Sunday, December 23, 2007

Filler

Here we are, on the afternoon of the night before the night before. It's bitter cold and these terribly strong winds are blowing the bit of snow that fell last night from county to county. In short, it's miserable.

I am not miserable, however, partly because I'm not a deer or a crow or any other non-hibernating, non-migrating Wisconsin creature, and partly because I've almost all my Christmassing ready. Gifts nearly all wrapped; cookies baked (they'll be smeared with frosting and sprinkled exuberantly with colored sugar, red hots and colored balls by the small girl, later today). I work tomorrow and then not until the day after New Year's.

That said, and in keeping in the tradition of happy, sappy holiday stuff; trying to witter on about something that I've not wittered on about over the past 3+ blogging years, I think I'll just go on about my favorite Christmassy things: Da ornaments, shall I?

I shall.

We've scads. I'm a bit of a junkie, as you've seen. We've the entire collection of porcelain Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer figures. (I think there are a dozen in all.) We've silk fruit bought in Japan by my mother when we were stationed there 40 years ago. We've glass and glitter and those pretty eggs. I'm a sucker for the sparkly and shiny. My very most favorite, though?

So glad you asked; you're always so obliging.

Pictures for you

This biplane made of some sort of resin-y material makes me giggle. It's translucent and shimmery, (Joy!) and the propeller and wheels turn. I've a bit of a collection of them, including a lute and a banjo.

Pictures for you

This lovely, large glass ball encases gold-accented, glass figures of Mary, Joseph and the angel around the baby in a manger. I wish I could make things of this delicacy and beauty, but if I could, I guess I'd not be curled up on the couch with the smell of cookies in my nose, but in a dark, 3rd world studio covered with burn scars. So I'll just buy them when I find them and encourage the exploitation of 3rd world artisans. Jesus would be pleased, I'm sure.

Pictures for you

Then we've another of a small set of hand-made birds. These weren't made by an impoverished person in Bangladesh but my paternal grandmother, Thelma, circa WWII. It's made of strips of metalic-looking plastic and hung with a paper clip. The plastic is important as it's not made of metal, which was gathered for the war effort. I'm guessing the metal paper clip was added in the decadent 50s when such things were again allowed without being thought to be unpatriotic. (Let's pause to consider how us Yanks would do now do with such restrictions when we can't even give up our gas-guzzling ways in the light of what's going on in the Middle East. And, yes, we are also part of the problem in that we have a shameful SUV. We only drive it during the worst of the winter days, but the damn thing's paid for and it's hard to trade it in and buy a hybrid SUV. Waving at ourselves in the mirror.)

Pictures for you

And then we have what I think is my very favorite. She's a DOCTOR. She's a SHE. See her little black bag and her clipboard and her head light and her white coat with her stethescope around her neck. I love her greatly.

Pictures for you

And lastly, I leave you with this. Any guesses?

Anyone?

This was actually part of a set that Colin was given for his birthday from a friend last year. That's a hint. Last year he was still All Star Wars All The Time boy.

Yes! It's Boba Fett's head! 'Cause nothing says Christmas like the dismembered head of a bounty hunter, nosiree! There are also heads of C3PO, Yoda, and Darth Vader, but I like Boba Fett best.

So, from our little holiday enclave to where ever you are, we wish you a lovely holiday (belatedly if you celebrate the Hanukkah). Hope you are failing to resist lots of food that is bad for you, but good for your soul. Hope those who love snow have it and those who don't, well, don't. Mostly I wish you lots of love and friends and family and really good things.

A very happy merry, dearest darlings, a very happy merry, indeed.

14 Comments:

Blogger Voyager said...

My warmest Christmas wishes to you and your family too. And thanks for the blog idea about Christmas ornaments, I'm going to smaelessly steal it! I'm a little short on creativity right now.
V.

4:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The happiest Christmas to you too! Love the ornaments-I knew you would like the "different" ones like me. It is cold and blowing here too but unfortunately, no snow-I haven't wrapped a darn thing but there is a bottle of Merlot sitting right next to the sissors and tape just waiting for tonight!
Big hugs~

4:46 PM  
Blogger Mother of Invention said...

Thanks so much, Diana. I just love the glass ball with Mary and Joseph! It is outstanding and so unique. I love lights and ornaments...and give me the small white old style or frosted colours...sorry..no LED! They look crummy to me.

We had rain all day and now wind warnings and flash freeze warnings! To think that a week ago, we had 2 1/2 ' of snow!

Our cantata I sang in today in a church was beautiful and it seemed to make me feel that much more ready to receive the wishes of the season!

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas with your family, Diana!

Have a great break from work!

6:51 PM  
Blogger Diana said...

