Christmas memories for posterity

This last Christmas we had our own holiday miracle.  Right now, Rain Dragon's favorite stuffie is her little pig whom she alternately called Piglet and Arnold.  

It began with our traditional tree-cutting at the farm. Rain Dragon insisted on bringing her currently favorite stuffie Piglet/Arnold. You can see her holding him in her hand:

I suggested she put Piglet in her pocket. She did so and we had a grand time picking our tree:

However, back at the car, disaster struck! Arnold Piglet was not in her pocket! He had fallen out!  Arnold Piglet was lost!!! Wailing, tears and hysterics ensued. Sasquatch bravely, but without much hope,  returned to the tree cutting area to search for a 2 inch pig toy. 

In the meantime, as I attempted to calm Rain Dragon and I went through the photos on my phone and found...

the exact moment Arnold Piglet fell out of her pocket!

Using my photo, Sasquatch was able to locate Arnold Piglet and we had a happy Christmas after all.

Merry Christmas, Arnold Piglet! Merry Christmas, Rain Dragon!

topping off christmas

Every year, I have this idea that we will create the most picturesque, Pinterest-worthy Christmas. So far, it's never quite happened. This year is no exception.

However, this year, we were determined to have a Christmas tree topper. The tops of all my trees of Christmas past have been bald because I've never gotten it together to make something to my liking. But a million years ago, when Rain Dragon was still a secret, I met the incredible artist Salley Mavor and got her book, Pocketful of Posies as well as her crafting book Felt Wee Folk.

So using that as an inspiration, the Sasquatch and I began making our little family. Here we are bald and as wizards:

Salley uses acorns for hats, but it's not acorn season! 

But in the end, we opted for hair and being Muggles:

Of course, we had to do this at night while Rain Dragon was sleeping and only finished this morning, so she got a Christmas Eve Morning surprise:

But the tree is fully decorated for Christmas!

Happy Holidays, all!! Wishing you a merry and joyous season!!!

tree!

Oh my, it's Christmas Eve tomorrow!

I'm deep in my novel, which, unfortunately, makes me extremely absent-minded. So the days to the holidays have just slipped by and I haven't done half of what I wanted to do. Sigh!

But we did get a tree! We cut our own again, like last year! This time, Rain Dragon was quite excited:

And wanted to us to take all of them:

But we finally decided on one and let the Sasquatch do his manly duty:

And let Rain Dragon do her perceived one:

all the ornaments on the bottom of the tree, toddler-height!

I was tempted just to leave the tree decorated this way!

new home for the holidays

It's almost Christmas! This our first Christmas in our new house in our new locale. We've been traveling so much that it still feels new. But we are settling in, putting out little roots and starting new traditions.  This year, for the the first time ever, we cut our own Christmas tree:

Rain Dragon was a little confused (and cold):

But we invested in some non-breakable ornaments:

 and she got into the holiday spirit:

So we've decked the new halls:

And now our home is (mostly) ready for the holidays! Hope yours is, too!

on my desk monday

On my desk (table) is this year's very small Christmas tree. It's been so busy and our place has been so crowded (which is why we are moving) that we couldn't find the time or space for a real tree, much less make special ornaments like years past.  Believe me, I feel the shame! Poor Rain Dragon, her first Christmas tree is so puny.

Lucky for us, this year the Concord Museum decided to feature my book Bringing in the New Year for one of their Family Trees and we were able to pretend ownership of that:

Didn't they do a great job with it? Even the dragon on top was hand-made!

But I don't think Rain Dragon was fooled:

but she still liked it!

christmas tree

Everything has been a blur! I've been so busy with all my different projects that I haven't gotten to do all the fun holiday things I usually like to do.

But we did get a tree! Since I didn't have time to think or create a new decorating scheme, we used old ornaments from christmas past, like my origami animals (found them in a hidden box in the closet!):

And last year's birds (I have far less as many were "liberated" over the year by visiting friends):

However, the Sasquatch and I did make one new ornament for the tree:

It's a peanut baby! Even though our baby is in utero, it's rain dragon's first Christmas so I thought we should have something for him/her.

I think it's our nicest tree, yet.

Happy Holidays, all!

deck the halls...

with birds of jolly!

With our past year's origami ornaments mysteriously missing (perhaps accidentally recycled!) I decided that the decorations of this year's tree should be a bit more durable. So when over the summer, my friend Anna purchased these strings of birds:

I had my Christmas tree inspiration!

With a little internet research I found this lovely (and FREE) pattern from Spool and began to sew (by hand still because I am scared of my sewing machine). It made me quite happy. I used up leftover fabric from my computer case, wedding and old clothes--that bright red fabric with the white flower is from a 70's dress of my mother's!



I let Squatchie stuff the birds which is why they are so plump. I think some of them look like dolphins. But they still looked nice on the tree, don't you think?

fa la la la, la la la LA!

oh, christmas tree

While my cousin Austin put up a rather modest Christmas tree,
I decided on something a little more elaborate.
But it is still humble in its own way. Having a slight dearth in Christmas ornaments and a reluctance to buy any, I decided on origami ornaments. In a way it's tribute to my Lissy's Friends book--an opportunity to re-use those folding skills!

Though I have to admit, during the painting of Lissy's Friends the only shape I really mastered was the crane. So it was with great pride that I finally managed the origami lily,

pig,
butterfly,
and goldfish.

Now I just need something for the top of the tree. Maybe I should make the Lissy doll an angel outfit!