Christmas Decorations - decemberphotochallenge
They belonged to my grandmother. When she passed away, I helped clean her house out and had to sort, among other things, through old decorations. Many of the Christmas ornaments were so very old, mostly damaged and no one wanted them. I had helped put those decorations on her tree for my entire childhood, I could not throw them away. So I wrapped them in tissue paper, some of it probably the same paper they came in, and took them home. That was over twenty years ago now.
Some of them were very childlike, I suspect my father or uncles may have been the craftsmen of these fine creations, perhaps the only decorations my grandparents could afford as they struggled, like all Americans, to feed their family during the Depression.
Some look like remnants of more abundant times, what must have been stunning glass bead garlands and nicely detailed Santas. Now many of the beads have broken off leaving long stretches of empty string, but I still wrap it around an evergreen bough every year. They reflect the twinkling lights and add a lovely sparkle still.
My "pride and joy" ornament is this little set of pitchers. They are such delicate glass, I am afraid breathing on them will break them! My mother had a set of hurricane lamps that were very similar to these little ornaments, maybe that is part of why I love them so. I believe they are actually from Germany and suspect they hung on my great grandmother's Christmas tree but there is no one left to ask. The paint is worn in a few spots, they were that way when I got them. Tenderly preparing them for the journey I knew I would never make it home with them. I had to drive back to Arkansas from Ohio with this load of stuff, and those incredibly fragile little things would never survive the trip... But they made it. Then they made it from Arkansas to Idaho, and through all those years with my children and now my grandchildren. I try not to be "attached" to them because I have "known" since I got them that they were never going to last long... but for today, they are still here. Please enjoy them with me for at least one more Christmas!
This post inspired by the December photo challenge hosted by @deadgrlsuppastar, details can be found here:
https://steemit.com/decemberphotochallenge/@deadgrlsuppastar/official-december-photo-challenge-post-day-6-christmas-tree
These are great decorations!!! Thanks for jumping in and participating
Thank you for the excuse to tell their story!
I was looking at that first Santa for a long time wondering if it was a beach Santa of some sorts wearing shorts and having his legs exposed. Nope. It used to be white and red! Funny what that bright red has turned to with the years. I haven't decorated for Christmas, I'll probably do it tonight - my kids are still throwing around spiders and playing with costumes from Halloween.
Hi @metzli! You have received 0.1 SBD tip from @fishyculture!
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment, get share of the service profit :)
LOL! The value of seeing things through the eyes of others. He will be "beach Santa" to me from now on! And welcome to steemit, my vote is "recharging" so let me leave a tip! by way of saying hello!
Thank you for the warm welcome ❤️What does it mean that your vote is "re-charging"?
LOL! You thought you asked a simple questions, didn't you?
If you go here
https://steemd.com/@fishyculture
(put your name in place of mine and hit refresh, you will see the same data for your self.)
you will see on the upper left, a little bar graph that shows my vote is at about 75% now.
I am "recharging" it - which means NOT upvoting anything - to get back to 100% vote POWER.
You and I are both new enough that when we vote, it is a "100%" vote STRENGTH. I am nearing my first 1 million mvests - you can see that on the same link. When I hit 1 million, I will get a "slider bar" that will allow me to do 50% or 10% (or whatever) vote strength per vote.
Right now, we can vote and it drops our power with each vote. The general recommendation is to vote about 20 times a day, and that will recharge in about 24 hours. I have no self control. I see something I like, I upvote it... and thus I drained my vote power. To compensate, I go on "no voting" binges like now, although even then I can't resist a few upvotes...
There is a service called "tipu" that I use also. Not everyone likes it, they say why not just transfer the funds over but sometimes people do not notice that. My husband made a very generous gift to someone by a direct transfer and the person never noticed. Using tipu makes a bit of a fuss about it. And admit it, you sort of liked being fussed over a bit, didn't you? At least I hope you did, that is why I use it! ;) It also pays a small dividend for using the service. I try to save it for when I am on a no-vote binge or people doing exceptional work.
The trick is that people only love you when you upvote them. It is sad but true. Eventually, we may gain enough respect on our merits that we do not have to "buy friends" but that is where you start here. Your vote is your "handshake" and when you have to stop shaking hands no one talks to you...
There you go. I believe that ought to qualify for too much information now, so I shall shut up... LOL!
One of the best explanations ever! You should turn this into a post!
PS one of the worst ideas ever is equating an upvote with a like or thumbs up. Whoever thought that idea up should have their big toe stepped on.
And your comment should be your handshake. But I'm not saying you're wrong, mind you.
Thank you! I think I will, I wound up going through it all again yesterday for a friend, might be nice to just have a post to reference.
So my percentage is less than 7% 😂😂😂Maybe I overdid my up-votes.
Stick with me kid, together we will swim in circles... LOL!
😂😂
Wow! Thanks for that information. I've been going around giving those little green thumbs because I'm a Facebook user and I'm used to having thumbs-up be unlimited. I'll go check out that link now. And Yes! Getting a tip did make me feel nice and warm inside. Thank you!
Oops you might not see my edit as you were evidently reading as I was editing to be more verbose. So look at my previous comment again please and thank you ;-)
I TOTALLY agree that the comment should be the handshake, but the truth is a comment does not fatten the wallet. People enjoy chatting, but they feel appreciated when they are "rewarded" - at least it seems like that to me.
And the upvote and like being separate is a good idea also. I wrote a story that I thought was really very good, good message nice little plot... did not even make 50 cents. I took a picture of my piano and keyboard side by side, 20 bucks, most I have ever made. The message that sends me is "Don't waste your brain power trying to make good content, just take pictures." I am a compulsive writer, won't happen that way but the way the "rewards" work out, some very odd things get "rewarded" lol!
I do quite literally value good conversation. There is a lost art of rewarding competent replies. Perhaps I should write about that 😉
Yes, having posts to point to is very valuable as long as you keep up with the links. Steemit has a way of burying our history. It's down there somewhere, though.