Ornament Tradition and a Sneak Peek

Mike grew up with a great family tradition.  Each year his parents would buy a new ornament for he and his sister, usually with some sort of tie to the previous year.  When Mike and Laurie moved out on their own, they had enough ornaments to decorate their own trees and some memories to go with each one.  Probably everybody and their brother does this and I don't know about it, but if you don't it is a fun tradition to start.  Here are the kids' from this year:

Cal:

Tate:

Ellerie:

And, it worked out rather nicely, as I think they may have broken two or three ornaments in the process of decorating.  These are sweet replacements.

And, in other things, I am still plugging away with some handmade presents.  Never mind that I still have my MIL's bag to make or the headbands I was going to do for Ellerie and a few other crazy ideas that have been floating around in my head.  I've got 10 days still right? 

Here is a sneak peek at Calvin's in process:

Let me tell you, I am no embroidery expert and the backs of my work are usually all knotted and crazy and none of it is very "professional" looking.  I feel however, that I can usually keep my sanity while embroidering something, but this metallic thread????  Holy can you say frustrating???  It is almost impossible to thread the first time and none of my usual tricks (wax, chapstick, licking) seem to help. And the fraying just continues as I am using it.  Hence, these robots (to be sewn and stuffed when finished) are going to be even wonkier than my usual embroidery attempts.  

As usual though, if you don't look too closely, they are darn cute.