Ornament Stories: Day 31

Last day of the year, and last day for these ornament posts. Rather than focus on a single ornament today, I give you all of them in one shot on my little tree. I hope you’ve enjoyed these little vignettes over the past month. I decided to do this as part of a “30-Day challenge” Read More …

Ornament Stories: Day 30

  Michael went to a conference in Rome earlier this month and brought back some trinkets from the Bartolucci woodworking shop where they specialize in handmade Pinocchios, including this new addition to my tree. I just realized that his body is backwards in the photo below, the single silver circle on his chest a magnet Read More …

Ornament Stories: Day 29

Happy fifth day of Christmas. Today I bring you a paper Moravian star, which you can buy already folded and tree-ready at the Moravian Book Shop. I remember an orange and red one on our tree growing up, but I’m not sure where it got to. You can also buy kits to make these stars Read More …

Ornament Stories: Day 28

Well, thanks to my older sister, check Marilyn off my ornament wish list. Here she is decked out in the dress she wore in the opening number, “Two Little Girls from Little Rock” in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I gave my older sister a sparkly ice blue owl, with lots of cut-outs and negative space in its spread wings, Read More …

Ornament Stories: Day 27

Happy third day of Christmas. Another train post. My dad wanted a Santa Fe Lionel engine when he was twelve. He settled for the same style diesel in the Erie line, bought it with his paper money when he was 14. The Santa Fe engine is expensive now, but Michael found a Santa Fe locomotive Read More …

Ornament Stories: Day 25

Merry Christmas! I hope the Santas in your life were good to you today. Today marks the beginning of the twelve days of Christmas in case that ever confused you (we all know how marketing and radio hosts like to screw that up), the period from now until Epiphany on January 6th when the wise Read More …

Ornament Stories: Day 24

Christmas Eve. I’m headed to Christmas City, USA today with Michael to celebrate the holiday with my family. There will be carol singing tonight, and egg nog drinking. My father will watch the Pope’s Christmas sermon like he does every year after we get back from the Christmas Eve church service. Growing up, the Christmas Read More …

Ornament Stories: Day 23

Some of you may be familiar with my Christmas poem, “The Pickle and The Pear” (you can read the poem here.) These are the two ornaments that inspired it (I told you more pears were to come!). In fact, some of the other ornaments mentioned in the poem have appeared in these posts. Perhaps I should Read More …

Ornament Stories: Day 22

The weekend before Christmas, my parents and siblings would pack into the family van and drive to the country to find the perfect tree. Sometimes our neighbor, Liz and her two children (and our playmates), Michael and Catherine, would join us to get their tree too. We would hike up and down hills covered with Read More …