Sibling Get Together Surprise & 8 seconds of Super Bowl fame for my grandson!

On December 19th I hosted a dinner for my siblings and their spouses. I showed photos earlier.
What I couldn't show was the surprise I had made for each of them. I couldn't share this until now because one of them wasn't there so she didn't have her surprise yet.

Here you see the 3 siblings seated along along with a spouse at either end.

At the count of 3 everyone open your gift at the same time! They are curious and have no clue what is coming.

Here they each show you their Santa Claus. They are also trying to guess the signifigance of the gifts. They guessed things like "Mine has skis because I ski" or "I like Teddy Bears so I have a Teddy Bear". Wrong answers. I kept them guessing and finally the reason was made clear.

The fur on each Santa was from our mother's mink stole. She passed away 22 years ago and I had saved this all this time, not knowing what I would do with it. The area in front under the coat was made with the beautiful brocade lining from the stole. I furnished a different color velvet for each Santa along with a small deer, a mushroom and a piece of artificial holly. This made it a gift from our Mom and myself.
You have already seen my Santas, also made from the stole.
Everyone loved them. My sister in law said it was the best present anyone every gave them! The remaining sister received hers at our sibling/cousin dinner after my show opening reception.

This is Bill and Mary's Santa.


This is Connie's Santa.


This one is Karen and Clay's.
Unfortunately I do not have a picture of Carol's.

The artist who made these is a junior high school teacher. I believe this is how she maintains her sanity. I am sure God has a special place in heaven for Junior High school teachers!

I closed this post quickly and forgot to add a puzzle tonight. My son called and said my 10 year old grandson was on the Super Bowl broadcast. How was that possible when they weren't in FL? Well, it was part of the Walter Payton award ceremony and was photographed elsewhere. So of course I had to run down and play back the recording which thankfully I hadn't erased. Sure enough there he was at about minute 14 waving and getting himself noticed easily.

I took photos and they looked good on the camera. When I put them on the computer screen they were full of lines. Does anyone know if it is possible to take a decent photo of a TV screen with a Canon Power Shot SD550 Digital ELPH?


Jared is the one with blondest hair on the right and his mouth open!

He loves my puzzles so he will be tonight's puzzle.