Marion Gunderson Art (and the Farmer's Daughter)

(Click here to go to this blog’s home page. This is a meandering post. Let’s just say it’s the nostalgia talking.)

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Tree decorating from a 3-year-old's perspective. (Click photo to enlarge.)

Last week Katie, Joe, Abby and Jackson (daughter, son-in-law, daughter and 3 1/2-year-old grandson) came out to help decorate Bill’s and my Christmas tree. This entailed lasagna for supper, a new Christmas CD, egg nog (after the lasagna settled), Christmas tree decorating and…family.

Switching gears…When I was little, Marilyn Rickard of Rolfe was my Sunday School teacher. I remember being disappointed when I learned the following year that I was going to have a different teacher. Wasn’t Marilyn going to be my teacher forever?

My creche ornament from Marilyn Rickard. (Click photo to enlarge.)

Marilyn’s personality had the perfect mix of smiling and caring and of being fun and gentle. I was fond of her as I am of the plastic creche ornament that she gave to me in the late ’50s or early ’60s.

Last week I ran across a creche ornament that reminded me of the creche Marilyn had given me.  It didn’t look all that great, but represented the true meaning of Christmas.  I purchased it and gave it to Jackson hoping that when he’s my age he has a fondness for his creche, just as I have a fondness for mine from Marilyn Rickard.

Our Charlie Brown tree. (Click photo to enlarge the "designer" ornament arrangement!)

Of course, the true meaning of Christmas revolves around the serious miracle of Jesus’ birth. But, after decorating the tree, we (except for Jackson) unsuccessfully tried to contain our laughter when we realized that most of the ornaments were hung at about…hmmm…a 28″ height. Jackson especially liked one small low-on-the-left-side-of-the-tree section where you can see (if you click on the photo to enlarge it) that his little hands clumped several ornaments. Our Charlie Brown tree.

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(Click here to go to Louise Shimon’s blog’s home page.)

Tags: Christmas, Marilyn Rickard, nativity, tree decorating

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