Observing the crafts and messages here reminds me of my mother a lot. I see a beautiful holiday scarecrow and say to myself, that's the kind of stuff my mother use to do. She was always making things and wasn't happy if she didn't redecorate the house 6 times a year. But her biggest passion was ceramics, she did everything. Poured molds, fired green ware, painted and fired again. There were laced draped porcelain dolls and ceramics from every holiday and in every stage everywhere. She taught ceramics too.

One Christmas there were ceramic Christmas trees filing every shelf in my dad's shop waiting for their turn in the kilns. They were big and made in layers so she couldn't fire many at a time. Getting all this all done on time added to her stress level at Christmas and having 3 boys anywhere near this could and did ratchet up the stress level. For those of you with kids and grandkids approaching a state of high anxiety this Christmas I offer.....

A Family Christmas Story

I had brought a John Deere tractor (yellow) in the shop for some routine work for a few days then decide to paint it. I covered my moms ceramics with newspaper and spray painted the machine at night. The next morning I was in early to strip paper and tape off machine and uncover ceramics. The Deere went outside, the shop was cleaned, and all was right with the world.

The "in" trees that year, if I remember right, were a 3 level hollow pine looking thing that you put a light in and stuck these little plastic bulbs in holes after it was fired. The trees were painted green with white to simulate snow on the branches.

For those of you unfamiliar with ceramics, the paint they use is not always the color it will be after it is fired. I think the green was a muddy yellowish brown till it was fired and came out green. What I'm saying here is that you can't judge a book by its cover and what you see isn't always what you get. And John Deere yellow spray dust... Well it's probably not going to help things.

That morning my mom unloaded the cooled green trees from kiln and added her first batch of post-John Deere painting trees in the kiln. All still was right with the world.

That night they were not. My brother said I was lucky I wasn't there when she opened the kiln. Her student's trees were purple and black with white snowy tips, more reminiscent of a Halloween scare house then Christmas. When I saw them I thought they were "far out" and "cool". My mother did not. One or two of the finished purple ones sat on my dad's shelf as a reminder to me for years to come.

I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and one of my mother's sayings, "this too shall pass."

Note: If you ever run across a weird looking ghoulish purple ceramic Christmas tree at a yard sale buy it and let me know. I think enough time has passed and I'd like to have one.