In the midst of so much sorrow over the shootings in Connecticut, E and I spent part of yesterday distracting ourselves by working on a project for the soup kitchen. This year, M and I will be doing set-up on Christmas Eve, and our family really wanted to provide something festive for the occasion. M’s Scout troop sells Christmas trees as their annual fundraiser, so we had access to free scrap greenery and free scrap stump ends, which have holes drilled in them as part of the Scouts’ display rack system.
So with $3.50 of ribbon and a few hours of work inserting greenery into stumps and tying bows, we made 15 very inexpensive Christmas centerpieces. They’re almost complete; the little paper plates won’t be glued to the bottoms until next week, since the stumps are still oozing a little sap. And you can’t really see it in the photos, but the ribbon around each stump base is even sparkly, similar to the ruby slippers in Wizard of Oz.
People at the soup kitchen get to bring the centerpieces home with them afterwards. Based on past history, we know these are likely to be the only holiday decorations some of them have. It brought us comfort to know we’ll be spreading a little extra love and joy in a world that so badly needs it.
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