Opening the Floodgates

As long as we are talking about Christmas...

Another thing I remember fondly about my childhood Christmases...my brother and I each had our own special ornaments -- ones that we hung on the tree every year.

My brother's was about the size of a regular glass ornament, circular with a flat bottom, and it, too, was glass, but a heavy glass. Think of the kind of glass a drinking glass is made from. It was almost completely frosted, except that on one side there was a little window, surrounded (if I am remembering correctly) by a wreath of glittery leaves. If you looked into the window, you saw a small three-dimensional scene of Santa, walking toward you out of a small forest (that is, three or four little plaster trees). This scene was actually built on a little flat circle that was glued to the bottom of the ornament. One year the bottom fell out of the ornament and whoever fixed it (my father? my grandfather?) carefully glued the circle back on....backwards. So when you looked in, you saw little trees and a glimpse of Santa walking away from you. I actually preferred it that way. At some time later, the bottom fell out again and was glued in correctly and the ornament lost a little of its charm for me.

My ornament....oh, I loved my ornament. She was a glass ornament in the shape of a fairy godmother. She had a large circle for her skirt, a smaller circle for her bodice and smaller yet for her head, which went up into a long pointed hat. She had blown glass arms, too, one of which was holding a glass wand. She was deep green with yellow stars and moons painted on her dress and hat. She had a sweet painted face with two long yellow braids (out of embroidery floss or silk or something) that were glued on either side of her face. And she had a glittery silver tassel at the top of her hat where the hanger was. She was pretty big, as I remember. Perhaps 7 or 8 inches.

When I was 11 or so, my parents divorced and my mom, my brother and I moved to another state. In a scene that would have been too trite for a novel, when Christmas rolled around that year, we discovered that my fairy godmother had been irredeemably broken in the move. My brother's ornament, however, is still with us.

Awww...now I'm all nostalgic.

Today's going to be a good day. Mr. Pointy Sticks is waiting as I type this up quickly and we are heading out for some shopping and I get to go to the yarn shop! It's always a good day when a visit to the yarn shop is in the offing. I've got to go find my pattern for Saartje's booties. More later perhaps.