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I’ve purchased a few ornaments on my travels. Here are the ones I currently own.
I purchased this ornament when I went to Walt Disney World with my then-husband in 1992. This one commemorated the 10th anniversary of the opening of Epcot Center.
I’ve purchased this faceted crystal Hershey Kiss-shaped ornament during one of my numerous trips to Hershey, Pennsylvania over the years. It really shines very brightly when the lights are on.
Here is a dripping clock ornament, which is obviously inspired by Salvador Dali’s famous painting The Persistence of Memory, that I bought when I made my first (and, so far, only trip) to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida with my then-husband.
I purchased this ornament when I took my then-husband to Fort McHenry in Baltimore. (I had been to that place several times growing up but it was the first time I took my husband during our marriage.) The outer circle says “Seasons Greetings” and “Fort Mc Henry.” There are two smaller gold banners above and below the image of Fort McHenry and they are embossed with this sentence: “Birthplace of the Star-Spangled Banner.” (It’s a reference to the fact that Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that later became the lyrics to the national anthem while he saw Fort McHenry under siege during the War of 1812.)
The last three pictures feature Moravian stars, which are type of stars that originated with the Moravian Church. I first became acquainted with these stars when my sister-in-law moved to the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania, which includes two towns that were founded by members of the Moravian Church—Bethlehem and Nazareth. The smallest of the stars is one that I purchased at the Moravian Book Shop, which is located in Bethlehem and it’s definitely worth visiting if you’re ever in town.
The second photograph features a paper Moravian star, which was given to me by one of my sister-in-law’s friends. She lived in Nazareth at the time and she told me that the locals in both Nazareth and Bethlehem frequently just place the paper stars on the branches of the Christmas tree.
The last one is the largest of the three. It’s made from stained glass and I think it may be one that I purchased at the annual Christkindlemarkt that’s held for several weekends in Bethlehem each year prior to Christmas but I don’t remember for sure. All I know that it looks really pretty in my tree, especially when the lights are turned on.
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Among my Christmas decorations are a few imported ones that I purchased at a couple of places.
My sister-in-law lives in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania. Each year the town of Bethlehem has a multi-week arts and crafts festival known as Christkindlmarkt, which features handcrafted items from both local artisans and imported handmade items. I remember she took my then-husband and I to Christkindlmarkt a few times and I really enjoyed it very much. (The only reason why I haven’t come back is because of finances.) Among the items I purchased was this German-made nutcracker that’s shaped like a park ranger or a naturalist.
There’s a pretty funny story behind this one. Throughout my now-kaput marriage, my husband insisted on controlling all of the finances including the checkbook for the main checking account. He didn’t always take his checkbook with him because he didn’t always want to stuff his pockets with the checkbook and he wouldn’t carry a bag or purse or anything like that. That weekend he took the main checkbook with him. When we were going over to the Christkindlmarkt he asked me to hold the checkbook in my purse. When I started perusing some of the vendors, I saw a man who sold German-made nutcrackers and this fellow caught my eye. It turned out that he cost only $50, which is cheap compared to similar nutcrackers I’ve seen on sale in my area. (I’ve seen German nutcrackers the same size start at $125.) I didn’t have enough cash in my wallet and he didn’t take a credit card so I pulled out the main checkbook and wrote a check. At that moment I was writing a check, my husband showed up and caught me in the act. While he was okay with using it to buy the nutcracker, he insisted on taking the checkbook and keeping it with him. Strangely (LOL!) he never asked me to hold the main checkbook again after that incident. (LOL!)
I also purchased this wooden German-imported ornament at Christkindlmarkt. This one is shaped like a cuckoo clock.
Another place where I purchased imported ornaments was from SERRV, which has a store in New Windsor, Maryland but it also sells its items online. SERRV is run by the Church of the Brethren and it hires artisans from Third World countries to make items for its catalogue. SERRV makes an effort to pay these artisans a living wage and it also makes inspections of the places where these artisans work in order to ensure that they aren’t sweatshops. SERRV sells a variety of lovely products from all over the world. The next picture shows a wooden nativity ornament that was made in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The next couple of ornaments were made in El Salvador. These artisans work in wood and they paint in bright primary colors. There is such a cheerfulness to their work, such as these ornaments shaped like a llama and Santa Claus.
