HOW TO MAKE A SANTA AND OTHER "STUFF"

(photos are "clickable" for close up views)

Many of you left sweet messages asking how Mom and I made our Santas. I'm embarrassed to say that they're very very easy...not much talent was needed. LOL

You just need some cinnamon sticks, paint and either modeling paste or snow-tex for the hair and fur. The paint will dry pretty quickly, but the modeling paste or snow-tex will take hours. Be patient...just let it dry hard. We only used four colors of paint for our Santas...a red for his clothes and mouth, a peachy/nude color for his face, pink for his rosy cheeks and black for his eyes. You can find cinnamon sticks in lots of sizes, so just pick the size you like. As you can see, we added arms to some of them. If you decide to add arms, just use small cinnamon sticks and break or cut into pieces and then glue gun them on. Almost every year when I unpack them, the arms have fallen off, so I just glue gun them back on.

I sure felt silly doing a "photo shoot" lining them all up. As you can see, there's no right or wrong way of decorating them. Do your "thang"...whatever you like. Each one should have it's own "purse-a-nality", right? The photo of the large ones at the top of this post shows how we painted the faces. My camera flash kinda washes them out in these photos.

Looks like we have a few crooked characters...hmmmm...maybe former politicians? LOL

They weren't too happy with showing their backsides, but I wanted you to see that we dated some of them. Looks like we did them in 1991 and 1992. I see my initials, Mom's and Bree's (she was 9 at that time, amazing!)

I'm pretty sure we made some of these as teacher gifts that year. We made some homemade hot chocolate mix and put a small bag of it in a cute Christmas coffee cup and then stood one of the cinnamon Santas in the cup too.

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BTW...the large Santas at the top were made exactly the same way except we used large dowels that were cut and the tops were sanded to form the hats and we used popsicle sticks for the arms.

Have fun and let me know if you make some.

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Today a group of us girls got together for a little Christmas luncheon. We had so much fun.

Here's our hostess, Erika, with me. Erika is amazing. She plays tennis with me, is a wonderful cook, sews, and is an artist. Almost every painting in her house is her own art, including the beautiful one over the fireplace. And...she's a sweetheart too.

Our first course was an absolutely w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l cup of butternut squash soup. Oh.my.word!

Here's a few of us acting silly...putting our hands under our chins like our friend Jo likes to do.

The main course was chicken salad piled on a circle of cantalope, a wonderful green salad with honey roasted pecans, and a yummy cranberry jello salad. I didn't get a photo of our dessert...a beautiful German apple torte. Delish!

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Thank you Lord for good friends!

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And speaking of friends....

My sweet friend Charlotte at Charlotte's Weblog has passed along TWO very special awards. The definition of these blogs really make them special. Thank you so much Charlotte for thinking of me! I'm truly touched.

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"The Friends Award for blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find, and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement."

"The Lemonade Award for blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!" ~~~~~~

I don't know about you, but I'm still wrapping. As you can see, I have presents under the tree, behind the tree and more spilling out the sides and the front. And...I still have more to wrap! Hmmmm....maybe I should just start stacking them in a closet?!

Hugs and kisses,
Kat