Kay says all of their gifts had to be handmade. A real fun part of it all was all of the decorations were also handmade.

“We made them together in the evenings — from crepe paper; popcorn strung on strong button cord; construction paper strips stapled into circles together; snow flakes cut from aluminum foil; small drums made by stretching fabric bits over cut up toilet tissue roll cardboards the kids came up with more and more decorations they had such fun making,” she said. “A Christmas they will never forget, and we plan many more to come. All the while remembering and planning it was to be Jesus’ birthday party.”

The kids are excited about doing it again this year. It seems to be catching on, she said, and some of their classmates are getting mom and dad to do it too.

Jeans can be a real fashion statement. Have you noticed all of the additions to our old favorite, many of them no longer the rough and tough denim jean fabric, although some of them look like it.

Now jeans are in the new stretch fabrics, which are very dressy ones. And all of the trims, the embroidery, the beads fringes — you name it — you’ll find it on someone’s jeans. That’s been going on for some time. But a new one is a ragged, worn-torn patched look with the snips and tears.

The patches appear to be blanket-stitched on (securely stitched underneath). The material used for patches may even be an off-color scrap of drapery fabric, looking as though they’d just stepped off the covered wagon and that’s just what they had.

— Aunt Norie, P.O. Box 265, Tonganoxie 660086; auntnorie@bdc.net.