Voyager- Steal away! It's the highest of compliments. I'm short on creativity and TIME! My poor blog-friends. I've been like a ghost the past several weeks. I need a long, dark January to try to catch up with everyone.

Kate- Hah! Finally got my cards in the mail yesterday after a marathon session with the address book and the pen Friday. No snow??? At least you will be fortified for the wrapping marathon. I'm sipping on a friend's home vintage. It's a humerous little wine from a humerous guy. Merlot is lovely-lovely. The family wine and cheese store we usually hit for such goodies is having a special: buy 6 bottles, get a bottle of rather tasty champagne and a wine glass FREE! We've amassed 3 glasses so far...

Ruth- ME TOO! Our tree has small white ones and the trees outside small colored ones with white lights along the walkway. They were covered with 2+1/2 (about 80 cm) of snow until yesterday, when it rained for 24 hours. Now we've got maybe 3" (7 cm). BAH! And this is the year we finally got cross-country skis. LED is not for me. I adore Christmas choral music, especially Vivaldi's Gloria. Someday I'd love to return to choir singing...

8:06 PM  
Blogger Colleen said...

Love your ornaments! It's cool when there's a story about each ornament we have. On our first Christmas tree, I loaded it up with those ball ornaments and red bows, basically so that there would be something on it besides the lights! Now, nearly 10 years later, our tree is filled with princesses, Pooh, Dora, Cleveland Browns, and whatever else we've been interested in. It's so fun.

Merry, Merry Christmas to you and yours! Happy, healthy 2008! How great that you don't have to work until after New Year's AND you're so ahead of the game. Have a glass of wine for me!

9:40 PM  
Blogger CarpeDM said...

Everyone else goes on about the beauty of the ornaments but the one that warmed the cockles of my heart the most? Any guesses? That's right. Boba Fett's ('Cause nothing says Christmas like the dismembered head of a bounty hunter, nosiree!) head. But for much different reasons than Colin, I'm sure. One reason because I've never been into Star Wars (Star Trek TNG all the way, baby) & the other because I believe he got mentioned on Buffy when Spike was trying to get the chip from his head looked at by the 3 evil geniuses and he did it by threatening their Boba Fett figurine. Good times.

Merry Christmas, Diana and Diana's family!

2:13 PM  
Blogger the rotten correspondent said...

We have a lot of Star Trek ornaments on our tree, courtesy of my lovely husband. So every time we turn the lights on we hear Spock's voice telling us the Live Long and Prosper. The perfect holiday sentiment, don't you think?

Hope your family has had a wonderful holiday so far and that you enjoy your time off work. I don't go back until Sunday, and will fervently hope before then that it is calmer than my Christmas Eve shift.

Happy Blog catching up. I so know the feeling!

12:13 PM  
Blogger Teresa said...

I love ornaments too. I have a large number of snowmen but I hesitate to say they are my favorites. I like the eclectic, the old with the new, the hand crafted, next to the Hallmark.
It is a labor of love and a connection with treasured family memories when I decorate my tree.
Merry Christmas!

12:46 AM  
Blogger moegirl said...

Hi Diana! Hope you & the fam had a merry christmas. Love the pictures and stories about your ornaments.

I've been catching up on my blog reading and I must say Colin sounds like the most extraordinary young man- he's 9! that's wild. Time is going by blindingly fast.

Love and hugs to you.

2:33 AM  
Blogger Karen said...

Season's Greetings!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and I'm sending good wishes for the New Year.

9:47 AM  
Blogger listie said...

Belated Merry Christmas!

We who are heathens vicariously enjoy other people's decorations. Do you have a photo of the whole tree?

12:00 PM  
Blogger Rozanne said...

Lovely idea for a post. Those are some great ornaments! I esp. liked the background on the handmade WWII-era ornament. Fascinating. I also love that you have a banjo ornament. Let's see it!!!! Growing up we had some musical instrument ornaments (saxophone, trumpet, etc) that once upon a time would elicit a sort of squawky squeal if you blew into them hard enough. Eventually (after much handling by little kids like me), the mechanisms in them all failed, but I still loved them.

P.S. I thought the Boba Fett ornament was a cross-section of a uterus! I still think that, since I've no idea who Boba Fett is. I think it would be hilarious to station the doctor ornament next to it.

6:00 PM  
Blogger Jocelyn said...

Boba Fett's head makes me happier than anything...and I don't even like ornaments much.

You kind of made me, though.

Even though I didn't want to.

1:25 AM  
Blogger brooksba said...

I <3 the doctor ornament. That's awesome! I'm sorry I'm so late wishing you a very Merry Christmas. I hope you had a terrific week off of work and spent it cuddling with the little ones. Happy New Year - best wishes for happiness, health, and moments perfect for memories to fill your days.

4:41 AM  

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