Well . . . it’s the second day in December and I still have not decorated the house or tree yet – hubby has promised that he will bring in all the boxes today . . . I did however want to share with you a picture (from last year’s tree) of the very first handmade ornament that I ever made . . . it’s unbelivable that this Santa is 41years old this year . . .

my husband was still in college when we got married in 1969 and as typical college students we could not afford anything . . . we had purchased a Christmas tree (thanks to a Christmas check from my grandmother) but we did not have one thing to put on it . . . no lights, no ornaments, no tinsel – nothing . . . I remember how that poor tree looked so sad standing naked in our living room . . .

a few days after we purchased the “tree” my mother-in-law’s care package arrived (she worried about us starving & freezing – sooooooo every month she would send us a box with strange food/clothing/books & magazines in it – anything that she thought we poor college students would need – I remember she sent us a box of “hamburger helper” when it first came out and had us rate it – it was terrible! – glad to hear they have improved the product over time) . . .

anyway back to the Santa ornament . . . in this particular box was a McCall’s Christmas craft magazine and it had the cutest Santa and Snowman hand puppets and all you needed was felt, glue & some hand sewing – hey I could do that – I could afford those items . . . soooooooo off I went to the local Ben Franklin’s (the town we lived in did not have a fabric store) . . . now I know I said that this Santa was suppose to be a hand puppet but as I am not very good at math I did not enlarge the pattern and so I ended up with cute 5″ Santas and Snowmen (stuffed with cotton balls) . . .

over the years most of the Santa’s and all of the Snowmen have gone to Santa/Snowman heaven (felt & glue just were not made to stand the test of time apparently) so all I have left now is this little jolly fellow . . . he is falling apart but he will always have a place of honor in the very front of our Christmas tree every year and he brings back such wonderful memories of Christmas’s past . . .

Well that’s all for today . . . thanks for taking the time to stop by and visit . . . I will have more to share tomorrow . . . HUGS & KISSES