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The Ghosts of Christmases Past

12/24/2013

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One of the things I love most about Christmas time is the chance to drag out all the holiday heirlooms. My house is stuffed full of the old and worn loved items of my ancestors and now I get to kick it up even more! 

A few of my favorites: Ornaments & Stockings
I've had this lovely white porceline bell since I was 3 (that's 40 years for those counting!) It even has "Jodi 1973" inscribed on the back - apparently I was a very talented 3 year old :) It's also the only ornament I don't let my kids hang on the tree.
Picture
Picture
Stockings are quite special because, in our family, they are home made (mostly.) I'll remember not to hang my stocking next to my husband's next year - the difference in white is a little too obvious. My grandmother Holly made my stocking. I don't remember a Christmas without it. I made my husband's and both my daughter's as well. My mother made my son's. I also made stockings for my nephews...and anyone else who will let me! I love love love the care that goes into making a unique, individualized heirloom. These are very welcome ghosts indeed.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!


Copyright (c) 2013, Family at Your Fingertips, Jodi Bash
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Fingertip Friday: stuff I will never know how to make...maybe

11/22/2013

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Picture
Lace cross, hand made by my great grandmother Annie Guthrie.
The card reads:
October 11, 2009,
My grandmother made this for me whenI was a little girl and I'm so delighted to pass it on to this precious granddaughter.
- Sybil
That note is from my mom. She wrote it for the baby shower for my youngest. In the envelope was this delicate little green and cream colored cross. Probably silk from the look and feel of it. It's encased in glass now to help keep its shape and color as long as possible. 

I have some other handmade lace gorgeousness from my great-grandmother, Annie Guthrie; place mats, doilies, and the like. Simply put, I am in awe of these things. It's not just that I don't know how to make them; it's that a woman with 11 children, running a farm, in the first half of the 1900's had the energy and time to make them. 
I mean, I have fewer than 1/3 the children she did, I can't even grow herbs... In the back of my mind is a small urge to try out lace making. Dangerous thing that urge. I tend to get obsessed when I try something new. Just ask my children about my failed bread-making period. I'm not a baker to put it mildly. And I may not be a lacer (or whatever the term is) either. 

But there really can't be a better way to understand or honor our ancestors than to try out some of the stuff they did. May the spirit of Annie Guthrie be with me on this new trial period - and may my family be blessed with patience ;)


Copyright (c) 2013, Family at Your Fingertips, Jodi Bash
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    I'm Jodi. Lover of genealogy, graveyards, and stuff that's old.

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