Paper Cranes

This crane was a project from my occupational therapist in December 2009. It was just before Christmas and my therapist thought this would be a nice change. She handed me my choice of some origami paper and an illustrated page with directions for how to make a crane. This was incredibly hard to do at that time. I have made hundreds and hundreds of these cranes in the past both with my own kids and with my Girl Guide Groups, but do you think I could do it easily even with directions?     Nope. 

The points of this exercise will have been decision making to start with  by picking the paper, following ordered directions, and some fine motors skills for my hand. I got really good at doing a lot of things one handed but paper folding wasn't one of them at that point; I needed that second hand to make sharp folds.  I presevered and managed to produce this little guy and I took him home and we hung him on our tree.
 This little crane represents so much to me. It stands for peace and it is a reminder  of a positive changing point in my recovery.

Photographer Madeline Bea is joining in a movement to show signs of hope and prayers for the people of Japan.

I am joining her and linking up with her weekly creative challenge this week "The Sunday Creative"


Madeline choose this topic in support of the people of Japan. She wrote:

You can submit your images to the 1000 Cranes for Japan Flickr group. Also, I’ve decided to make this week’s Sunday Creative prompt Crane as well to try and get even more participation, even more cranes, even more hope, and even more prayers.  The Miya Company is offering to donate $5 for each of the first 1000 crane images they receive to the Save the Children for Japan’s relief and recovery.

The Miya Company page is a nice informative page with a good goal. It includes a PDF with directions to make a crane. Check it out.

Gingerbread Man Cake

Our friends Ann and  Tom came over for dinner one evening and we had a lovely visit. Ann brought us an adorable red tin of gingerbread man cookies. I had not finished icing the cake we were having for desert yet, so I quickly changed my plans and incorporated Ann's little guys into my cake plans.

 The look of surprise on their faces was priceless once they realized what was on the cake.

Some Santas

I have quite a collection of Santas. 

Here are the new ones for 2010.

I love this woodsy looking guy. 

I think he will eventually wind up being part of the downstairs woodland theme.

The dangling Santa one is just plain fun.

This adorable face is a Jim Shore Decoration

This pair dances and makes me laugh each time.

The center one is balanced and it rocks.

Christmas Morning

 Pictures from Christmas Morning 2010

The tree had lots of presents waiting and we had our stockings laid out on the sofas for Santa to fill.

The Menu

waffles

fruit plate

fruit supa

"monkey bread"

sausages

juice, tea and eggnog

 

Christmas Dinner

Christmas Dinner tends to be pretty much the same from year to year at our house. Dependable is good. I am sure in years to come, additional people to the family will generate new "must have" favorites but for right now I can use the same list from year to year.

The meal is the third in the series of four Holiday meals so I will try to keep things a little simpler.

Ham and glaze
cabbage rolls
frozen peas
frozen beans
tossed salad and dressing
rolls and butter
scalloped potatoes
pickle tray

dessert will be a bought cake