Christmas past and present

An Irish Manger given to me by a very dear friend.

For the past week or so memories of Christmas have filled my mind and heart. Many bring a smile. Some a tear.

This little ornament was painted by my Mom. Dated 2001.




















My very first stitched ornament. I had never made an ornament before this. The date on it is 2007.

As I decorated my trees (see the last post) and put up my Christmas village each piece had a special memory attached.

The village is especially dear to me. My Mom always had a village under the tree. I have many photos of her sitting on the floor creating that years scene. As a young child I loved watching the train she had under the tree circling the Manger. One of my treasured memories, though it sounds sacrilegious, was giving the baby Jesus a ride in the coal car on Christmas day! My Christmas village collection started about 10 years ago. And one of the first things was this tree with the people that my Mom painted. (She loved to paint plaster pieces. I think we all have at least one that she painted.) Notice that she painted to dog as close to Irish setter red as she could. Over the years I have added houses to my village. I only wish I could live in a town like this, a pub, a bookstore, a pet store, a sweet shop, a market, and best of all a sewing and craft store! My ideal town!

This is the set my Mom painted for me.















The skaters are cast iron and belonged to my Grandmother.












A couple of very special decorations. These were also plaster pieces that my Mom painted for me.












Last week was also the Christmas get together at my LNS, The Lazy Daisy. We had an ornament exchange. Those are always fun. I have so enjoyed these monthly gatherings.

All the ornaments from the LNS ornament exchange.

This is the ornament I stitched for the exchange.

I also heard that both my partners from the HoE ornament and smalls exchanges have received their pieces. So I can now show what I stitched.LHN's Fa La La I made into a small pillow. Amy said she like it.

And another LHN ornament I sent to Gabi. I like how they both turned out. I just may need to do them again for myself.

Last but not least is the ornament I receive in the HoE exchange. This one came from Ina in the Netherlands. It is just beautiful and looks gorgeous on my stitchy tree. Thank you Ina.

This past weekend and the past few days have been a whirlwind of finishing, wrapping, stitching and mailing. As mentioned in an earlier post, money for gifts is pretty scarce. I love to give but was getting so depressed realizing that I just couldn't do my usual for each and every member of my family. Until I had a brainstorm. And at this point I think it was a nor'easter! I have a largish storage container of stitched pieces that have been sitting there. Some for almost 5 years! Sitting there waiting to be finished or framed. So I thought I would use these. There were more than enough. So between the few ornaments I had stitched this year (9 of those) that were specially stitched for certain people and those older pieces I spent all day Sunday and most of Monday finishing them and making pillows and ornaments. Here are some of them. I was so crazed to get them done and wrapped that I actually forgot to take photos of some so they will have to wait until I can ask for a picture. Even if they read my blog (and I know most don't.) they won't know who gets what.

As you can see Rory was just exhausted after all this work. Either that or he is trying to be a good boy so Santa will bring him something good.

I want to thank each and everyone of you who have left me comments in my last few posts. I appreciate them more than you know.

And just in case I don't find time between now and Friday.........A very Merry Christmas to you all!

Love and stitches

Kathy

and licks from Rory too