Deck The Blogs!

Note: Pipsqueak took the pictures and then saved them to a draft post for me. I (DeputyHeadmistress) followed up with the text.

Blest With Sons was kind enough to tag us to share some of our favorite Christmas ornaments and tell their stories. She tagged us several days ago, but we only put up our Christmas tree tonight (that's another long story), so we couldn't play before. We don't know where all our ornaments and Christmas decorations are since the move from Hades 2.5 years ago, but we hope that when the new house is finished and we finally move out of this little house (we thought we'd be living here for six months at most- HA), everything will turn up and we can finally put out all our Christmas frou-frou. I have been collecting Christmas frou-frou since I was in high school, and that was a long time ago, people, so that's a lot of stuff.

Here, from the ornaments we could find, are some of our favorites (besides the bell that the Cherub made yesterday):

This sad little bear is The Equuschick's favorite ornament because he is adorable, she says. She remembers how happy she was when she got him. It was in Alaska at a homeschool Chrismas ornament exchange. She was about 6 years old, maybe 7.













I have three stars similar to this one. The Headmaster used to go to Saudi Arabia every year in the fall (back when we had five children under nine), and he brought these back for me one year. I love them. One of the things I love about them is that all his buddies would go to the gold markets and pick up jewelry, perfume, and other glitzy doo-dads. They couldn't believe he was saving his TDY money and bringing home stuff like this (he also brought me back a stack of ten Egyptian pans, the largest being a kettle you could give a toddler a bath in, the smallest being a 2 quart saucepan. I like those, too). He kept telling them, "My wife will like this. She won't like gold rings and necklaces. The babies will break them, and gold gives her a rash." Love that man.


Happy sigh. Before I ever had children I worked at a tourist trap gift shop selling clocks, music boxes, and stuff from Europe. This little ornament just captured my fancy something big, and so I bought it. It is now the favorite of the Head Girl, too, and every year we look forward to hanging this one on the tree.















I used to collect rocking horses and merry go round horses, up until the third child came along. I still like them, but other things have taken precedence over shopping for this sort of thing for quite some time now. My uncle was the sort of generous person who always remembered what you liked- if you ever said, even once, that you enjoyed something, he never forgot it, and he would keep it in mind during his own recreational shopping. This is one of many rocking horses that he gave me over the years, and it's one of the first. When he died I found others still in the packages in his house, and I knew they were meant for me. I still miss him.







This little wooden block is also from the days back when I worked in the tourist trap town. There was a little Christmas Shop where I spent many a lunch hour. Some of them I spent with the headmaster, picking out Christmas decorations for our tree. Actually, I like this one, but my favorite is a little nutcracker we bought on our honeymoon- but it's one that's gone missing since that move. Maybe we'll be able to show a picture of it next Christmas.












Home-made- glass ball, thistledown and faded flower petals from our acreage in a previous home (some ten years and two children ago). We made several of these one year.
Our thistles were a serious problem, and we worked hard to eradicate them. Once the Headmaster thought he'd kill two birds with one stone and combine some work on the thistles with some mentoring of two young boys from church who lived with their single mom. Unfortuantely, instead of killing two birds with one stone, we almost killed the older boy. Not really, but it turned out he was terribly allergic to something on our property and had to go get shots to reduce the swelling of his facial features- which were pretty much one lumpy, puffy, mess. We gave him a special Christmas ball filled with thistledown and with our names written on the back and some note about how we'd nearly killed him.
He grew up, joined the army, went to Iraq, and then got out and came back to the states. He came to visit us to help us recover from the move from Hades, and he did some more work for the headmaster- this time, repairs to our bridge. He didn't get sick this time. He told us he still has the thistledown ornament we made him.



Blest with Sons tagged five other bloggers to play, including me. I don't remember (or know) who else has a digital camera and who does a tree and who doesn't, and we put our tree up so late that I don't want anybody to feel pressured at this busy season- but.... if you have the time, the tree, the camera, and the inclination, I'd like to hear from:
The Beehive
Rusticanda
Donna-Jean
Dewey's Treehouse
Krakovianka

Yes, I'm tired, and old friends come to mind first.=)