back toward blogging and the other things I was doing two months ago.
When my children were very young, we began a tradition of celebrating Dr. King’s birthday like he was a member of the family. We would bake and decorate a cake, put candles on it, and sing “Happy Birthday” to him.
Every year we try to find a different variation of the chocolate-and-vanilla theme, and this year we decided to go with a brownie/blondie combination.
They were delicious and we had fun making them together. We’ve already started talking about what we’ll do for next year.
Happy birthday, Dr. King! And may we continue to celebrate your vision for many years to come!
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Tagged baking, birthdays, children, family celebrations, Martin Luther King Jr., MLK Day
The Daily Compost 