All year round I save pictures from magazines and catalogues for making Christmas cards and tags. If you have children this is a great craft for them. Jewellery catalogues are wonderful for this and department store catalogues. Glue and glitter and you have lovely cards much nicer than you can mostly buy. Happily my Mum gets some english magazines that come my way and they have great pictures!
For my bird pictures I mainly use a particular blog, The Feathered Nest which has so many free vintage images and is just divine. This year I chose this one which also has a vintage Christmas verse I love.
Adding a bit of personality and love to the little things keeps Christmas special, not so mass produced and store bought. I like to include sweet sentiments, hand written notes, photos... and write thank you letters. A teacher would far rather a letter of thanks about how much you have appreciated them, than another rubber in the shape of an apple. Thanking people is always important but somehow Christmas seems to me to be a good opportunity to do it. Thinking of the people who do things reliably and helpfully for you all year... the Chemist who delivered tablets to the house when I was sick, the postie who knows where to hide my parcels, the checkout girl who is beyond sweet to me 52 weeks of the year.
It's a great time to just do something extra. I have a husband who is so kind. A little while ago he came home from the grocery store and he had spent more than he planned. There was an elderly man standing looking for AGES in the meat department and Andy watched him. He looked at roasts, picked them up, put them down, hovered.... then bought sausages, eventually. The story was obvious. After the man moved on Andy picked up the long examined roast and put it in his basket. Included it in our purchases, while keeping track of the man. Then nabbed him in front of the supermarket and gave him the roast. I'm sorry I missed the reaction as it was apparently priceless.
That is Christmas. And that is my husband.
Your man is a good 'un, Annabel. That made me cry...xxx
ReplyDeleteYes Mimi true. You inspired me a lot with random acts of kindness. Sometimes they cost nothing... today the checkout girl asked if I collect the Woolworths animal cards. Well no, but I said yes as it was a big shop and so there were a handful of cards. In the mall I saw a Mum with two little kids and I asked if she would like them. The kids started jumping up and down! Honestly such a small thing and she was really thanking me for it. It was nice. :)
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