Most of the El Salvadoran ornaments are two-sided but are painted the same on both sides. The tree ornament in the next two photos was also made in El Salvador but the design is different on both sides.
I also bought this pair of clay doves, which were made in Guatemala.
The doves come packaged with this short paper explaining about the origins of these doves.
A disastrous earthquake in 1976 forced many Guatemalans to be uprooted. The Chanautla area was severely damaged at this time causing a number of residents to move to the northern edge of Guatemala City, a location now known as Nueva Chanautla. When ceramics are handcrafted by these artisans the “white clay” must be brought from the original Chanautla area.
Each fragile dove begins as a lump of clay dug up in Chanautla, a region of Guatemala. Because of each artisan’s individual fantasy, head and wing positions differ. Primitive firing is accomplished by covering the delicately formed bird with grass and igniting it. This method causes colors that vary from burnt black to orange to grey and white. Doves are packaged in an attractive basket for a safe flight. Due to the use of unrefined clay, small blemishes and chips sometimes occurs in the firing process.
These doves come in a nice woven basket that I also have on display under the Christmas tree because it is so lovely looking.
Today we went from my parents-in-law’s condo in New York City and made a long trek to Buchanan to visit my brother-in-law, who lives there. We had a picnic in the backyard of my brother-in-law’s home along with some of his housemates. Going to and from New York City we took Route 9A and it was very scenic. At one point I saw a road sign for two towns that I recognize from pop culture. One town was for Pleasantville, which was also the title of a movie that was released a few years ago. The other was for Sleepy Hollow, as in the famous Headless Horseman story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Is that cool or what?
The town of Buchanan has New England-style homes that were very pretty to look at. The houses were way more visually way interesting than the suburb that I grew up in that was located south of Baltimore. (Yes, I’m referring to Glen Burnie.)
So I’m back at my in-laws’ place in New York City. We’re going to go back to my sister-in-law’s home in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania after dinner and spend the night there. Then my husband and I are going to make the long travel back to Washington, DC right on Memorial Day itself.
If all that wasn’t enough, my husband has to take a plane flight out to Melbourne, Florida the following day for his job, stay there Tuesday-Friday, then fly back Friday afternoon. Fortunately I don’t have to go along with him since I would be too exhausted from this trip to even contemplate further travel.
When I ended the previous blog post with this quote “That’s it for today. We’ll probably eat a late dinner, maybe watch another rented video, then go to bed”, I was mistaken. I forgot that we planned to travel from Northeastern Pennsylvania to New York City. Basically my husband, sister-in-law, and I loaded up into her car and we drove the approximately 75 miles to New York City where my father-in-law and his wife lives.
When we reached the city, I saw something really amazing. Usually one can see the Empire State Building in the skyline and normally the top is lit up at night with yellow light. Well, during the trip into the city, I noticed that the Empire State Building was bathed in different lights. The very top was lit up in blue. Below the blue top, another area was lit in white. Below the white area, another area was lit in red.
That’s right, it’s lit up in red, white, and blue lights—the colors of the American flag. I was really awestruck to see the Empire State Building lit up like that. (You can see the picture of what it looks like when you do an image search on Google but it looks way more awesome to see in person.) My sister-in-law, who has travelled into New York City more often than I have, told me that the Empire State Building is lit up like that every patriotic holiday.
In addition, we drove past the Intrepid ship and my sister-in-law said that this week is Fleet Week. Sure enough, the dock around the Intrepid was full of sailors and marines all wearing their uniforms. I’ve never been to New York City during Fleet Week before and it was really awesome to see so many people in uniforms gathered on the docks like that.
We arrived to my in-laws’ place late last night so we are just resting from the long commute from Pennsylvania.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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