Angels

Snow Angel

For lo!, the days are hastening on,

By prophet bards foretold,

When with the ever-circling years

Comes round the age of gold.

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,

And the whole world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.

May we each find a way to give back some of the angels' song of peace and good will.

Two hearts intertwined (origami)

Peace and love to you this Christmas.

Peace, and a Christmas message from Foghorn Leghorn

Holiday Home Tour

Thanks to Jen on the Edge for inviting us to participate in the Holiday Home Tour.  This is my first time, so I'm a bit nervous.  Here goes...

Welcome to the Common Household holiday tour.  As you come down the front walk, you will see our stunning lopsided light display, which consists of one net of blue lights, one string of white lights, and our wood gingerbread man, home-crafted by my husband's colleague.  Since I am the only one in the household with the interest and energy for putting up lights, this is the light display we get.  It is now too cold and snowy to put out any more lights.

But do not be so dazzled that you miss the tree limb hanging low over the front walk.  The Tree Man never came last week, claiming it was too cold for his truck to start (!).   If you are tall, watch your noggin.

His smile looks a bit lopsided (just like
 this year's lights) because one piece
of his smile fell off. Nevertheless, he has
withstood the winter elements quite well.

Now that you are in out of the cold, please, come in the living room and take a close look at our Advent/Hanukkah paper chain.

We have used this in lieu of an Advent calendar since around 2003, saving the chain from the previous year and adding to it each year.  I am guessing that the chain is currently about 60 feet long.

It currently reaches about 2/3 of the way around the living room.

To make the links, we use scraps of wrapping paper.  On the plain side, we write various family activities, such as "Eat potato latkes" or "Read the Christmas story in Luke" or "give a gift to someone" or "pray to God."  During Hanukkah and Advent, after we do one of those activities, we add that link to the chain. 

This is the first year we get to add the link that
 says "make a gingerbread house."

This year I decided to also put up some of our origami ornaments.  Several years ago, my son was making new origami every day.  I decided to sew a loop of thread in some of his creations so that I could hang them up.  Since we don't usually have a Christmas tree, I just hang the ornaments from the curtains.

He made stars with various numbers of points and in various colors.  Each star is made out of one piece of paper, folded, but never cut or taped or glued.

My favorites, among his origami creations, were the geometric shapes.  These were often made out of several pieces of paper, but still only folded, not cut or glued.  I did apply some glue to the outside so that they would stay together when they were hanging.

Let's move into the dining room, and take a look at what's on the table - from right to left, a gingerbread house, gingerbread sleigh, and gingerbread lab equipment.  There are a few more photos of these at my previous post.

I also love Christmas and Hanukkah cards, and put them out, unless we need to actually use the dining room table for, say, dining.

And now our holiday home tour will take a step, not into another room, but back in time, to the end of November, when we celebrated Hanukkah.  This means getting out our hanukkiah (menorah), our felt hanukkiah, and some dreidels.

And that is the end of the Common Household holiday home tour.  To see the rest of the tour, go here.  To read my hope for this Christmas holiday, go here.  Merry Christmas!

Origami Science

Hydrogen (H2)

Solid Hydrogen

Liquid Hydrogen

And, of course, hydrogen gas

Uses for Large Square Paper

See, a local Italian restaurant uses large square pieces of paper for tablecloths, simply replacing the used paper with a clean sheet between customers. But take an origami enthusiast to this restaurant, and he will see other possibilities besides mere table covering. I mean, what would you do with 3-foot square paper?

Very Large Paper:


Simply fold into 27ths both ways, and fold, fold, fold:



Done. I feel closer to Paris already.

Bring Us a Shrubbery, and Make It a Nice One

Our Christmas tree, decorated with origami made by our own Origami Swami!