Peasoup Outside; Pretties Inside

 Because we are a bit beyond a 2,000 foot drop from the Sandia Mtns (and, undoubtedly, as well, for other reasons I can't explain), our area is prone to fog.  This morning it's quite thick, and has been accompanied by frozen snow--teeny tiny seeds of snow.  (This is where I could use some of those dozens of nouns the Tlinget have for accurate descriptions of snow.)

Inside, our little tree is decorated with ornaments that haven't been out of storage in the last several years (attributable to the fact that we traveled for a couple of years and Sweet Teen dislikes Christmas).

I love, love taking out ornaments I've collected over the years and revisiting the memories of the people who made or gave them or where I collected them.  The two hats (one is the circular ornament to the left of the little hat) were crocheted by my mother about 20 years ago.  I made the macrame ornament when I was teaching in Peoria, IL in the late 70's. (I made six, so I'm thinking the others are in other ornament boxes.--I used to put up three to five trees--one for almost every room when I lived in AZ.)

I have three violet and teal cloisonne ornaments that were a gift from my sister around 1980.

I purchased several of these cloisonne fish on my first trip to China.

I love pretty wired ribbon bows on ornaments; love the extra shots of color and "fluff" they add to a tree.

One year I saved a lot of the short ends and leftover plies of embroidery thread from cross stitch and stuffed them into glass balls as memories of that years' cross-stitch projects.  Since I started quilting with Fil-Tec Glide thread, I've been saving short pieces from the starts and stops in quilting to stuff into balls--thinking I'll use them to decorate a wreath in the sewing room--but haven't done so yet.

Every tree, and every heart, needs a singing bird.  This one sings only in imagination, but it's there in the branches anyway.

Crocheted angels were things my mom loved to crochet.  Unfortunately, she starched hers with a commercial product that when washed turned the angels (and anything else) gray (and can't be removed).  I still prefer homemade starch since it can be washed out when the years add layers of dust to the pretties.

I do hope Sweet Teen gets over her dislike of Christmas.  A lifetime is a long time to dislike what for most of us is a highlight of the year.  My favorite celebration is Easter, but Thanksgiving and Christmas are tied for second place.  Sweet Teen is willing to take part in social outings that have to do with Christmas, but that's because she has relatively high social needs. However, I had to give firm instructions that she will sit with family at church services--her friends are welcome to sit with us too--some attend without family.  I'm glad that at least she appreciates the important part of Christmas, the gift of Jesus, but even the peaceful, traditional, orchestral, piano, and jazz Christmas CD's in which I find great comfort and peace just make her feel "sad." However, she did just say that she might put the "peppy" tracks from Amy Grant Christmas CD's on her i pod.

Christmas cookies, some sewing projects, and, hopefully, some quilty stuff on the agenda for me today...and a trip to the grocery store for the eggs I forgot to buy yesterday.....