With a Little Help From Pop...

My grandfather, Fred, was an amazing man. A United Church minister, he was gentle, loving, kind, knew the answer to every question you could throw at him, even let us grandkids play his bald head like a bongo while sitting on his shoulders while he sat doing crosswords in his big chair. He had five grandchildren, and we were all really close to him (at least three of us slept at our grandparents' house every Saturday night from the time our parents would let us have sleepovers). Pop was also very good at woodworking and other crafty things, and would often help my grandmother like Ian helps me- he'd cut out and put together the wooden parts of her projects, and she'd do the painting and the rest. They sold a lot of little Christmas ornaments and other things at craft fairs and in craft stores.

Pop passed away in 1997. A few weeks ago, my grandmother gave me a box of wooden bits that Pop had cut out, but she hadn't finished- I don't know the exact reason why, but I do know that her interest in most crafts waned after he died. In the box were a couple dozen mitten shapes, which were meant to be Christmas ornaments: my grandmother would join them with ribbon, paint them and decorate them with holly, etc., and write "Merry" on one and "Christmas" on the other. They'd then go hung on doorknobs. I spent the day yesterday finishing them, although not quite how my grandmother would have... these are less festive and more winter-y. There were enough mitten shapes to do a dozen pairs, which I'm going to give to my siblings, cousins and aunts (and grandmother, of course) for the holidays.

I think they turned out nicely, although I can't say that finishing them was a 100% joyous process... miss you so much, Pop. xoxo

On another note, here's a picture of Baby M. with the original Cuddly Bunny... proof that I have at least one happy customer!