Tag Tuesday -Christmas Leftovers, and a story.

Today, the first Tuesday after Christmas, Louise at Kard Krazy gave us an appropriate tag challenge - to use up any Christmas leftovers - a tag, a bit of wrapping paper, packaging from gifts, etc. How fun!

 Christmas Bits

(click for details)

The background is from wrapping paper, the blue is a lovely little used gift tag with a bird on it and then I punched out a butterfly from some used gold foil and added ribbon trimmed with a gold edge. I used Gold Leaf pen on the edge of the tag and Sakura pens and Stickles for detail.

I've been thinking of adding a story from past experiences when I blog, perhaps not every time but enough to share my memories, perhaps a weekly thing. This time it will be a story to fit this time of year, of a Christmas past.

When my parents were first married, my mother became interested in a certain china pattern. She was hoping to collect enough pieces to have something special for company. Then over the next decade, six children arrived and the few pieces she had collected were stored, and labeled in her mind as "someday...". As my siblings and I became adults, and our parents grew older, we struggled every year with the "what do you get your parents, now that they really don't need anything" problem. One summer a novel idea presented itself during a conversation with my Dad. I asked him just how much my mother had of her "special dinnerware" and together we hatched a plan to really surprise her. I was an antiques dealer at the time, and had access to auctions, and other places where perhaps I could find some pieces to fill in her collection. I contacted all my siblings so everyone could participate. I made a list of things she would need to complete a service for eight, plus serving dishes after my father gave me a list of what she had, and started searching. I ended up finding most of the things on eBay, and since I had several months lead time, I could take my time and search for pristine pieces. By the time Christmas arrived, I had found everything we needed and even some ice tea glasses which matched the dinnerware! All of us chipped in to pay for the things as time went along and we were all excited about the big day. That Christmas, we all gathered at my parent's home, and all of us unloaded our car and piled the boxes on the living room floor. My mother was very curious once she got a look at the pile of wrapped boxes, but we wouldn't let her know who they were for until it came time to open gifts, then we made her wait till last. She and Dad sat down on the hearth and after opening the first box, she was speechless and had tears. Box after box was opened and china was laid out on the hearth and you could just feel her excitement! After everything was opened, she just looked at us and expressed her feelings by saying she just didn't know how to thank us, but the look on her face said it all! We quickly washed the dishes and used them for Christmas dinner and that was the loveliest table and one of the happiest Christmases I remember. Now that both of my parents are no longer with us, it is a very special memory!

Hope your Christmas was a joyful time and you are enjoying the last week of the year!