Christmas Vibes

We’re going deep with our home entertainment. Natan borrowed a projector from school and we’ve been projecting everything: movies, reading the NYTimes online, browsing the flickr account. It feels as if we’ve reached the pinnacle of entertainment—a movie-like environment in our tiny duplex! It makes us both happy and we’re slowly wrapping our minds around not having a TV, and only having a projector, computer and connector thingy to stream cable.

So here was our 2008 christmas zone:


It was a good break, but seemed very different from last year, probably due to the fact that I’m not as emotionally wrecked from teaching (and so the break wasn’t as dramatic a change) and I was dog sitting the entire two weeks—not the most relaxing of vacation experiences. Nonetheless, we got to see the old folks and some awesome extended family. We went to the beach and walked around PA proper. We went to the Stanford art museum where I made my aunt look at a piece of native American art by an artist from whom she and my mother own things.






We also visited the animal emergency hospital on Christmas night because of a freak animal accident that involved Pumpkin swiping Albert’s eyeball, leading him to have a gross-looking bleeding eye. Albert seemed to not notice, but it was distressing for the more intelligent animals in the house.


Going back to teaching has been pretty fun. On the first day back, I had to clarify the meaning of “animal” for a student who said, “…but animals lay eggs and we don’t lay eggs”. Oh! The follies of public education!

Taking stock, making stockings

Here are the results of many hours of stocking making. I’d like to think that I have a talent for translating the essence of others into simple felt designs. They were really fun to make, and I got to use many crafty supplies, including what I consider to be the “holy trinity”--feathers, sequins and a bedazzler! I struggled for a long while over these stockings and finally decided to make the top part out of a lush feather boa!

My father is in the seafood (scrimpin’) business, so I made him an ocean scene and decided the ocean would be “realistic” in sequins.

I made my mom a simple candle and cranberry scene, meant to evoke peaceful reflection (she is very much like the still waters that run so deep)


Natan’s started out as a joke—mudflap girls serving as the base of a Christmas tree, and I feel like I’m going to have to redo it into something a bit less trashy for next year. Cutting mudflap girls out of felt is not an easy task, let me tell you.

My favorite is mine—a visualization of the universe—a felted “eye of god” nebula within a wavy, undefined framework that represents the unknown limits of our universe.


I made several smaller stockings for other family members: a football for Charlie, a dog and musical notes for Joe, and pretty baubles for Melinda.


At the end of this project I still had a lot of red felt, eyes and some ill-conceived fake fur that was nixed for the feathers. I'm thinking of making my students make miniature polar bears out of it on one of the days when half of them are absent due to various state mandated exams. Or better yet, a huge polar bear that can live in the classroom. It's either that or watch a movie....