These are a few of my favorite things

After living in the same house for fifteen years, we've joined the rest of you in the battle against clutter. It's almost demonic the amount of junk that collects in a house with nine people. Now that we are shrinking to a normal size family, I'm beginning to assess what things can go. To be truthful, there are very few items that cannot easily be replaced.

Among them are:

My mom's piano with the needle point bench cover Nana made


The infamous Christmas stockings


My grandmother's antique fish casseroles from Chicken of the Sea, which I once saw going for $50 a piece on Ebay.


This special gift from my mom


A picnic blanket (not shown) and this Guatemalan doll made locally in the town where we used to live (The base is a Coke bottle and the dress is hand painted cloth dipped and dried like paper mache._


A wall hanging from Teotitlan del Valle, a neighboring village, given to us by dear friends from Ohio


There are others, but I leave you with these for now. It is way past time for the kids' lessons. I'll post a few more another time.