Advent Blog Hop

Welcome one and all. Special Christmas Cheer if you are visiting for the first time from Jo's Advent Blog Hop. Ten more days! Can someone invent a time machine? I need to go back--I need another month. 

Jo asks:
Do you have a favourite decoration you must have on display every year, maybe an heirloom, one the children made or something with a special story behind it?

I got kind of hung up on the heirloom part of this question when I was thinking about which ornaments, which are decidedly not on the tree, to photograph. I don't really have any Christmas heirlooms. Maggie never had a tree in my memory--or more precisely, she had a ceramic tree about 12" tall that lit up. On my father's side, my great grandmother, when she got Alzheimer's, started throwing away heirlooms--her wedding portrait, other photos, "junk no one wanted." And her daughter always did "theme" trees. The thing with most theme trees, in my experience, especially if they are changed annually, is that you don't really develop an attachment to the ornaments. Unless, of course, you make your own.

When we moved to my childhood home in 1976, my mother had a designer from Ethan Allen come decorate our formal living room. It was blue and gold with touches of pink that were in the oriental rug. So the small tree she put up in that room pulled in those colors too. And for that tree, she made these angels. When we were cleaning out her house thirty three years later, we found enough Christmas ornaments to open up a shop. Most went to the thrift store, but I couldn't let these go. So I guess these are the heirlooms from one crafty lady to her daughter.

But that's not really the question, is it? In the years we haven't decorated (usually we do, even when we are going to England on December 26) I always put out this Santa that I stitched. The pattern is by Heartstrings, and it is stitched with fluffy fibers that Silver Needle kitted up. I loved every stitch, but especially the ones done with Very Velvet!

It was finished (at an incredibly reasonable price) by the fabulous Miss Mona of Magic by Mona. 

It is also something seasonal that I've stitched. Two birds, one stone.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas!