SQUEEEEE!!!!!!!!! I'm so totally in for a card/ornament exchange! In the past, the ornament has been something that could, more or less, fit into a card... paper snowflakes, flat clay "cookies" pressed with flower seeds to plant in the spring, beaded suncatchers, glitter and glue masterpieces of sunny glory by kiddos, and so on. Nothing too intimidating or expensive to make or send. I treasure the yule ornaments I've been gifted over the years and in fact I hang them over the kitchen table each year... I just last night pulled out the box of Yule stuff and will be hanging those ornaments today!
I'm really excited about the holiday season this year... it seems like the past year has been so roller coaster-ish and I'm ready to move to a different ride. Perhaps the merry go round? It still goes up and down, but in a more controlled manner, and you can wave to people as you go and the music is fun and there's always a chance you'll get the brass ring and win a prize. And given the round and round nature of the ride, you have chance after chance after chance! LOL Anyway, last Dec is when I got pregnant with Tiel and started the crazy ride and this Dec I'm telling myself it's time to get off the roller coaster. Wish me luck!
While looking for the holiday ornaments I found a box of odds and ends from my own childhood/young adulthood. One item was a jewelry box filled with the sort of shiny bric a brac some young girls love (well, I loved them anyway)... little pins shaped like snowflakes covered in "diamonds", a bracelet with my name carved into the silver, mickey mouse barettes and a heart ring, stuff like that. Mixed into the batch were some nicer items, things gifted to me by older female relatives. One item, a cameo ring (no idea if it's a "real" cameo or a reproduction) I remember playing with when I was like 6 or so. It never really spoke to me but for some reason I put it on last night and I could hardly bring myself to take it off. It's not at all the sort of thing I'd normally wear, but it's like it was meant for my hand. It's huge, only fits on the index finger of my right hand, and again really isn't something I'd have gone looking for.... but I'm going to wear it! It fits perfectly and I dunno... it's just so odd that I found it when I did and that it feels sooooooo right to wear it right now.
We're going to go get our tree on the 10th... the local green cemetary lets people come in each year and harvest certain trees (invasive pine and spruce trees). This year they'll have a team of Belgian draft horses to help pull the trees up the hill to the arking area and it should be so much fun! And then that night we're hosting a winter spiral. I don;t know if anyone will come, but I think it'll be fun and meaningful for the kids. I want to have little gifts for any child who comes, and I'm thinking I'll use felt scraps to make little tiny "pocket totoros". :) Any left over ones can be tucked into the tree. Especially since this year I KNOW Torin will trash the tree at least once so I'm only going to use ornaments that are more or less apocalypse proof... felt, wood, pressed paper, etc. Nothing fragile, or breakable, or bendable, or priceless. This is NOT the year for blown glass ornaments from my greatgrandmother or anything like that. LOL
Speaking of ornaments... If you take all your junk mail, rip it up, throw the bits into a blender full of water and let it sit overnight then blend it all in the morning.... dump the slush out onto a window screen (I stick cookie cutters on the screen and fill the cookie cutters with the paper pulp), squeeze out the extra water and let the whole thing dry.... you'll have fun and funky pressed paper ornaments. Often I'll add some cranberry to the blender to get a cool color, or shred some citrus zest into the molds before adding the pulp.
And I did not know M had a form of leukemia, yipes! Glad to hear that he is in remission and you were healthy while you visited! 
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