Christmas Disappointments

 or a Look into Christmases Past with Kris

Kris is a friend to many of us as she is frequent and interesting commenter on our blogs. Today she is my guest blogger sharing with us some of her Christmas presents from the past that didn't work out quite the way everyone had planned. Take it away, Kris.

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Christmas Disappointments

 

Hi, I'm Kris, one of June's long-term readers.  I had suggested to her that she could write about a disappointment she experienced at Christmas and somehow that evolved into my making a guest appearance on her blog. 

 

Childhood disappointment:  I was very young, probably around four years old, when I saw a toy on tv that I had to have.  She was called Tumblin' Tomboy and she was a beautiful blond doll who could do acrobatic somersaults.  I was fascinated and she went on my Christmas list.  On Christmas morning, amid the flurry of wrapping paper, I opened the pinnacle of gifts.  Yes, Tumblin' Tomboy was mine.  My parents added the batteries and she performed her first tumbles successfully.  I was ecstatic.  The second time, however, things didn't go so well.  By the third attempt at a tumble, she clearly wasn't performing like she did on tv.  No matter what my dad (who could fix almost anything, or so it seemed to me) did, she remained without any tumbles.  I don't remember what ultimately happened to her but my Christmas dreams suffered from technical difficulties.

     

My mom's disappointment:  I was probably around 8 or 9 when I decided that I really wanted a Lite-Brite for Christmas.  On my list it went.  I didn't really think much more about it until one day when I came home from school.  On our mailbox was a box, and not just any box.  No, this was a giant-sized box that said "Lite-Brite" on it.  I brought it, as well as the rest of the mail, into the house, grinning from ear to ear.  "Look what was on the mailbox, mom!" I called.  "What?????  I can't believe the mailman left it there.  Well, you're not getting it until Christmas".  While I know my mom was disappointed that the surprise was spoiled, it didn't ruin the pleasure for me.  In fact, I still have it, and my daughter and I have had fun with it in the recent past. 

     

Averted disappointment:  In my teen years, I was poking around in my mom's closet, looking for cleaning rags, when I uncovered a purse.  This was a leather purse that I hadn't seen my mother using.  I suddenly realized that the purse was meant for me for Christmas.  I quickly covered it up, and although it was inadvertent, I felt guilty for discovering it.  I knew how disappointed my mother would be if she knew I found a gift, so I never told her about my discovery.  I received a nice purse and my mom was pleased to give it to me.  Sometimes silence is the best response. 

 

The first two stories have made it into family lore.  What seems disappointing at the time can seem funny in later years.  Have you had any disappointments during the holiday season?  Please join me in sharing your memories.  Thanks for reading and thank you, June, for the opportunity to write. 

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That was fun, Kris, and you've given me an idea for another post about how my mother kept us from finding out what we were getting for Christmas. Thanks for sharing and you're welcome here anytime. 

Sigh

 Whose idea was it to post every day? I think I've hit the Christmas and posting wall. COVID concerns have jumbled all of our potential plans and everything is up in the air. I can adjust to most things except uncertainty. That's where I struggle.

So I'm in a Christmas funk. I am no longer interested in gifts, baking, carols, holiday movies, etc. However, life goes on and I'm going through the motions. You know, the fake it until you make it. 

Yesterday, Ward and I went to Wally's apartment to help him hang some Christmas lights. We also took him a small tree. It was good to see him even if it was a short visit. We sang Christmas carols all of the way there during which I discovered that I don't know the words to all of them as well as I thought I did. However, I'm pretty good at making them up as I go along (which drives Miss Landers crazy. Good thing she wasn't there to hear me).

Saturday night, I decided that we should watch a Christmas movie and chose Miracle on 34th Street which we found on Amazon Prime. However, I spent much of the movie confused. Something didn't seem entirely right. The actors, while familiar, didn't look quite like I remembered. However, the story was right on. After a little Googling, I figured out that we were watching a 1955 version of a TV adaption of the movie. Then it all made sense why Grandpa Horton was playing the love interest. (Grandpa Horton was a long-time character from the soap, Days of Our Lives. He was played by MacDonald Carey.")

Since that show only lasted 40 minutes, we decided to watch another Christmas movie. We chose one randomly from the list and watched a very bad, but heartwarming movie about a widowed dad with a young daughter who wants a happy dad for Christmas. Enter spoiled rich girl who becomes a better person until there is strife because of some lies. But, of course, there was a happy ending. Last night I watched the Sound of Music which was also a story about the softening of a widower's heart by an unlikely love interest, but it was 100 times better than the one the night before. And I got all of the words to those songs right as I sang along. Maybe because I was singing along instead of by myself. :)

Don't ask me why we haven't done it before, but this past weekend we finally did some Zoom calls with relatives. While both Ward and I both have had plenty of virtual meetings for work, we have remained old school with phone calls and emails (and even some snail mail) for our personal communications. However, we finally joined the rest of the world and enjoyed seeing some faces to go with our conversations.

