'Twas the 19th of December, and all through the house

The holidays!!! Every year we decorate Thanksgiving weekend, and we're a family that likes to go all out in the decorations (if you're curious, there's more of that sparkly stuff circling the base of the television, for example). Unfortunately I'm working both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve so it's not like I have more time for jolly-making this holiday season ... but my brother is coming home!!! So I'm super excited and determined to reserve some quality time with him one of these evenings. I think we're going to talk about, among other things, the rigors of med school (of which I know nothing), and that television series of his that he wants me to write (the one he anticipates will run, oh, a casual 6 or 7 seasons ... I think we need a new rule for this collaboration, and it is: Michael, I need you to take at least one writing class!)


Wow, there's nobody like my brother to get me off track. Anyways, back to the decorations. If you thought I had a lot of sweaters and skirts, then I'll need you to take a moment to check out our tree. Clearly, a tendency towards collecting, especially things that are 1) cute, 2) quirky, and 3) unusual, runs in the family. But, as you can imagine, it makes for a fabulous time with the holiday decorations! (and for Exhibit B in the collecting category, please refer back to the photo at the top of this post for that nutcracker collection)


If you were beginning to fret that we lacked for handmade in the decorations category, worry no more. Check out, for example, that fantastic beaded loop at the bottom left of the above photograph. That's a classy little number, isn't it? Now just imagine its brother, made of packing peanuts artfully colored every hue of the rainbow, strung up on yarn ... and then imagine that you are the mother who is receiving not one but two such lovelies because they are earrings, to be carefully looped, one over each ear! And imagine your daughter begging you to wear your lovely birthday gifts, and that you go so far as to parade them out to the grocery store, at which point the clerk takes one look at you and says, "Oh myyyyyyyyy" and you just smile. Really, you'd be about the best mother in the world.


This one always tugs at my heart, that bell. My brother crocheted that one, and I always marvel at how he was able to get the darned thing to curve. That's a pretty special one, especially since he's since retired his hook.


Anyways, not sure if I'll make it back to this space before 2011, so I just wanted to wish everybody the happiest end to 2010! This little blog has grown so much this past year, it's truly humbling and fills me with gratitude, although the best part has been getting to meet so many excellent people and to be able to participate in this great growth of creativity and inspiration that is the online crafting community ... well, really, anybody who has any affinity for beauty, for handmade, for art, for joy and serenity and empathy, and of course for food. You all rock. 1000000 times over.