Friday, December 15, 2006

Thursday/Friday 13/15

Every year my family adds new ornaments to the Christmas tree. Most are traditional bulbs of all colors, some are reminders of wonderful people or memories, and others are, well, unusual or, well, odd. You'll see more of the last category today just because that's what I feel like.

I made this ornament when Jess was 3. We pulled out our paints and glitter and went at it. At the time I thought it was quite an artistic achievement on my part. No matter than jb and Jess' came out better than mine....
These are not really ornaments but they are jb's little reindeer from her childhood. Yes, one is missing its nose and the other its ear. So what. Except I admit Jessica thinks they are both gross. She hides them so she doesn't have to look at them.


This is a delicate Santa ornament. It was a gift from a friend who I cannot remember. So much for sentimentality....
This little stuffed panda bear is accompanied by an inkind lobster, teddy bear and kitty cat. When these ornaments fall, nothing breaks.
Our good friend Clara gave us this ornament for Christmas one year. It is a circle for world peace. It's one of my favorites.


One year I bought this ornament along with a CD called "Christmas on the Western Plains". The twangy instrumental holiday songs are my top favorites. I listen to them while I decorate and wrap presents. I never have enough time for all this but Christmas on the Western Plains slows me down nicely

jb lived in Maine for 5 years. Thus, one of her friends gave her this potato ornament. Maine is a big producer of potatoes. But only in Maine would anyone think of making a potato ornament . I tolerate it......


My friend Kim made this ornament and gave it to me along with one of her homemade pies.


We have a few of these wooden stick Santas. There were a present from someone but I don't remember who. I think there was a time in my life when I did not treasure ornaments the way I do now--thus I was careless in remembering where they came from. No longer.

Yes, it's a pair of leopard sunglasses. Yes, it's the strangest ornament on the tree. Yes, we bought it ourselves.


Here's a favorite. Bruce, a members of the Provincetown Artisian Cooperative, made these one year. They sold like hotcakes. The body is made from a clothes pin and the well endowed breasts from cotton balls. This picture does not do his creativity or fashion sense the justice either deserves.


An ornament for Rosie. I miss her most this time of year.


Here's another ornament from the Coop. Taffy gave me this as a going away present when I moved from Provincetown.
I love coffee! Love it. jb put this in my Christmas stocking.


Here's the gestalt of it all. This year we were blesssed with a well shaped tree that fit in its space. It knows to lean to the left instead of the right if it must lean at all. (Ces, that's for you...)

Happy Holidays, Friends!

19 comments:

  1. It seems to me from this angle that the tree leans to the right and rightly so!

    I love to read the handmade ornament when Jess was 3. I also agree on the reindeer being adorable. I think Jess will soon find out with Little Ryan how sentimental things can become. (I treasure my husband's Teddy Bear that he had when he was a little toddler - it's missing an eye).

    I love the story with each ornament and it's very funny about the ornament whose giver you forgot. The potato ornament is aptly so. I think it is marvelous. You should more than tolerate it. We have fish, chili and shoes ornaments on our tree. The leopard sunglasses ornament is not strange at all. At least you have a change of heart about these ornaments. Sometimes it's the little things that count.

    Thank you for sharing these KJ. For someone who claims to be technology challenged, you sure have a knack for taking nice photographs. I always love reading about your beautiful home.

    The tree leans to the right.

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  2. KJ, I love your ornaments and love the stories behind them. I reember a friend telling me that growing up Jewish, he never understood why his friends' trees were not perfectly decorated, like the ones in stores. It wasn't until he helped my family actually decorate a tree and had the history of each ornament explained to him, that he realized that the ornaments are about memories.

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  3. note to whom it may concern:

    ok, the tree leans alittle to the right. it's not my fault. i think it would be gracious and mature not to gloat about it.

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  4. Happy holidays to you, KJ and thanks for sharing your lovely tree-items and the stories behind them. But not always the trees are 'with stories and memories'. I know a lot of people who decorate the tree one year in blue, the other year in red and silver.... No memories, just beautiful decoration. Sometimes it is like art ;-)

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  5. It's leaning to the right and it's gloating.

