HOW WAS YOUR CHRISTMAS?

I was sick this Christmas but then a lot of people were.
Seems like absolutely everyone is ill.
But I had a good Christmas anyway!
As I've said in the past, I love handmade gifts and this year
my niece Lily made me something that when I opened the box I had to struggle really hard to keep it together.
But as hard as I tried, I couldn't help but cry.
But it was happy tears.
She made me a sculpture of BLUE!
She captured him perfectly.

She got his coloring and markings perfect.
And all of his little lumps and bumps.

She even made a black chair and footstool for him.
Just like my sofa and chair.

and....
while, I do adore handmade
my sister surprised me with a flat screen!
I had been watching TV on a very small screen
ever since they went digital.
What was that, 7 years ago or something?
I must say, I LOVE it.
Suddenly people on TV have pores and wrinkles!
I don't know why but that makes me so happy!

and finally.
as I already have said,
I was sick on Christmas.
But very early in the morning I woke up
and got very ill.
After quite a while I crawled back into bed 
and slept in much later than I usually do!
In fact when I woke up the sunlight was streaming in the window.
I opened my eyes and to my surprise this is what I saw -

I keep my phone on the ledge above my bed
it's my alarm
and if someone needs to call, it's within reach.
So I slowly took it off the ledge and took that photo.
Quite the surprise,
I mean sometimes he sneaks up on the bottom of the bed during the night
but he has NEVER gotten up next to me like this.
I kinda feel like he knew I was sick
and was watching over me.
Yep, a very good Christmas.

What I made last year for Christmas Gifts. (Dog Paintings)

I just realized that I never shared the gifts that I made this last year for Xmas!

I guess the new snowfall made me think of Christmas....

and that I kinda only like snow for Christmas.

Anyway, this is what I made for the two girls that work for me in boarding.

Taylor adores her little Elvis -

So I did a painting of him -

and Pam's furry family has suffered a couple of losses in the last couple of years 

and now she is just left with just her two dogs,

Rain and Princess - 

and finally Lily, my niece has a new puppy

a Dachshund/Shih-Tzu mix....or sometimes called a mutt.

I was very upset with Lily because she BOUGHT him from a Pet Store.

Most Pet Stores get puppies from Puppy Mills

and with so many dogs needing homes.....

OK, anyway. I can't hold it against her little guy.

His name is Lucius Fox

(after the Morgan Freeman character from the Batman movies. Lily is addicted to all things Batman)

So here's her pic of her puppy in the snow.

And the painting I did of him.

For some reason, I was unable to get a really good pic of it and I couldn't scan it

because it's covered in glitter, to look like sparkling snow.

So, that's what I MADE for Christmas.

The rest of my gifts I bought throughout the year.

I got my sister some really cool Smith and Hawkins garden things

when they were marked down after summer.

I try to remember to search all year so I can get good gifts at good prices.

But usually, I prefer to make my gifts, if possible.

A Homemade Xmas Gift and In Memoriam

Last year about this time I talked about a Christmas gift that I was making for my family members

but of course was unable to share in fear that they might see it on my blog.

I planned to share it this month and now I do so with a heavy heart.

I will start by saying that I've received 2 phone calls this week thanking me again for the gift.

So yes, I need to share it.

Last December I called my sister and told her that I would be coming over and not to ask questions.

I said it had to with "Christmas".

When I arrived she was the only one home and I told her to "Get lost".

"What are you doing?" she asked and then added

"Don't go into Grace's room, she might be working on something that she doesn't want you to see"

I reassured her I wouldn't so she went downstairs to do laundry.

I had a little box with me and inside it was little black flatten balls of Sculpey clay that I had pierced on the top of the "circle".

I yelled "Stay down there!"  and I whispered to Hank their elderly yellow lab to come with me.

I've written about the summer trip the family took to the Lake with Hank, HERE.

So we are in the bathroom and Hank sat patiently as I slowly, softly but firmly, pressed each disc on the top of his nose.

Then I put each one carefully into a baggie and sit them in the box.

When we are done I walk to the basement door and yelled "OK! you can come up now"

My sister walked up the steps and looked at the little box in my hand. "What's in there?" she asked.

"Don't you worry about it" I told her and held up the box and said "Christmas!"

I told her good-bye and as I walked out to my car she yelled "you are weird" and I yelled back that she was too and we laughed.

Fast forward to Christmas and we are opening gifts. 

I had made little boxes out of watercolor paper and drawn ribbon and name-tags on them.

I had my family all sit together and open their boxes at the same time.

They looked at it quizzically at first.

The girls had necklaces and my sister and her husband had key-chains.

They started to comment on them and my sister asked slowly "Is it a...buck-eye?"

No one had figured it out.

"No" I said, "Feel the texture, the imprint?" and they started to run a finger across the pieces of clay.

"It's an imprint of Hank's nose!" I exclaimed.

They all burst out a collective "AAAAHHHHHH" and my sister, who doesn't cry easily, got up and ran for the bathroom

I ran after her and took a photo.

"Don't be putting me on your BLOG!" she sniffed.

and Lily ran over and hugged Hank.

Yeah, the gifts were a huge success.

So....last Wednesday I had gotten home (I work half days on Wednesday) and my sister calls to see if I'm busy.

I had lots of plans but I ask "Why?"

"Well" she says "I've just been in a car accident and this guy hit me and my car is not driveable."

Luckily she is OK, even if her car is not.

She had to wait for a tow truck and the police to finish up but she asked me to meet her at the car body/repair shop.

I rounded up the dogs and put them in the laundry room and left.

She was already there when I got there and her little VW Bug was pretty badly smashed in just behind the drivers side door.