More baking is on the schedule for today, as well as, putting some last minute touches on a few gifts. 

So I will continue faking it until I make it which may be after I totally wake up. Have I mentioned before that I'm not a morning person?

Until next time...

Thankful Sunday, December 20, 2020

 I am thankful for playful cats.

I have two elderly cats--littermates who are over 17 years old. They are definitely showing their age and spend most of their days sleeping with occasional howling for us to sit down so they can sleep in our laps.  We occasionally get them new toys which they promptly ignore. However, they surprised us this week and showed a bit of themselves from their younger days. 

Annie was enjoying her morning snooze in a sunbeam as usual.

However, the next minute she was on a stand playing with the peppermints which she dumped out.  Cats do not like peppermint, so that was a surprise. But a fun one to see her take an interest in more than sleeping.

Later that day, she helped Theo with his laundry. Annie has always loved laundry, especially dirty laundry, but she hasn't "helped" us with it for a long time--until today. 

The next day, Annie was taking her morning snooze in the another sunbeam. 

But a little later she was trying to look innocent as she hovered around another basket with peppermints.

And soon she had them all on the floor.

Right where she wanted them for a little fun.

Later, she found a new place to hang out under the Christmas tree. Over the years, we have had various cats who have enjoyed sleeping under the Christmas tree, but not Annie -- until this year. 

Not to be outdone, her brother Leo has been a bit mischievous recently, also (but I don't have any pictures). One morning, he left his sunbeam and was batting around garland. Soon thereafter, we were surprised to see him on the counter eating turnip leaves. He can barely do stairs, so we're not sure how he made it up onto the counter. 

These small examples of kitty play have been very fun for us to watch.  We consider it part of the magic of Christmas and for that we are thankful.

Boxes and such

The walk to Ward's shop has been slippery since the snow
and ice storm we had last Wednesday.

 

Ward has been interested in woodworking for years, but had spent more time reading about it than doing it. That is until recently. Teleworking has added extra hours to his day which has given him more time to spend in his shop. Much of that has been spent setting things up, but recently, he has been able to actually make some things. Most of these are Christmas gifts and I'm going to show you a few of them. As in most many things, I think they are prettier in person than they are in the pictures.

This is a pencil box made from poplar he recycled from a pallet.

This is a dresser top box made from maple and sapele.
The sepele is a fun because depending on the light,
 it forms different patterns.

This is a puzzle box made of oak. There are four different slides
that have to be done before you can get inside.

Inside the puzzle box, he is hiding M&Ms and a gift card.
Now that's fancy, but perhaps cruel, wrapping. 

These are drop spot trays--one for each son.

This is a wooden puzzle that he is making for his co-workers.

Can you tell that Ward likes puzzles?
He's good at all kinds of them.

Note: Few if any people from our families read this blog, so I'm safe in revealing things before Christmas.

Simple Crafting

 or How to Overthink a Craft

The finished product.

A couple of months ago, I heard about a children's memory game made out of wood that I thought I might want to try. The game set was made of round disks cut from a branch and then stamped with pictures to form a matching game. It seemed just about my skill level, especially if I could get help from Ward. I thought I would make a couple of sets for gifts and maybe one for the library.

And then my mind kicked into high gear thinking about the actual construction. First consideration was safety. The pieces needed to be larger than choke size and be made of a non-toxic wood and finish. Luckily Ward knew a lot about finishes, but we still spent a fair amount of time shopping for what we thought would be best. Next, I considered using natural cut wood from a branch, but worried that as it dried over time, it would crack. So we went with a 2" pine dowel. We experimented with thicknesses--thick enough to not break and easy for little fingers to pick up. But not too thick. Then came the hard part--getting pictures on the pieces. I tried stamping, markers, stenciling, ink transfers, painting, stickers along with gluing, decoupaging, and various finishes.

 However, even with all of those methods, I was not happy for various reasons including look, durability, water resistance, etc. In the middle of the experiment, we changed from a pine to a hardwood dowel because the wood grain pattern of the pine competed too much with the pictures. 

A few of the prototypes

Finally, I came upon a workable solution. I used clear address labels which I printed letters onto and then put on the finished disk.  That was covered with another coat of finish. But, of course, it wasn't quite that simple. The hardwood (poplar) didn't finish well, so we switched back to the pine.

Then it was onto making a bag to hold the pieces. What should have been a simple, straight seam project turned into hours of frustration with the sewing machine which was having all kinds of adjustment problems. I was able to get something workable, but the machine needs some serious attention before I use it again. 

The finalized pieces.

So despite all of that, when it's all said and done, I'm happy. It was nice working on a project with Ward and I think the children I'm giving these to can have fun (and learn) from them. It should have been so easy, however that would have been only if I hadn't thought so much about it. Oh, well. Onto the next project.

Until next time when I'll show you some things Ward's been working on.

Note: Fitting in perfectly with the theme of aggravation, Blogger is frustrating me with its formatting and spacing. I gave up on those for today so the post may look a little strange.