This week's Holiday Expo theme at Internet Cafe Devotions is the "home tour". Well, there isn't much to see in my home. I usually don't decorate for Christmas until after my annual Christmas production at church....and that just happens to be this weekend. So....my house is pretty blah still. However, I did host a little holiday party last weekend so I felt like I had to have a few decorations up. It was a cooking party (we made our own hard candy) so I just focused on decorating the kitchen.
The ornaments I hang in my kitchen are some of my favorites anyway. They are the faux gingerbread cookie ornaments made of colossal amounts of cinnamon and a little wood glue. They are special to me for three reasons.
#1 My sister Jill made them for me. She was on her own for the first time ever after graduating from college. She had her first job at a private school that paid next to nothing and she was living with my parents, but she was determined to go out on her own for Christmas gifts for everyone. She was on a tight budget so she made a lot of gifts. I don't know how long she slaved over these in my mom's kitchen but it must have been a while because she made me 12 ornaments and a garland out of 18 more. I know she made several more sets of these that she gave to other people too. So I appreciate the hard work she put in to the gift.
#2 She made the ornaments using my mom's cookie cutters. So each ornament is shaped just like all of the sugar cookies we made growing up. They remind me of how the angel's neck was always too thin so her head would break off and how the little tips on the holly leaf would always burn and get crispy. Just looking at the ornaments reminds me of the cookies of my youth.
#3 I always laugh the first time I pull them out of the box each year because I remember the story of the day they were made. My Dad, who inherited a sweet tooth from my Grandpa, was outside working as usual while Jill made the cookies. On one of his trips in to the house he smelled the delicious aroma of cinnamon and decided no one would mind if he had just one cookie. Yep, he took one all right, but he didn't eat much of it. After one mouthful of wood glue he had had enough of these particular cinnamon cookies.
To see some pics and videos of homes that are actually decorated head over to the Cafe and follow the links.
1 comment:
I swear my mother has the exact same set of cookie cutters...oh I know those shapes sooo well... does your angel lose her wings all the time if you scoop her up too fast?!
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