And to all, a good year

I made this ornament sometime in elementary school, when I was trusted to use a pin in an appropriate manner.

It hung on my parents' Christmas tree for years, and now it graces mine. You can't tell from the picture, but the foam is pretty deteriorated, and it's pretty fragile.

Along with some glass hummingbirds my mother had from before she was married, and a couple of other ornaments I remember buying with my folks as a child, these treasures hold a special pride-of-place on my tree.

Over the years, I've accumulated a lot of Christmas stuff, and when we bought a small artificial tree two years ago, I realized that most of the newer dust-collectors just wouldn't fit and I boxed up a bunch of them and stashed them away. The old ones are those that I want to see every year.

A quiet New Year's in our home, but there's lots of work to be done in the next four months. Books (What I Felt and How to Make a Peacock Fly) to be built, forms to be filled out and sent in, the Pacific Festival of the Book in Victoria to attend, and a grant to be received (I hope!) to pay for two weeks of formal bookbinding education to be had at The School for Formal Bookbinding in eastern Pennsylvania.

Busy (but fun) times ahead.