speaking of bacon...

My mother is a Christmas-loving-fool. She's one of those women who shops at Christmas decoration stores in July when we're at the beach. She begins to brainstorm her annual holiday card creation in August and starts drafting Christmas shopping lists as early as September. And yes, she (like me) is someone who will dare to listen to carols before Thanksgiving.

As far back as I can remember my mother has chosen a personal tree ornament for each of my siblings every Christmas. As a tot I got Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears ornaments, there were obviously a load of handmade ones (that crafty lady!) with my name embroidered or painted or etched right onto them. Then there were the musical years where I switched instruments annually, and my mother kept right up: a piano, a flute, an acoustic guitar and a classical guitar, a tuba, an accordian, etc, etc. Then, as John, Josh, Julie and I moved out and were wed my mom gave each of us our ornament collection in a box. I think it's an awesome and unique tradition, and I just love looking at all the memories hanging in my living room at this very moment.

(Here we are in front of the Christmas tree: Josh, me, Julie and John)

That being said, you can probably guess that at this point Luke and I have a very Joy-sided Christmas tree. I thought it was only fair that I expand Luke's personal ornament collection, and I decided to go with the theme of his life these days: meat! Using a great tutorial I found on another crafting blog, I whipped up this yuletide slab of meat in the time that it took me to get a tire rotation and finish up at the laundromat (rest assure, I got plenty of curious looks as other launder-ers watched me stitch away).