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  6. I figure the tree is leaning to the left, as all things in nature naturally do whether it appears so or not...

    KJ, this is a lovely insight into who you are.

    I think that's one of the reasons people generally feel so warm around Christmas despite the cold -- that it's a time of memories and passages and personalities that have come and gone but are still here, always.

    Thanks for turning up my furnace.

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  7. KJ in return for your thoughtful gesture of donating to Hillary Clinton's campaign fund in my name, I was thinking of making a donation in your name to the Republican National Committee. I will also accept the invitation to tea from my local Republican representative. I will make a donation to his campaign in your name also. Oh and another thing, I will now not buy that Dixie Tricks album I was thinking of getting.

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  8. ces: not the dixie tricks, but the dixie chicks! this made me laugh outloud. you can't fool me--i know you won't buy their cd. it's too much to expect...

    :)

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  9. Yes, I was referring to the same group, The Dixie Tricks!

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  10. I love them all ... except those much-too-creepy deer. Eegads. I love the pie one, the potato (we had a carrot that my mom gave me when I was a vegetarian ... it broke last year ... and she got my co-dad a donut ornament that makes me drool just looking at it ...), the coffee, and the leopard glasses!

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  11. KJ,

    This post is so special and gives me more insight about you and your love ones. Two of my favorites ornaments are: the ornament you made for Jess when he was 3. It is artistic achievement brimming with love. The next fave is the ornament from Clara, the circle of peace. Here's to world peace!!!

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  12. Hi kj! The potato ornament made me laugh! Of all things!

    I wish I had a tree like yours and Ces' and Caroline's -- decorated with ornaments that have special meaning or were given by somebody special.

    Our tree is beautiful in it's own way -- my mother and youngest sister always decorate it every year. They change the color theme every year (this year it's blue)-- they are both very artistic and very good at it actually.

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  13. novel ornaments!

    Happy holidays to u too KJ!

    Keshi.

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  14. I love the stories behind ornaments! Those with stories are always the best! I especially like your Rosie ornament and your left-leaning tree! (And this little exchange between you and Ces is fun as well:>)
    I am looking forward to this Christmas because several of my family members are actually making the trip to NW CT to eat a meatless dinner... believe me, it's one for the history books! In honor of this honor, we bought a larger tree than usual, and we're going to cover it with every ornament we have. Your post made me think about how much I enjoy taking out my boxes of Christmas stuff that I've accumulated over the years... my favorite ornaments are those my son made when he was little:>

    Have a very Happy Holiday!

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  15. Gosh that's cute..I find myself strangely drawn to the Christmas Tater?
    It is a great tradition and one that is manageable and theoretically infinite...in human terms.
    Those poor Dixie Chicks, they should get the Congressional Medal of Freedom!
    I will make a donation to both Obama and McCain if they will play nice and if my great neighbours to the South jettison Rove and imprison him for one thousand years or however long the term of his Faustian deal with Satan was originally agreed upon...wait a minute don't you need to have a soul to make that deal..HEY!

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  16. H.E.: The Ditsy Chicks, er, I mean the Dixie Chicks in the same category as Sojourner Truth for the Congressional Medal of Honor? I think NOT! Maybe if Hillary was president she would reward it to the likes of the Chicks and Linda Bloodworth Thomason...

    And that tree is leaning to the right but obviously in a blue state so that neutralizes it :-)

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  17. We have ornaments with a story too. Each year it's a blast to remember them as you hang it. Beautiful tree! Merry Christmas!

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  18. everyone: thanks for your comments. i am sad to report my christmas tree is indeed leaning slightly to the right, but fortunately my blue state status, as ces points out, negates most of the effects.

    none-the-less, my tree and ornaments thank you for the attention. and blue, red, yellow, brown, white or black, right, left or in between, here's hoping for greater peace in the new year....

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