Christmas Gift Incorporation

One of my favorite things about having collections is receiving items for the collections from friends and family.

The red partridge and a pear tree trivet our youngest daughter gave us found an immediate temporary home on the Christmas decorated sideboard.

My oldest daughter found a merman to join all the mermaids.

And one of our nieces found a piece to identify the collection.

I think that hanging it above the door like this gives it the effect of a label in a cabinet of curiosities.

When my husband’s brother and his wife visited in the Spring he asked how many suns he had contributed to the sun collection. The answer was most of them. And when they came at Christmas they brought us another one – this carved yellow one – as a house warming present.

We’re still contemplating adding the more colorful ones that hung in the bathroom at our old condo. While we’re not quite ready to hang them, I think with this new addition the wall is beginning to look like it needs them.

Another present that was fun to incorporate was this potholder that the aforementioned niece made.

She made them for everyone out of different but similar fabric and after we opened them it was funny to hear the “Oh I get it, POTholders!” exclamations travel around the room.