Sunday, December 28, 2008

Family Get-together

Today is our family Christmas gathering. This is for my siblings, their children and grand-children - and tag-alongs like DD19's boyfriend. I am one of 7 children (6 are living).

A tradition that started in 1977 is to make ornaments for everyone in the family and any 'guests' that celebrate with us. This year we made ceramic stars, stamped with the City of David Stampin' Up stamp using Staz-on ink. Here is a picture of the whole group or 40. Potentially 39 of the 40 recipients could be here today.



Here is a closer shot showing all the colors. We had blue, green, orange, sepia and blazing red (which was more hot pink when we used it on the ornaments.


I chose to not hang them on the mantel or tree since we have marble tiles in that area and one little slip would mean a broken ornament. This was one of the easiest projects we have done. Our previous ornaments can be viewed at Webshots. The three sisters are 'in charge' of this and usually do the work. Several years other family members have helped out with their individual talents. Everyone looks forward to this little 'surprise' when we gather together.

My sisters and I made this over a "Sisters' Weekend" in Chicago. Here are my sisters working hard. One is stamping the ornaments and the other is inspecting them to make sure there are not smudges or blurry spots. Some of the ornaments had little dimples in the glaze which made the stamping a little more challenging.



This shows the ornaments drying before we packed them away.



These were by far one of the simplest ornament projects. This only took a couple hours so we had plenty of time to play games and watch movies.

Some years we spend the whole 12 months stitching in order to complete the ornaments in time. The only 'easier' years were when someone else took a turn. We already have plans for the next 2 years and both will be something we can do on a "Sisters' Weekend" (But I can't post anything here as some family members might read it and that would spoil the surprise)

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