Xmas ornaments 11-23-07

Santa with a Button Beard

Whenever I go to the desert to have Thanksgiving with Corky, his parents and grandparents I take the materials to make Xmas ornaments. This goes along with their family tradition of exchanging handmade ornaments at the family celebration in Sacramento early in December. I come up with a design, figure out how to make it, gather all the materials and equipment needed and, after T'giving dinner, help the Poodle Mommy and G'ma each make one ornament. This year I stayed home for T'giving, so I sent all the necessary stuff with Corky and parents when they went out on Tuesday. It is difficult to judge how much time will be required to complete the project, sometimes I have made it so complicated that it takes up too much of the weekend. This year I sewed and turned the fabric Santas ahead of time so they could just stuff and sew the opening closed, then sew on buttons and beads. I tried gluing the buttons on, but I failed gluing in kindergarten and haven't gotten any better in the ensuing years. But I sent a hot glue gun and a bottle of Fabric-Tac in case they would want to try one of those methods.

I don't celebrate the holiday anymore. Since my husband died I just don't have the same interest or enthusiasm. I went through the motions for quite a few years and finally just stopped trying. I get disgusted with all the advertisements urging people to buy, buy, buy. It seems that is what the holiday is all about these days. I suppose I am turning into a curmudgeon in my mature years. However, I do miss hand making ornaments, so this gives me just a little taste each year. I cleaned out my handmade ornament box this year and donated most of them to Visions Art Quilt Gallery for the Xmas tree they are auctioning off as part of an event that will feature a number of trees from different nonprofit groups. If I'm not going to use them it seemed like someone else should enjoy them.