A fun gift for Mr. T from the Nevada grands

This year our Nevada grandkids wanted to make their Grampa a new fingerprint art T-shirt.  The one in the photo above was their gift to him quite a few years ago.  It features handprint trees with dozens of multicolored "autumn leaves" made from fingerprints.  I don't have a photo of the back of this shirt (that I know of, anyway) but it features a moose made from a child's footprint and 2 handprints (for the moose's head and antlers). 

The kids have observed that Grampa wears this shirt A LOT.  Wherever he goes -- stores, banks, even airports -- people comment on his shirt and most guess that it was made by grandchildren.  Some have even said they want one just like it!

So this year the kids decided they would like to make him another shirt with a different theme.  My daughter asked me for ideas and I suggested possibly a logging theme, since that is what Mr. T does for work.  Before long, she was emailing to ask me if I could send a picture of a CAT 559, the type of loader that he operates.

Then at Christmas time, this masterpiece arrived:

 The evergreen tree to the left of the Cat loader is made of grandchildren's hand prints.  Their mom did an amazing job of painting the CAT 559.  The snow on the ground is made from fingerprints, and the falling snow is paint dabbed on with Q-tips.

And here is the back:

 More snow fingerprints on the ground and tree branches.  The snowman is a print of a 3-year-old's foot!  The kids' mom painted the snowshoes.

What a unique gift!  Grampa is sure to get lots of comments on this one, as well!

A special new mailbox card

Anyone who's read either of my blogs in December knows how much I enjoy Christmas cards depicting mailboxes.  You can read a whole post about it here, in fact: Mailboxes Et Cetera, and see a bunch of the vintage mailbox cards that I find endlessly fascinating. 

But this year I was blessed with a brand new Christmas card with a mailbox theme ... and how sweet it is!  My daughter in Nevada sent me this card.  The scan does not do it justice.  The background is a lovely soft blue, and sparkly snow is at the base of the scene.  Outgoing mail is tucked in the shiny metallic mailbox, while snow is drifted on its top along with an evergreen swag and a perky red cardinal.  Beneath the box, a wrapped gift nestles amid greenery and two lighted lanterns.  The three-dimensional quality of this card is so much fun!

 Inside the card, the simple but oh-so-meaningful message reads: "No matter how many miles are between us, you're always close at heart this time of year."

 I used the card as part of the Christmas decorations on my hutch.  Love it!

Hope you have enjoyed this look at a truly unusual and lovely Christmas card from a lovely daughter!