- Owl ornament my ornery friend Maggie gifted in 1983. She died in 2006. I'm still a bit afraid of her.
- Cardboard box to store ornaments. We originally received the box in 1996 when we ordered a printer. The printer is long gone. The box remains.
- Needlepoint bell niece K made when she was a child. She'll never know how touched I was to get it.
- 1970's/80's salt dough ornaments daughter M made. She's forever my baby, my child, my cranky teen.
- Every ornament our grandchildren made/painted/bought for us. Especially when we can't figure out what it is. They go front and center.
- The salt dough ornaments husband T made that are so hideous, so utterly ridiculous that we laugh and hide 'em in the back of the tree. He's a good sport.
- New ornaments from R, the daughter who is my husband's oldest, and a daughter of my heart.
- Yellow cat ornament Chilly Hollow gave us millions of years ago. She's still a friend, a reader of this blog, and an irreverent smart alack.
- Ornaments Syracuse friends bought and pretended were from their son, Coop. Ha, we never fell for it.
- Vacation souvenirs, baubles and tchotchkes.
- The glass Santa from Sharon, who died in 2015. Each year I hold it and try to believe she's still alive.
- I really must stop, this is getting too long. I could go on for pages. Suffice it to say that every ornament has a story to tell and circumstances to describe.
Santa ball from DebbieK, Tibetan ball from Choklay and Nyima, Icon BVM from Oldest Sister
coming out of my shell
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Putting away Christmas
The older I get, the more Christmas becomes a life gauge. Each year I touch and consider my past.
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Colette, I would give much to know what happened to the ornament I made in kindergarten. A walnut shell, gilded and glued back together with a yarn loom for hanging. It touched me my mother kept track of it, and all the other "family" ornaments so many years. But alternate tree decorators come into lives, and things unimportant to them can be easily discarded. Another factor to be accepted, gracefully or not. Priorities.
ReplyDeleteThose were popular back in our youth - those gilded walnut shells. Mother's were crazy about them! Each year I also think about some of the ornaments I threw away over the years and wonder why I got rid of them.
DeleteChristmas ornaments bring back so many memories and are cherished. How lucky so many of us are to have these to remind us of our lives and those we have loved.
ReplyDeleteThey are definitely little treasures.
DeleteAh yes, the memories that come alive at Christmas. I, too, hang on to the treasures.
ReplyDeletePart of the lead up to Christmas is pulling them out and thinking about them, right?
DeleteI have ornaments from when I was kid, I gave each of my children an ornament in their stockings every year and when they were grown, I packed them up and gave them the ornaments. Except Katie, I still have all her ornaments. My son's are all gone. Every time he goes to jail, he loses everything.
ReplyDeleteI love looking at the ornaments every year when I decorate the tree. They bring back a lot of memories.
Great idea to give ornaments in stockings. Your son... I hope someday he wakes up and realizes life is to be lived, not escaped from. Cheers, my friend.
DeleteWhat beautiful and loving memories. And you get to call them up every year.
ReplyDeleteYes! It's almost like a magical invocation. ha!
DeleteA smart aleck, am I? Time for me to come up with a new needlepoint ornament…. (Be afraid, be very afraid!)
ReplyDeleteI usually am.
DeleteYou hide it well. I always thought you were fearless. But that was in the face of oppression, not day-to-day life.
Delete"Every ornament has a story..." sums up the season in the best way.
ReplyDeleteWe'd have had more historically memorable Christmas decorations if we hadn't chosen to spend six years in the USA. Trouble is when you pack up to go back east, fragile baubles, etc, aren't a high priority. Subsequent visits to German Christmas markets have helped us rebuild the collection, especially via the omnipresent stalls run by Käthe Wohlfahrt. All items beautifully crafted with prices to match; one music box listed on their website is tagged at $1133.86. But then everything is stamped Hergestellt in Deutschland. Nothing from Taiwan or China.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm forgetting. Christmas is also a time to show off examples of VR's knitting projects. Cut and paste this link:
http://ldptonedeaf.blogspot.com/2013/10/stitches-in-time-and-space.html
LOVE the mice. VR must have great patience. Happy to know about Käthe Wohlfahrt's work, too.
DeleteI hate to bring you the news that most if not all of Käthe Wohlfahrt stuff is in fact made in China, they can claim the "made in Germany" bit only because some minute final touch is done in Germany.
DeleteThat's probably the best thing about Christmas ornaments - the personal memories they hold. I reconnected with a friend after more than 20 years and she sent a photo of an ornament we'd given her long ago that she would always tell her kids was from a very old friend.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this a lot. It gives me hope that one day our stash may find its way out of the boxes in the basement again in this xmas-free house.
ReplyDeleteIf only to hold them in your hands and think about them!
Delete