A Camel and a Cookie

Last year, my sisters and I collaborated on a present for my mom. I can't remember if Amy or Megan initiated it, but they decided to felt a nativity scene for her. Amy is the best felter of the three of us, so she got "the big show," (Mary, Joseph, and Jesus). Megan did the shepherds. And I did the wise men. This year, we added to the set. Well, I think my mom is still waiting on a sheep or two from Megan, but Amy felted a donkey, and I made a camel. Meet Humphrey:
Ha ha ha! get it? Hump-hrey. Cause he's a camel. I'm hilarious.

Humphrey is loosly based on Joshua from The Little Drummer Boy Christmas claymation. I don't know why I thought it was necessary to make Humphrey so emaciated. But I think it adds to his charm. Here he is happily united with the wise men I made last year.
Another little felting project was this cookie ornament:This takes a bit of explanation. Umm...maybe a lot of explanation. Here goes: I don't really ever remember believing in Santa Claus. It's one of the results of being the youngest of three with two older sisters who find it necessary to explain the ways of the world to you before you really need the magic destroyed. So I knew that all of the presents under the tree came from my parents. But the stockings were still "Santa's" responsibility, and they were one of my favorite parts of the whole Christmas hoopla. Stocking presents were always wrapped in white tissue paper, which you could usually see through because Santa didn't have a lot of time to spare for wrapping. The stockings would always be bursting with little white presents and there would be a pile of white tissue-paper-wrapped presents under each of our stockings, which would always include a calendar and usually a few movies, books, and other such goodies. And inside the stocking would be a toothbrush, a pair or two of socks, candy, some kind of jewelry, other little knickknacks, a clementine in the toe--it was supposed to be a tangerine, but clementines are just so much better--2 candy canes hanging on the side, and--I promise I'm making my way back to the cookie--an ornament. So when Jason and I got married, I had a full collection of ornaments to decorate our tree, courtesy of Santa Claus.

And here, our story takes a dark turn. Jason never grew up with the illusion of Santa Claus, and he never had a stocking!! He said that it was because they didn't have a fire place. (Let it be known that I think this is a poor excuse. Before we finished our family room, my family hung our stockings on a cabinet.) So I believe it was the Christmas following our engagement that I made Jason a stocking. Because if he was going to be a part of my family, that was one bit of Christmas tradition whose absence I would not tolerate. And every year since then, I have included an ornament in his stocking. Because that's what you do. It's tradition.

But man oh man, ornaments are expensive! And Jason and I set budgets for each other for Christmas so we don't go crazy, and these past two years, I've budgeted for ornaments only to not have the wiggle room when it came time to go ornament shopping. But thankfully, I'm so crafty. So last year I felted him a penguin. This year, I put a lot of thought into it, knowing that I would be felting him another ornament. I thought and thought and thought about what Jason likes best, and the answer was "chocolate chip cookies." When I am unhappy, having my hair in two french braids is guaranteed to make my day better. And for Jason, french braids are chocolate chip cookies. Sadly, Jason refuses to learn how to french braid, and my arms are too weak to do it myself. And I am rarely in the mood to make chocolate chip cookies. So we're both kinda outta luck. But I told him that his cookie ornament was also a coupon for him to redeem at any time that he wants chocolate chip cookies and I don't feel like making them. When he redeems the coupon (which he will do by saying, "I would like to redeem my coupon," and singing "C is for Cookie"--hey, I make the coupon and the cookies, so I also get to make the rules, right?), I will make him cookies whether I feel like it or not, no matter what time of day or night it is. Merry Christmas to Jason.

That was a very long story for such a very small ornament.

And now we are finally making some headway in the great Christmas catch-up.