budpnq: this post is SO last year...

...but here i am posting it anyway. you don't mind, though, right?

Christmas and i don't have the best relationship. i spend most of the season feeling rather blah. i'm a Christian, but i have a hard time going along with the idea that the Christmas we celebrate here in my part of the world has anything to do with Christ and so i try to make it mean something else so i can celebrate with everyone else without that burden on my heart. (i hope that makes sense.) i try to turn it into a celebration of loved ones and a celebration of the blessings God has given us throughout the year, but i can't say i'm good at that either. i end up just kind of going through the motions. i enjoy lights. i enjoy Christmas trees. i enjoy some holiday music. i enjoy everyone's excitement. i super-enjoy Christmas food. i just don't enjoy the "merry Christmas" vs. "happy holidays" battle that some people fight and and i especially don't like the "gimme, gimme"/"buy, buy" part. i just want to find some middle ground so each year i can remind my daughter that giving is better than receiving and that the birth of our Savior is something to celebrate all year. all that said, i definitely believe in having fun and creating joy for those around me and if a Christmas tree puts a smile on someone's face, then i'll put one up. we didn't get ours up till the 23rd (hence the late-in-the-season post) but it's been bringing us a good bit of cheer ever since. 

last time my sister-in-law and i trekked up to ikea, i--with elisabeth dunker on the brain--grabbed a jar of fuse beads. my grandpa introduced me to them when i was a kid, but i hadn't touched them since. when i found out my husband had never heard of them, much less knew what to do with them, i invited him to help me make ornaments for our tree. last year, i lost about 4 of my favorite ornaments to our baby and in her present toddler state, we decided a full-size tree trimmed with breakable ornaments wouldn't be the best idea so we busted out my little pink foil tree and decked it out in plastic. 

oh, and clay. i had to get her involved somehow.

our daughter is really into celestial bodies and learning shapes, so i ran with a sort of geometric theme while my husband's designs were a little more complex. he got really into it and surprised me one night with the "eye, heart, u" one (below). sweetheart. he also made a snowflake, a sun (i made a moon), a vibrant wheel-looking design, and one with our daughter's name. it went on top.

our daughter, "turtle" as the internet knows her, can name all the shapes and has somehow managed to keep her hands off of them for the most part. she impresses me daily.

this one makes me very happy.

my husband was pretty disappointed when i told him he'd have to fill that snowflake in if he didn't want it to break 0.02 seconds after it was fused. he got over it.

i'm not sure these ornaments will stand the test of time, but the memory of us side-by-side, hunched over our pegboards will.