Holiday Hearts

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is making an annual Christmas ornament.

Each year, Jim and I design a  wooden ornament that will be appropriate for friends of a wide range of spiritual beliefs. Then we have a great time making the ornaments together.

This year,  both our daughter and our son got married in the summer. So, Jim and I decided that 2007’s holiday ornament will be a heart, as 2007 was the year of the heart.

I drew out an elongated heart, and Jim cut out a slew of them and drilled holes for embellishment.  He suggested that we use the buttons from Grandma’s button jar to decorate the hearts. This creates another ‘heart connection’ for us, as Jim’s Mum passed away this year.  And the button jar came from her little house. The button jar is certainly one of the great treasures. It’s saturated with memories.

I’ve been intrigued as I stitch the buttons to the hearts. Each heart is totally unique, as I keep finding new ways of stitching the buttons. It also makes me grin, as it feels like something I remember from childhood. When I was really little, I had a set of cards that were pierced, and I loved stitching through the holes.  I had forgotten about them until I started working on my part of the hearts.

I love having ornaments that are hand made, and that have the date on them.  It means that the tree decorating is a time of remembering  and savoring other Christmas’s. Making up a whole bunch of ornaments, and sharing them with friends and family is also really special, because it creates a kind of a web of friendship and kinship.

I’m all for that.

) hugs all round

Noreen