Starting from the left is some fancy coffee I got from Jim, then on eof the best gifts EVER chocolate prayer hands from Laura in Texas! She is not even kidding about Texas being the bible belt; I have always thought of the Deep South as Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, not including Texas. Laura assures me she is indeed deep down in the Dirty South and the tales she tells of local legend...she needs to write a book! Anyhow, next is a painting my Dad did of a gorgeous barn with a Gothic window, jaw dropping, just stunning. How lucky am I? Below that some more fancy coffee and some cool bracelets from "the hot for real black girl store" from Bran, thanks!
And everyone probably recognizes a most enchanting silver Man in the Moon lantern from my uber talented sister. Last but not least another painting, this is Whiskey at the farm painted by Connie. I can't believe it but she continues to keep getting better and better and better! She is a master, and I am the lucky recipient of many of her paintings through the years. I have quite an impressive private collection of Snipes; maybe someday I will generously loan it to the Mint Museum? Ha! Not a chance, mine mine mine.I haven't been to my sisters house in forever and I must say, I'm feeling much better after getting a good shot of "Vitamin 'B'" as Brandi says! She always gives me a great pep-talk and I walk away feeling motivated, sometimes accompanied by an urge to take a nap...
I had to get a quick shot of works in progress in her kitchen; where she and Jim both work their different magic. He is an artist with food, and she's an artist in...most everything else!
Here she stands displaying some of her wares after dinner. Doesn't she look peppy and ready to crack the whip?
When we started opening presents it was kind of madness, just the usual present opening frenzy of Christmas day. Everything was wrapped so pretty I had to get a quick shot before ripping everything open.
Dad is a fantastic gift wrapper, an odd trait to find in someone so manly some might say; but Dennis is truly a Renaissance Man and he is really good at everything he does. He uses the horse feed bags as wrapping paper, hay string for the ribbon and embellishes with natural objet d'art like this magnolia leaf. These materials give the gifts a wonderful farm smell. I really do hate opening them and usually save the materials for months.
I feel like I'm leaving Mom out but it's only because all my presents from her are still at her house! She got me way too much, but I'm not complaining. She got me some awesome sweaters and all kinds of cool stuff, she is a great gift buyer.Truly though, my favorite part of Christmas is giving people cool gifts. It's just so much fun picking things out and making things for somebody else, isn't it? I do lots of baking as gifts, and as I've whined about previously being sick the week before Christmas put a cramp in my style this year, but I managed to pull everything together more or less.
My friend Dee has a saying about people who lay around and just expect fame and fortune to come to them with no effort on their part. "You can't just lay around and expect to open the door and find a basket of success waiting for you"! I swear, when she said that to me I died laughing and never forgot it. I have wanted to make a basket of success for her for years and finally made a stab at it!
This is an old basket from the thrift store that I painted a crown on one side and made a paper banner reading "Success" on the other side to cover up the pink & blue flowers. It was so fun deciding what to put in it, a little of this , a little bit of that and viola-basket of success! I used one piece of green tissue paper together with tissue from an old 1960's dress pattern. I like the way it looks with all the black lines and instructions. Pluss I have a butt load of the stuff waiting to be used as gift wrapping or whatever. I also put in some really yummy navel oranges, globe grapes, various hot teas, candy canes, a skeleton, vintage wooden toy ornaments, a Madame Alexander wicked witch doll, home made cookies in a skull covered bag and individually wrapped chocolate fudge skulls! The hang tag has her name and the names of everyone in her family and a tiny sketch of a skull with holly sprigs behind it and my trademark heart with wings. Cute cute cute if I may say so myself. I can't wait to leave it on her doorstep, 'cause that's where i have to leave it, I can't ring the doorbell and hand it to her. A basket of success must be left waiting to be found by whoever opens the door next. So I have that to look forward to tomorrow!
Also I have to go out and buy a bra tomorrow thanks to Roxi and her famous scissor teeth, God help me! I should really read the literature that came with the chocolate praying hands.But that is still hours away...For now I am going to get off of this Devil's Etch-A-Sketch and enjoy the last few hours in this day.
Merry Christmas to all
and to all
a good night!
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