Favorite Xmas Ever!

What has made your favorite xmas your favorite? Mine was painting ornaments with Kathleen. It wasn't my idea. It was her's...

We happened to get an arts & craft catalog for a new store in Georgetown one year around thanksgiving time. On the cover of the catalog were packages of clear glass balls, some painted and some not. So we went to this store in Georgetown to check out the ornaments and paint. Now I had been painting for a few years and felt I knew my way around liquid acrylic paint. I might give this crafts thing a try but I considered myself a "painter" and well above all that hobbyist stuff. Well was I in for a surprise!

The arts & craft store was so chic and modern because, of course, it was in Georgetown, DC. The paint was top shelf quality and many times more expensive than what I got from Michaels. But Kathleen was having fun and I didn't think she was going to buy hundreds of bottles of paint (like I had been known to do at Michaels). So as Kathleen was finishing up at the register (with a modest purchase of 6 glass balls and 6 bottles of paint), I asked the store clerk how does one paint these balls.

And then he told me. Take off the ball's lid, and pour in some paint (more than one or two colors is encouraged). And put your finger over the lid's opening and SWIRL. Pour out the excess paint and let the paint dry.

Well I tried it and just loved the results. The kind of love that leads to obession and doing over a hundred balls. Kathleen also fell in love. She must have done close to 75 that year. And we gave our artful ornaments to everyone. Our bosses. Our colleagues. Our friends and our family. Some people loved them and some people were confused by them. One person was even offended that I gave him "balls" Nevermind, our painted ornaments were that year's hit (at least with us!)

We kept many of the ornaments and each year a few hang on our tree. We had so much fun together painting those ornaments. Sure we spent a chunk of change making them but we bonded joyfully. And that's what has made it our favorite xmas ever!