As I drove her home, she was talking about how she she had a high deductible. (She was a a stop sign, stopped and then went and suddenly out of nowhere a car hit her. But because she had a stop sign, it was her fault)

She was irritated how whenever you get a little bit ahead, something seems to happen to take your cash.

I agreed and said how last year my tax refund went directly to cut down the tree that fell on my house and the year before it went to 4 new tires that I had to get. Then someone said to me at the time, that I was fortunate to have the money. I said that while it's irritating, you just have to think of it that way. And.....

I said, " You might not have thought of this yet but, if that car had hit you seconds earlier and in the little car, you could have died."

"Yeah", she grudgingly agreed. 

As we drove I said to her "OK, I'm going to say something to you and I'll only say it once."

"OoooooK" she replied. 

Then I told her that when the day comes that Blue is old and hurting and not living a quality life, that I might need someone to tell me that it's time to let him leave this world. I said that I would probably be mad at whoever told me this and that I might not be able to accept it but I might just need someone to say it to me anyway".

"OK" she replied.

(Now I haven't mentioned that Hank had had a stroke the week before and how my sister had called Doc in a panic at Midnight and how the next day Doc adjusted Hank and gave him a shot of something to help his brain and inflammation, then Doc had said that in a few days, time would tell.)

"So... I'm trying to say that maybe it's time to think about Hank.."

"OH NO!" she interrupted. "He's doing MUCH better."

"OK", I said. "I just wanted to say that."

I pulled up to her house and she walked up to the front door and turned and waved.

Her face formed a tight smile but I could see sadness and tell that she didn't want to cry.

I came home and let my dogs out and started a load of laundry and set down to the computer when my phone rang.

It was my sister.

I couldn't understand a word she trying to say, she was sobbing so hard.

I told her to take a breathe and talk slowly, that I couldn't understand her.

I heard her gulp and say, "I let the dogs outside and they did their business and came in and I gave them both their treats.

Then they went into the living room and laid down on their beds in front of the fireplace."

She stopped for moment and said

"I was on the phone with Lily and I glanced over at the dogs and noticed that Hank looked to be in a weird position"

Then she walked over and looked at him closer and told Lily she had to hang up but for her to come home RIGHT NOW.

She sobbed to me "He's GONE!"

What followed afterwards was so many tears and a very heartbroken family.

Later, much later they have all come to realize that at least he has home, in front of a fire sleeping next to his buddy.

And at least my sister was in the house and had just been with him and knew that he had his treat and that his last moments were peaceful.

Yeah.....

Another awful sad story that I'm sharing.

I've promised before to try not to write posts like this but...

I feel that if I didn't share this, the passing of a wonderful very loved dog that I would somehow be disrespectful of his memory.

Hank was one of those good dogs that never did a thing wrong. He was just the perfect dog.

I know that people have different beliefs but I believe he is now with my perfect dog, my Golden Retriever, my Maddie.

She passed almost 10 years ago and my heart still hurts to think about her.

I hope not to have any more stories like this for a very long time.

But I also wanted to remind everyone that sometimes a gift made from the heart,

a gift that doesn't cost very much,

can mean more than anything trendy thing you can buy.

Handmade Christmas Gifts.....

I'm working on some Christmas gifts for my family.

I came up with an idea that I'm really excited about.

I think that everyone will like it, in fact I'm thinking it might bring a tear to the eye for some of them.

My eldest niece always makes her own gifts and if someone starts to cry when they have opened it she fist-bumps the air and says "Yes!"

Not because she really wants anyone to cry but because she knows she's created a gift that is very special.

Two years ago, she had me sobbing as I opened her pencil drawing of Blue.

 

I mean, what could be better than that?

All three of my nieces put a lot of thought into their gifts. They really want to make a perfect fit for their loved ones.

 

My sister has brought them up making their home magically and artful.

Her gifts are always beautiful wrapped. Carefully picked out wrapping paper and clippings from her garden or little things that she has "found".

She makes them so pretty that it's hard to open them.

That's how she decorates her home for each holiday too.

She has saved all the drawings the girls made while growing up, then she  switches out their "artwork" in frames around the house with their creations from years gone by.

In small frames scattered throughout, she has photos of my nieces or her husband or her and I when we were small and celebrating that particular holiday.

yeah, that's me and her on the right.

 

She goes into the woods and drags home vines and weaves them with twinkle lights and hangs them in the foyer.

 

It's not uncommon to find a odd shape piece of wood, from a tree or found along a walk that she has placed about their home just because of it's uniqueness.

I love her total disregard of any rules on decorating.

She couldn't care less. She only has things that she loves in her home.

The result is people coming to visit and not wanting to leave.

One of the girls friends said that their home is "Magic".

So, I have tried to remember this when I sometimes start to get caught up in some "trend".

I strive to only have what I love and what makes me happy when I walk in the door.

Yes, I am drawn to Mid-Century but I'm not confining myself to just a particular "look".

OK, I've gotta off track again.

So my Christmas gift idea?

I can't post it yet in case one of the girls checks my blogs.

Sigh...

Then I remembered I could show you what I created for them LAST year.

 

BOOKS.

Old books from the library. $1.00 a piece chosen for their thickness and their sturdy covers.

Then I painted the covers and transferred photos onto them.

After that I cut out a "secret" box shape inside the books.

Inside each book I had a special wrapped gift.

 

Grace's book had a bat on the front. She loves bats and owls.

Inside, her gift was an old copper owl necklace that I found at a little shop.

 

Maggie's book had a rabbit on the front. She loves bunnies and pigs.

Inside was a little piggy necklace ordered off of Etsy.

 

And Lily, the youngest, the one that works part-time at the boarding kennel with me...

Had a book with a photo of Griffin on the front, because she loves him best.

Inside her book was a whistle, an dog whistle.

 

So that's what I did last year....and after Christmas, I'll post what I did this year.