I thought you might like to know how we've been preparing to celebrate Christmas here, where it is not a holiday, save the paper Santa head that has been hanging in this one restaurant all year long.
A couple weeks ago we had been feeling depressed, missing all the traditions of Christmas. Then, encouragement came when we got some of your Christmas cards and packages (thank you!) and a box of discarded decorations. We even have a small Christmas tree! We had stockings made at the local fabric market.
The fabric market is a group of over 100 hole-in-the-wall shops with more selection than JoAnn. We three went together to pick out our fabrics, then Drew and Titus played with a new little friend while I explained to the seamstress what a Christmas stocking is supposed to look like. Though she thought the stockings were bizarre, she did a good job. I sewed some buttons and ribbon on later, and I'm still stumped about how I could put names on the top. Any ideas? (I don't have fabric paint and I definitely won't learn embroidery.)
We have lots of parties coming up for students and colleagues -- looking forward to decorating cookies and singing carols. There's a special dinner planned for Christmas Eve (I'm making salmon) and team brunch on Christmas Day!
I have great pictures you share with you, but our new vpn is now allowing me to post them right now. (This site is blocked in China and we use something called a vpn to defy the block.)
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
with love,
the a's
I can't wait to see your stockings! Maybe you could do some traditional Chinese-type embelishment... Would a *small* piece of stained wood look ok with your Chinese charachter names on them?? I suppose you could do them horizontally OR vertically. If you did them vertically, you could hang it from the corner you hang them from. Or instead of the wood, can you get beads with your charachters on them?? Or just write them on with a black fine tipped Sharpie (if you have those there!)... My thought is that you would really treasure something Chinese "organic" years down the road when you may be somewhere else in the world... But these are just ideas! But who am I... I haven't figured out how to put our names on our stockings for 8 years now!!
ReplyDeleteHey Drew and Rachael! Titus is so darling and I hope you can post photos soon of your stockings! Hope your holiday is special for your little family and know that there are those here "thinking" about you.
ReplyDeleteCould you cut your names or at least the first letter of each of your names out of fabric and either pin them or tape them or glue them on? Hope it's WONDERFUL!!
ReplyDeleteKim
Could you use sharpies or some kind of marker to write the names on the stockings? I'm glad you are figuring out ways to celebrate and to make you own traditions and memories.
ReplyDeleteA really easy way to put names on: Sharpies come in lots of fun colors, and Crayola now makes fabric markers, if you have access to either of those. Also, something we always did - our stockings didn't have names on them, so my mom would cut out a piece of the pattern from some wrapping paper every year, write out names on it, and safety pin them to our stockings. That way, you can change it up every year! :-) Good luck! Love you guys!
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