A Special Package

A very special package arrived at our house yesterday.  It's the urn we got for our sweet baby girl. This is the 3rd urn we have commissioned from Alexandra Koiv at "Alex in Welderland", and we love them all.

And now the world seems a little more in balance, with Greta looking as if she is presiding over Schaffer and Bella,  while they, in turn,  ignore her - just as things were back in the good old days.  

Bella's urn was our first purchase, and it is one of Alex's standards.  I especially love the wings and the hook which holds Bella's old tag. For Schaffer's and Greta's urns, we opted for custom ears and tails, and a beard for Greta, which Alex made from photos we sent.  I think she captured their expressions perfectly.

Things will never be the same around here without our big, beautiful girl.  It's way quieter.  We miss her terribly.  But she will never, ever be forgotten, that is for sure. Thanks, Alex, for your beautiful work!

KayKay's Tree

Hanging out with Mom this weekend, enjoying her beautiful red, white, and green tree. She's been doing this theme for awhile, adding more each year.  There are huge glass santas, santa candy canes, santa icicles, candy twisty strips, sparkly icy wreaths with red bows, big glass balls, her folette annual ornament collection, and lots of personal stuff made by her kids and grandkids and picked up on various trips.

It's her in a nutshell.  Crisp, clean, bright, and heavy on family and tradition.

It makes me smile.

 Big red bows, white snowballs, a teacher ornament given to her by a friend.

The best part of the tree (HA!) :

 I found this Santa for her on one of my trips to Italy.  (The Italy Pavilion at Epcot, that is....)

K.E.S (my niece) painted this one with her Aunt Sonni when she was 3.  I set out little tubs of paint and let her have at it.  The colors and design were 100% her choice.  I think they turned out awesome












Beautiful glass ornament from Mom's Alaskan cruise.

I haven't put my tree up yet, and maybe I won't.  We'll be here at Mom's anyway, and who's going to look at the tree but me?  Jason can take it or leave it, and we aren't likely to have people over any time soon because we are hermits.  Sad, but true.  But I can enjoy Mom's, and I will love seeing the nieces discover all the little fun things.

And if I only put my own tree up every other year (or every three...) that will just make it all the more special, right?