Saturday, December 15, 2007

Christmas Projects

There are "crafty" mothers out there -- the ones who scrapbook and knit and make cool homemade gifts for everyone.

That ain't me, but hats off to 'em.

Nonetheless, at Christmastime, I get a peculiar urge to engage my children in doing some kind of project. Today, it's refurbishing ornaments. We took a lot of our hand-me-down glass ornaments -- the ones that are looking a bit worse for wear -- painted on some watered-down school glue and dipped them in glitter. They don't look like they came from Macy's, but they look better than before. And with a mother's eyes, they look positively beautiful.

This must be a genetic thing, or a going-back-to-my-roots thing. My mother also eschews the crafty side of life, but come December, she gamely had me painting wooden ornaments or wood-burning another set of ornaments, or making salt dough ornaments. A good sport, she is.

So, we now have clothes hangers hanging around the house, holding drying ornaments. And now it's time for the kind of craft I like -- cooking. Today is our tamalada. The pork is simmering with the chile, onions and spices as I write.

Christmastime is here ...

1 comment:

Comrade Kevin said...

My mother keeps every ornament any of us (I'm the oldest child of three) made in any capacity. Fortunately they have all weathered the years in good shape and haven't needed to be patched up.

As a young child, I remember this time of year for the things I made almost as much as the presents I received on Christmas morning.