I have a suggestion. Send the work in progress stocking each year a week before Christmas. Just tie off any loose threads first. (I don’t cross-stitch. Is that an option?) When the season has passed, and the stockings are taken down, they get sent back to you so you can continue working on them. You can either start by stitching in the outline, or focus on one detailed area each year. Year one is Santa’s hat, year 2 is a cat on the bottom, etc. The kids will look at it and wonder what the full image will be. They will see their stockings evolve over the years, and it is a reminder to them that Grandma is thinking of them all year. That is a win-win scenario.
I am a bit reluctant to share the following, but as I will add it to my Substack page eventually, this seems a good opportunity to mention it. I volunteer as Santa locally in Japan, going to kindergartens, elementary schools, old folks homes, living facilities for the mentally disabled, one orphanage, and more. December is busy for me. However, when Covid hit I had to stop, and that crushed me. My solution was to contact all the places I visited and invite them to collect questions from the kids and send them to me. I then created a video of Santa answering the questions as my wife read them from off camera. This lead to me creating custom videos for friends and family, and then publicly for a small fee. My customer base has been small, so all the money received basically covered the gifts we buy annually for the orphans, as among all the place we visit they are the only ones without family to provide them with gifts on Christmas.
I need to set up a new site this year, but this is my sample video on Facebook from a year or so back.
Thank you. Santa has become my Ikigai. There is family history there, and I touch upon it in my intro page, but I should share it as an article as well.
My oldest son gave me the book Atomic Habits by James Clear a couple of years ago. I will admit, I did a lot of contemplating about my habits as I read the book. I did try to use some of the advice, but I can't say I actually changed any of my habits. If anything, it made me feel guilty that I am such a weak person not to stick with a plan! 🤪 Now that I think about it, maybe I have honed my habits and I am a well oiled machine! Unfortunately, my husband would tell you a different story!
Your cross stitched stockings are beautiful, Susan! 😍
I have a suggestion. Send the work in progress stocking each year a week before Christmas. Just tie off any loose threads first. (I don’t cross-stitch. Is that an option?) When the season has passed, and the stockings are taken down, they get sent back to you so you can continue working on them. You can either start by stitching in the outline, or focus on one detailed area each year. Year one is Santa’s hat, year 2 is a cat on the bottom, etc. The kids will look at it and wonder what the full image will be. They will see their stockings evolve over the years, and it is a reminder to them that Grandma is thinking of them all year. That is a win-win scenario.
I love this idea! I could work on 2 at once!
It's not surprising that a want-to-be Santa would come up with that idea. I'll have to show my grandaughter what I've done so far.
I am glad to hear you like the idea!
I am a bit reluctant to share the following, but as I will add it to my Substack page eventually, this seems a good opportunity to mention it. I volunteer as Santa locally in Japan, going to kindergartens, elementary schools, old folks homes, living facilities for the mentally disabled, one orphanage, and more. December is busy for me. However, when Covid hit I had to stop, and that crushed me. My solution was to contact all the places I visited and invite them to collect questions from the kids and send them to me. I then created a video of Santa answering the questions as my wife read them from off camera. This lead to me creating custom videos for friends and family, and then publicly for a small fee. My customer base has been small, so all the money received basically covered the gifts we buy annually for the orphans, as among all the place we visit they are the only ones without family to provide them with gifts on Christmas.
I need to set up a new site this year, but this is my sample video on Facebook from a year or so back.
https://fb.watch/m_32d_Tlwc/
Thank you. Santa has become my Ikigai. There is family history there, and I touch upon it in my intro page, but I should share it as an article as well.
That is awesome! I love the Ho! Ho!.
My oldest son gave me the book Atomic Habits by James Clear a couple of years ago. I will admit, I did a lot of contemplating about my habits as I read the book. I did try to use some of the advice, but I can't say I actually changed any of my habits. If anything, it made me feel guilty that I am such a weak person not to stick with a plan! 🤪 Now that I think about it, maybe I have honed my habits and I am a well oiled machine! Unfortunately, my husband would tell you a different story!
Your cross stitched stockings are beautiful, Susan! 😍
I've read Atomic Habits! i can't say I've employed all the strategies. Habit stacking definitely helped me. I'm sure I could refine many of my habits.
Thank you for the compliment. Everytime I pick up the stocking to work on I'm not sure where to start. 🤯