Ornamental memories
It's a bit less than two weeks until Christmas for those of us who celebrate the holiday and things around my house are getting a mite hectic.
A lot of people have a few things- ornaments or other objects- that they cherish for whatever reason. As I went around the house decorating, I decided to slow down a bit and shoot a couple pictures to post sporadically over the next few days of those things that have special meaning for me.
My Christmas tree is definitely not one of those gorgeous theme trees you see in the department stores or even some homes. Mine is an eclectic mix of ornaments collected through the years, including these, which are some of my favorites. Jedi went to a neighborhood preschool for two days a week when he was three and four years old. I still have the ornaments he made there-with a great deal of help from the lovely teachers I'm sure-since at that age my kid never stopped moving. Ever.
I love this one the most, I think because it's just so ugly. LOL
These next two are my own foray into helping children make ornaments to take home-the homeschool group was around third graders. It's certainly a lot harder to herd kids than it looks, eh teachers? Especially antsy children gripping enormous tubes of puff paint. I've never really figured out what was up with this gingerbread man's face. Was that a mustache gone awry or a tongue sticking out or something much more unsavory? Jedi refused to elaborate, swearing the paint just got away from him. Uh huh.
By fifth grade we were doing sophisticated ornaments like this embossed handmade paper. God what an utter mess. We destroyed a blender and the ornaments themselves had to lay around for days in our humidity to air dry. My friend and I discovered little bits of pulp everywhere for weeks afterward, and yet I wouldn't trade this snippet of paper for all the gold in Fort Knox.
This is probably my absolute favorite from the cub scout days. We made these ornaments along with book covers and decorated vases for a nursing home, giving them to the residents for their main living area,before singing a few mostly off-key Christmas carols. We visited that nursing home for several holidays throughout all the years I was a den mother. When my troop moved up to Boy scouts, I passed the torch to another den. It became a tradition and they still have little boys visiting their adopted "grandparents" ten years later.
A lot of people have a few things- ornaments or other objects- that they cherish for whatever reason. As I went around the house decorating, I decided to slow down a bit and shoot a couple pictures to post sporadically over the next few days of those things that have special meaning for me.
My Christmas tree is definitely not one of those gorgeous theme trees you see in the department stores or even some homes. Mine is an eclectic mix of ornaments collected through the years, including these, which are some of my favorites. Jedi went to a neighborhood preschool for two days a week when he was three and four years old. I still have the ornaments he made there-with a great deal of help from the lovely teachers I'm sure-since at that age my kid never stopped moving. Ever.
I love this one the most, I think because it's just so ugly. LOL
These next two are my own foray into helping children make ornaments to take home-the homeschool group was around third graders. It's certainly a lot harder to herd kids than it looks, eh teachers? Especially antsy children gripping enormous tubes of puff paint. I've never really figured out what was up with this gingerbread man's face. Was that a mustache gone awry or a tongue sticking out or something much more unsavory? Jedi refused to elaborate, swearing the paint just got away from him. Uh huh.
By fifth grade we were doing sophisticated ornaments like this embossed handmade paper. God what an utter mess. We destroyed a blender and the ornaments themselves had to lay around for days in our humidity to air dry. My friend and I discovered little bits of pulp everywhere for weeks afterward, and yet I wouldn't trade this snippet of paper for all the gold in Fort Knox.
This is probably my absolute favorite from the cub scout days. We made these ornaments along with book covers and decorated vases for a nursing home, giving them to the residents for their main living area,before singing a few mostly off-key Christmas carols. We visited that nursing home for several holidays throughout all the years I was a den mother. When my troop moved up to Boy scouts, I passed the torch to another den. It became a tradition and they still have little boys visiting their adopted "grandparents" ten years later.