December 23, 2011

Happy Holidays!

Oh my. In the spirit of giving, I certainly can't keep this treasure to myself. I found this post on The Hairpin. Weird arts-and-crafts, Christmas decorations, and the mysterious behavior of the elderly. Also, there is a Flickr set you can scroll through to see all of them. Christmas decorations are the best.



I can't wait to go to my parents' house and bask in the festive glow. At my house, we usually get one or two new ornaments a year. There are a lot of classics, but my favorites (in terms of weirdness) are the homemade abominations that I made as a child. One of the strangest is this clear plastic lid with a bunch of glitter and tinsel melted to it. That was a school project. Another is a heart with my photo on it and the date that I oh-so-dyslexically threw on there (the nines look like p's). We are against ornament discrimination at my house. There is a huge array of creatures, styles, and random objects. We have a bunch of really, really old glass items from my dad's childhood, and his favorite: a little brass horse. My brother's tend to be lizard or reptile-themed, and we still put the little McDonald's happy meal toys on the tree (they were Disney character ornaments that probably sang songs at some point). Our tree is a hodgepodge but it is always a thing of glittering beauty, especially if you stand a few feet back. Around the rest of the house, there are assorted homemade swags, wreaths, and of course, my mother's Santa Claus collection. At some point, my mom began a Santa Claus collection and it really took off. It was like they were multiplying in the night. They always stood on the entertainment center around Christmas time in their varied, jolly bearded glory and when I was younger I used to play with them and organize Santa conventions. As you do.

I hope you all have a lovely holiday time with family and friends, and find a good way to bring in the new year. I'm convinced 2012 is going to be especially good.

4 comments:

Kyle said...

My mom or dad still has an ornament I made in Montessori school. It weighs around 3 pounds and is just a baked lump of green clay with added clay "designs" on top. It will bend the strongest branch and always needs to be set as close to the trunk as possible.

Kyle said...

Have not has.

Anonymous said...

i think as the "books" http://youtu.be/4HYuWHhu-G8 say which is real lamelike to be """"quoting""""" things. it's probably going to be important to just.... " be good to them always". thats the resolution slash goal. to be good to them always. but various crafts slash activities can and should be very muchso wrapped up in that......

Anonymous said...

that ^ above comment was supposed to be posted/reflected towards your nice story about surprising sam and new years goals. mucho apologizesO. technology? ya still pretty bad @ that.