December Ditties - 2018 Blog(mas) - My first Christmas tree

I moved out of my parents home when I was almost 22.  I wanted to do the "adult" thing.  Of course, I made sure I could afford it but I forgot to add things like Christmas decorations into the budget. 

Fortunately for me my oldest sister, JoAnne, was very crafty and resourceful.  She invited me to her house one Saturday and we sat around her table and made some ornaments using pieces of felt, socks, bits of jewelry and even paper clips!. 

See the candle?  This was made from a couple of pieces of felt and stuffed with cotton. 

It has definitely seen better days but here it is on our tree a couple of years ago.  It is well over 40 years old and yet I remember so clearly the fun my sister and I had that day.

This little snowman was made using one of my brother-in-law's old socks turned inside out.  It, too, is still adorning our trees all these years later.

Every year when I put this Rudolph on the tree I think that I need to at least put his eye back on.  How can he see to lead the sleigh with only one eye?  

She had some broken pieces of jewelry that she used to decorate this tree.  

One of the ones that I thought was really clever was making an ice skate using a paper clip for the blades.  JoAnne was a teacher so of course she had plenty of those around.  This one could also use some TLC: 

For a while I was trying to get or make a new ornament for the tree every year but little by little that practice stopped.  I've even stopped decorating as much as I used to, but it wouldn't be Christmas to me without these special ornaments.

My sister, JoAnne, was 12 years older than I so I barely remember her being at home with us when I was young; she got married when I was 8.  As I got older we became really good friends and it is times like this when I miss her the most.  JoAnne passed away at age 59 in 2002.  Way too young.  

 

Do you make your own ornaments?  Have any special ones from your first Christmas tree?  Love to hear about it!

Thanks again to KaylaAnn for her Blog(mas) ideas!

Observing October

October 22 -

My sister would have been 74 today.  She and I were the most alike of the four of us girls.  I'm sorry I didn't spend more time with her.  She was 12 years older than I so until I was an adult we didn't hang out much, although I did babysit her two kids a lot.

Jo Anne

Me

She's been gone fourteen years now, but I still miss her a lot.


In other news, I finally finished the book "A Thousand Days," about John F. Kennedy's days in office.  It was very interesting, especially in this heated election year.



My next book is going to be:

I'm counting this for my "The first book you see in a bookstore" category because I got an email from Barnes and Noble and this was the book that was pictured.  They were having a special so I got this and two others.  I have heard of this book before from several other people and am looking forward to reading it.  I am thinking it won't take quite as long as the last one, since it only has 179 pages, as opposed to over 1000.

Since this is only book nine in my challenge, I'm probably not going to beat my last year's number of 17, but I'm still reading, which is the point.  How about you?  How far ahead of me are you?  Go ahead tell me, I can take it.