ornaments

The highlight of Christmas every year for me is the when we make our ornaments for our tree. Last year we took strips of pretty paper and wrote what we were grateful for and put them in glass ornament balls. They were awesome, but we couldn't do the same thing this year, so we painted salt dough ornaments that we made. I love this tradition above all other Christmas traditions we may have because we laugh at each other and we are together in a very sweet way and there is no focus on anything else having to do with the holidays except being in that moment together. It is such quality time with our beautiful children and I want to savor every moment as they grow up so fast something I am really realizing now that India is taller than me.

This year, we gathered together and I read a story about the winter solstice. I read the story about Amaterasu retold by StarHawk (it's in the book Circle Round), a personal favorite. Then the painting commences. Thankfully, a couple of months ago I picked up a large coffee table at the Goodwill, so we now have a large surface we can all 4 fit around that is not also where we eat, although we do eat there a lot too. The ornaments turned out great and we spent a good two hours, just genuinely making art together and hanging out. Best night of the holidays thus far. You should try it. Make it a tradition. You won't regret it! And getting your ornaments that you made out the next year to put on your tree is priceless.

So, on to the details of the ornaments. I have tried a couple of years before to make salt dough ornaments, but they always crack and become brittle and this year I am so glad I didn't give up. I came across this recipe with directions for baking them slowly and that was the key. SLOWLY - like 5 or 6 hours at 200 degrees. Our oven even stopped working while they were baking and had to have a new element. Thankfully, we were able to get it back up and running and still get our ornaments made in plenty of time. We had to have lots of new paint and paint brushes, glitter pens, and we painted like 20 or more ornaments between the 4 of us and there are still more to be painted that I'm hopefully going to get to today. I plan to make a garland out of what is left and Christmas Eve is not too late for me to get it done - that of course is AFTER I clean and finish my baking and do laundry although I can paint them while the laundry is happening (thinking while writing again).

So, on to the pictures...