Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Snapshots




Best pendant. Best tree(s).
Best time had taking family pictures. I didn't know it was possible to have fun taking fam pics; but with Arianna behind the tripod doing what she's great at, and everyone else being hilarious and freezing but trying to look relaxed.... well, it was a grand family time.
Fave eccentric tradition: The television fireplace. A must-have for first-born and me.
Alternately: the scariest christmas gift. "The Devil Came on Horseback"- a documentary film of violence in Sudan.

Most blown-away kid/ happiest gamer.
(she never saw that coming!)

The "Hey!~ I didn't know I wanted that, but I sooo wanted that!" gift.
And the- wah-hoo extravagant gift.

The prettiest way to drink coffee.
Ever.

The most rapidly re-gifted gifts ever. Fingerless mitts that I totally could tell Arianna was faking happiness over. I quickly took those as my own. Great way to keep the wrists warm when you might need to take your for real mitts off to deal with kids or keys or whatever. The USB cup warmer? One of Brian's teacher gifts. Belongs with my laptop. It just does.
Best gift to myself. Saw those socks at Joe and wanted them in my stocking; so I put them there.

Jane. Sweet Jane.
She knows.

It is Jane after all, who gets the award for making mama cry at Christmas.
She stitched together a reversible bag full of hand embroidered pictures of what I love.
Sometimes, there are no words.


Then there's the category that as far as I know; has never been mentioned before at Christmas time. (except maybe at some indiscriminate office parties.....)
The Throw-your-arms-around-someone-else's-husband gifts.
You daycare people. What makes you think that I have a gin and tonic on Friday at 5:30 anyway?! sheesh. And here I've always been soooooo subtle.... (well, ok. There was that parent meeting that involved mojitos on the deck.....And the sharp scent of lemons that herald the start of the end of the week....)
(look out Jenn. I might come after you and Paul with the bear hugs yet...)
And what else to do with the weekend? A dinner out, of course!!
(might have scared him with the affection as well.)

And the champion Throw-Your-Arms-- gift? An alligator skin handbag dating back to 1909. Big surprise, that one. However, I may have equally surprised a certain community member when I barrelled him over with my award winning bear hug at the local gas station.
Watch yerselves at the pumps, fellas.

Best newsletter. I always want to read what Karla is reading.
I'd like to parent more like her too. (kudos to you people) (wanna watch Devil with me?)

Best greeting card/Christmas photo/family picture: Some of my favourite people. Another "kudo" family.
And in the same breath: best reminder of another life in another city. Amazing yoyos, Ginny. Wowzers.

Cutest, most heart-warming surprise under the tree:
Thank you Sammy Jane. You're one of my favourite four year old artists.
(found this rolled up under the tree this morning. One of my daycare cherubs left it there for me. :)
Merry Christmas.

3 comments:

Lisa said...

Merry Christmas Joyce! I love, love, love the trees....especially the wire one. I almost bought one of those myself, but........

The bag Jane made you is amazing! You have awesome kids!

I have to share with you what my wonderful, almost 18 year old son did for me - he convinced the person who bought your bag at our youth fundraiser this summer (You called it 'Lisa Visits the Capital' because the main fabric is what I brought you from Ottawa)to bid on another bag online which he bought for her. In return, he got the 'Lisa' bag and gave it to me for Christmas!! Isn't that a great story!! That boy of mine is going to make some woman very happy one day! I'm so proud of him!

And not to leave out my other wonderful child, my daughter bought me some beautiful vintage christmas ornaments and a tree topper too. And then, to top it all off, she gave me a coffee tin full of....brace yourself...BUTTONS!! All kinds and colours of beautiful buttons to play with over the holidays! They will look lovely on my artwork I'm sure!

And what about my dear husband you ask?? He blessed me with a great art magazine and the computer program Photoshop to help with my creativeness. I was truely blessed this Christmas....not because of the gifts themselves but because my family sees who I am (my interests and hobbies) and purchased gifts with that in mind. That is special!!!
Thanks for sharing your Christmas with us.

Roo said...

jane is amazing.

Anonymous said...

Love the bag your daughter made for you.....how sweet is that? L-lew