Tuesday, November 25, 2025

The ornament tradition, part two

We were asked to stop feeding the birds one year.  I never went back to my bird feeders or baths.  In fact, I sold all my bird supplies. 

The problem? I had a $100 gift certificate to the bird store. I was gifted this certificate AFTER we stopped feeding the birds. 

Last year (November 2024) middle and I rounded up all our gift certificates and used them. It was a whole project. 

Last year (November 2024)  I went in the bird store to see if there was something else I could buy to utilize/eliminate that darned gift certificate. 

First, very good news, it was a $50 certificate, not $100, that helped a lot, it felt like less waste. 

And I found something very good to buy.

I bought three painted gourd ornaments, for granddaughter, with the $50 gift certificate. These are made from very small dried gourds, not huge ones. 

I am building a small stash of ornaments, collecting good ones as I see them.





The Santa ornament, above, was $25. The other two, above, were $16. All of these were nearly “free” to me, $57 plus tax, because I was using a $50 gift certificate. I started out with two ornaments, it was not enough, I added the third. 

I mailed the Santa ornament November 2025. 




November 2024, I also ordered a wooden name ornament from Uncommon Goods. I will probably send it 2026. 

I ordered it before I forgot/lost track of the link. I think these are clever, unusual. 

This one was pricey, at $47.03 including shipping. I was fine with that, because I paid a total of $7 for the  three gourd ornaments. It all balanced. 






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