We were invited to go to a party on Christmas Eve. Husband informed me a few days before the event that we were supposed to bring a handmade ornament for a peer-judged ornament contest. My immediate thought was, “Ok, whatever. I’ll figure something out that day, before we go.”
Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator.
Fast forward to December 23. Husband came home from work with a slight twinkle in his eye. It seems that the ornament contest was a topic of conversation at work that day (the party was hosted by a coworker of husband’s). Husband gleefully proclaimed, “My ornament is going to kick your ornament’s ass!” and he scurried away to gather his materials for his ornament while I stood in the middle of the kitchen, slack-jawed.
The gauntlet had been thrown down.
What was I going to do now? The paper ornaments that I had planned to make with the wee boys wouldn’t stand a chance. Frantic, my mind whizzed through all of my options. I finally landed on Korknisse and decided that I would go all in with the wee cork family.
My crafting integrity depended on them.
I ran up to my craft room/office to gather my needles and scraps of yarn, fleeing from the kitchen while husband worked, intently creating his ornament. I swear, you could almost hear the wheels in his brain turning.
I had to make periodic checks to see how he was progressing. I was surprised at his creativity and ingenuity. Folks, he may just be related to MacGyver. A bunch of corks pulled from our cork jars, some clipped coat hanger, a piece of cotton ball and the essential element, a hot glue gun. This was harder than I thought it would be.
All I had were 4 knitting needles, a few corks, some scrap yarn, my iPhone and a whole lot of determination.
But in the end, his Santa was found to be not nearly as crowd pleasing as my sweet Korknisse family. Oh yeah, I came home with the ornament making prize that night. But I do have to say that he would win if there were a “originality/creativity” category.
Crafting integrity intact, and maybe boosted a little.
(Husband thinks that *he* may have technically won the contest since my ornament was the #3 ornament, but in the 4th spot for judging. His claim is that people may have wanted the 3rd ornament instead of the #3 ornament, which was the spot that his ornament occupied even though it was the #4 ornament. Whatevs. If he really wants to share my prize, I’ll let him use the foot massager I won anytime.)
