Sunday, December 10, 2006

Some Christmas Spirit



Other than my grandma's old aprons and an old hope chest type thing, I think these old Christmas ornaments are the only things my mom has kept over the years. (My mom has a very orderly, neat, clean, organized house. I will probably still have old Wal-Mart and Target lists to hand down to my kids! rofl!)

She gave us these at Thanksgiving to bring home and put on our tree. She made these in the early 1970's, when we lived way down in Buras, LA. We moved there in 1970, about a year after Hurrican Carmen (?I think?) had taken out a big chunk of the neighborhood and the only other things in town were the school, the IGA grocery store, a Ben Franklin store, a gas station and a teeny doctor's office. If you needed anything else, you had to drive about 60 miles up to New Orleans. I'm surprised my mom didn't make more stuff because there was nothing to do there. As a little kid, I didn't know any better, but, as a mom, I don't think I would have survived!

Anyway...The Mr. and Mrs. Santa Clause (above) are cute, but I'm lovin' this Devil-Eyed Cat! (below) I'm pretty sure these came from a kit, so she didn't choose the red eyes, but someone should have thought this out a little more.



This little group is nice, but, I never could stand that little girl, Karen, from 'Frosty the Snowman'. I don't know why, but she still gets on my nerves to this very day!



These ornaments were made by one of our neighbors. I don't know if she'd want her name here or not, so I'll just stick with Mrs. S. However, I clearly remember her and her husband...he's definitely one of the tallest people I've ever known, and she was tiny and petite, wore flip-flops and Dr. Scholl's sandals all the time and could sew ANYTHING! She even made bathing suits! Just thinking about all that elastic and spandex sends me running and screaming away from my sewing machine...hmmm, did they have sergers that were readily available to the general public back then? I wonder if she had one or if she just used her sewing machine? I do remember her sewing room, but I don't remember if there was more than one machine in there or not. She would let me go through scraps and stuff and I would take them home and make little purses. One summer, her neice, Laura, came down to stay with them for a couple of weeks. Laura and I were exactly the same age and spent lots of time together while she was there...and Mrs. S made us a bunch of stuff, including matching bathing suits! lol! Hmmm...I wonder what they are all doing now! Maybe I should Google them! Anyway, Mrs. S. made all of these, and they are all so perfectly retro now!


Mrs. S is also the designer of Mr. Pickle, who I blogged about earlier and definitely deserves his own picture!


Moving on to this little knitted snowman...he was made by a family friend. I think Mrs. W, but I'm not sure. We used to have lots of these-at least half a dozen, but I don't know what happened to the rest along the way. This is all we are left with.


The Wizard of Oz ornaments! My mom made these also, and I do remember her making them and fretting over them about something...I think it was the sequins. I believe these came from a kit, also; but why did they give Dorothy a red gingham dress??? Everybody knows Dorothy wears blue gingham!

These ornaments are actually in remarkable shape for their age...they look brand new! You can tell the others have been handled and played with a lot, especially the ones by Mrs. S., but Mom must have had these high up at the top of the tree and declared "Untouchable", because they really are perfect! lol!

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