My Christmas Ornaments for 2017 are Done...

What a happy good feeling I have, my Christmas Ornaments for this year are DONE.......

Now someone might be saying "Whats so exciting about that?"  Christmas is still 8 months away and who in their right mind is thinking about Christmas?  There's plenty of time for that..

Well you see I am!!!!

This Christmas Ornament thing began many, many years ago.  Most of my children were grown and some were starting families of their own.  I was a young grandmother and my grandchildren were just beginning.  I knew that as the years would come, that many more grandchildren would be born into our family and someday my life would be blessed with great grandchildren.  My family tree branches would become full of many beautiful leaves and as I content plated this scenario, I thought, how are these future children going to know me or even know who I am, or even remember me if I'm not here?  What could I do that might somehow leave a memory of me, that somehow, might be able to say to them, "This was from my Grandmother, or my Great Grandmother gave this to me."

That is how this Christmas Ornament Tradition began....

It was the year 1979 when my first Ornaments arrived in my children's Christmas packages.  I had made then a red velvet heart decorated with lace and beads with their name and the year date embroider on it.
The married couples received an ornament with just the year date, but each grandchild had their name and date on theirs.  That year I believe I made 11 Christmas ornaments, that was 38 years ago, this year I just finished 55 ornaments.  I guess I could say, "never in a million years would I had thought that 38 years later I would be making almost 5 dozen Christmas ornaments."  So you can understand why I feel like dancing a jig, waving my arms and shouting for JOY, "I did it, it's done and ready to go for Christmas" and I still have 8 more months left in this new year.....

My family has grown and has multiple by many, they live all over the country, some I see often and some not so often, but I love each and everyone of them and I want them to know that too.  My oldest daughter has told me, "Mother, when  Christmas comes just send the children their Ornaments, they look forward to them, and as long as you can do that, that's enough."  and at my age now, I guess that's what I will do, but I have learned I have to start this process early in the new year or I'll never make it.

When I see pictures of my children's or grandchildren's Christmas trees and see my Ornaments hanging on the branches, my heart is warm and fuzzy and it puts a smile on my face, or when I hear that when one of the Great Grandkids go over to their grandparents or cousin's home and see one of the ornament on that tree, they will say "I have one like that" and then I know I have made a connection.  I also know that when a grandchild has married, they soon take their ornaments with them to their new home and are hung on that very first Christmas tree as they start their new beginning as a married couple.

Sometimes I have thought, "Be careful when you start a Tradition" as you never know where it may lead you, but if this tradition I started years ago has the end results that I had hope for, then the time it takes to create and make them is well forth every minute, for as my fingers are working and creating, my mind and thoughts are thinking of a sweet dear one that is there upon my family tree, because of me and down the road and though the years, hopefully they will say to their little ones, this was made for me by my grandmother or my great grandmother, who is your ------,  she loved me and her name was "LIZ".......