Prototype, Pinecone

Prototype - the first or original model from which others are copied.

October 7, 2009

These are my two prototype Christmas cards. Obviously, I wouldn't use those colos, but it's just a prototype, for heaven's sake. I had one all worked up and decided I didn't like it, so I had to make another. I think I'm happy with this design. One of these years I'm going to send out store-bought cards, just to see what happens.


I really LOVE Christmas. Christmas preparation is an almost year-long event for me, at least in the mental stages. Christmas is ALWAYS coming. I love all the Christmas prep, even when I start to feel overwhelmed and out of control around mid-December. I love all the tradition, especially the silly things that people have been doing forever, and sometimes don't even know why. I love that my sister and her family go out to dinner at a Chinese Restaurant every Christmas Eve as an homage to "A Christmas Story." I love that my brother and his wife used to set out pizza and sprite instead of cookies and milk. I love that Addie pulled over our Christmas tree one year and be-headed one of my Scarlett O'Hara ornaments and, even though it glued nicely, we can still see the crack and talk about it at every Tree Decorating. I love getting Christmas cards every year from loved ones near and far and hearing what everyone has been up to. I love it all.

As far as I'm concerned, Christmas begins November 1. Thanksgiving, never one of my favorite holidays, is merely a speed-bump on the collision course to Christmas. If it were up to me, I'd remove Halloween (and Valentines Day) from the calendar entirely and begin Christmas even earlier.

Pinecone - The cone of a pine tree

October 8, 2009

On a walk with the kids about a year (two?) ago, we found a bunch of pinecones and gathered them up. They got left in the garage, and I forgot about them. Somehow, I finally noticed them out there today, and brought them in. They will soon be a FHE project to make new Christmas ornaments.

I have 2 Christmas trees. The one in the living room is for the store-bought Christmas ornaments. This is where my Scarlett O'Hara's go, the Christmas ornaments that were on our first Christmas tree, the Hallmark ones we have acquired over the years, the ones I found in my Grandma's basement after she had died . . . The other tree, in the family room, is reserved for home made ornaments only. This is where the paper chains go, the Rudolphs made from popsicle sticks, the ornaments they make at school or primary . . . Ever year we glue the kids' school pictures to a juice lid and decorate it with glitter and stuff, and those go on the tree also. It makes a very nice record of Christmas' past, and the kids always like to see how much they have grown. They look forward to making those ornaments every year, and even though I only have 3 kids, I still save EVERY SINGLE juice lid, and we frequently find some use for them around Christmas time. Decorating the trees takes quite a while, since we have to stop and discuss each ornament's history before it goes on the tree. My trees will never win any kind of decorating award, or even be close to those gorgeous ones at the Festival of Trees, but they are full of precious memories.