Musing about New Year's food traditions and rcw resolutions.

SNIP

Beautiful. If you don't mind Arch I will just make your resolutions mine, too. The one thing that I will add for me is to turn more often as my flat work and repair work has swamped me this year and I haven't made that much play time on the lathe. I need to do it for me, but also for the good it can do others. Here's why:

I have an aunt that is certainly one of the nicest people I have ever met. Not having a mean bone in her body, she is also one of those that has been tested in this life beyond the limits that most people can endure, starting with the loss of her husband when she was in her late

30s. She is now 81. She has raised three kids by herself along with pulling strenuous grandmother duty, and in addition has been taking care of her own mother who is now right at 100 for almost 30 years. Just imagine all the physical illness (hers and others), the loss of loved ones, and the pain she has endured over the years.... and yet she never complains. (She is scary like that... I mean NEVER complains...)

She had emergency angioplasty 2 weeks ago as she was 90% or so blocked. She didn't want to go in since it was Christmas and she felt like a lot of people were relying on her for fixing a special meal, decorating the house, etc. But she had no choice, she was a walking time bomb. So she went in, and the surgery was very hard on her, and the recovery was much longer than expected. When I talked to her on the phone, she was uncharacteristically low in spirits, not complaining mind you, just low.

So this year at Christmas I sent her a lamp I had made from spalted maple, nothing too special to one of us, a short squatty piece made with wide shoulders to show off the grain. I used one of the lamps from Craft Supply that they sell as their confetti lamps, the same fit ups I have used in the lamps I sell every Christmas to feed the turning tool monster that lives in the lathe.

I put a note inside to tell her that what I wanted her to do was to light the lamp whenever she wanted, but most importantly when she was feeling down. Then she could look at the light from the lamp and remember how many people love and care about her.

I got a call the day she got it (still a kid at heart, she opened the gift I mailed her instead of putting it under the tree for Christmas) to thank me. She was so choked up at times I couldn't understand her, and she thought that could have been one of the most thoughtful gifts she had ever gotten. I was more than a little overwhelmed at her reaction, and a little numb to think that something so simple touched someone in such a positive way. That really made my Christmas.

Needless to say, I will be making more lamps for other relatives. I will make time to turn if for no other reason than to give turnings to those I care about.

And in ending, I wish everyone a happy, safe, properous new year, full of good health and positive thoughts!

Robert

I resolve to turn more. 2006 was a bad one for me. Looking forward to a better 2007.

I resolve to waste some wood in the effort to experiment with form, ideas, color, whatever.

I resolve to teach my kids to turn. I will hopefully get my new mini lathe set up and ready for them to try.

I resolve to not take it personally, if my kids don't like to turn.

I resolve to not get more wood from the local tree trimming dump site. The garage is full of wood. Use that. (OK - maybe if some nice ash shows up, I'll gather that).

I resolve to turn some Christmas ornaments in June. December is just too busy.

I resolve to take a multi-day class somewhere with someone be it turning, finishing, texturing, sculpture, whatever.

I resolve to clean up the garage/worksh> I remember up North that touching a dollar bill and tasting a pickled

Robert

I am very touched by your story and it was very well written. To a lesser degree i followed the same lines as you. My nan who ha been in a care home for a couple of years and being 95 is now gettin very fraile. I decided to make a vessel to hold some nice smelling po pouri, buying the pewter top to finish it off. Having left it till th last minute i actually had to drop it over to my parents where she wa over for the day ( i had SWMBO's parents at mine for the day ). I wa told she would be at church in the morning so if i timed it right could slip it under the tree and make out that it was finished wit plenty of time. Mid afternoon my parents phoned up to thank us for th presents etc and to pass on that my nan liked her present and where di i buy it from as they very much liked it. When i told them i had made i (only been turning a year) my nan passed back a message how pleased sh was to reseive a present that i had made and how good it looked. Thi made my christmas, therefore;

I resolve to make more christmas presents next year. I used to thin that making something against buying something was not as good, mainl as the wood was free out of the firebox.

I resolve to remake the fairy for the top of the tree. I made mine days before xmas in about 1.5 hrs, a very scary looking tre decoration.

I resolve to have made some toys for our first child before its born i may.

This will do for now, have a happy new year and please all keep you advice and wisdom coming for us newbies

Mar

Thanks - sometimes I get inspired to share something that seems to me important. Such a small thing on my part to mean so much to someone else was too much to leave alone. I am often inspired by the work and efforts of others, and that is what I was hoping to do when I typed all that out.

Most of the people in my life that I care about have received handmade gifts from me starting literally when I was a child. I guess it was my Mom that started me on that. She always felt that soemthing that someone took the time to make was much better than something you could walk over to a shelf and purchase. She alway emphasized the uniqueness of my gifts, and I can assure you that in my youth some of my gifts were the type only a mother could love. After all these years, unbelievably enough, both of my sisters have gifts I made them 40 years ago... take that department stores!

I think most of us busy with work, family, and all the other things that the season brings wind up turning until the last minute. And no pun intended, but the lathe is the perfect last minutes solution to tree ornaments, planned or not. You will probably be turning until the

23rd as long as you turn! I hope you read Joe Fleming's resolutions above about turning in June... I am adding his to mine and Arch's.

You have to do that. You must. I turned a rattle for my nephew's first Christmas (he was about 6 months) and hollowed it out and put about 5 little wooden balls in it for the rattle noise. I carefully wrote in indelible ink "My first Christmas, December 25, 2000" and his name on the other side. Since he was tool old for a rattle by the second Christmas, I drilled a small hole in the handle and put a hanger in it, and it now is a Christmas ornament that my sister is very proud of hanging every year. Those simple, thoughtful things given as gifts just seem to be the best.

There are a lot of really good folks that hang around here, and there is a lot to be learned from everyone that participates in this NG. I would love to see more folks voice their opinions and experiences as this has always been a different kind of NG. Most of the time the folks are more pleasant, moret thoughtful, and more patient.

As I have said before, years ago when I started turning, this group and its people inspired me a lot more than anything else in the local turning community, and thankfully a couple still participate regularly, and some from way back still drop by now and again.

Post away with any of your questions and thoughts Mark. Glad to have you on board.

Robert