my very own Nana angels

So I have a story that goes back as far as I can remember and then a few years before that even. You see my late Nana would give my mom an angel every Christmas. Not just any angel. A very special angel. An all white angel from Goebel/Hummel from Germany. She began giving them to my mom in 1976 which happens to be my year of birth.

Every year Goebel comes out with a new angel and she is always holding something new, a harp, flute, flower, drum etc. And she has the year on her dress and she is a bell, of course. Nana and Pepe’s “Christmas box” by far beat anyone else’s each and every year as I grew up. The UPS man would pull up and we would spend hours upon hours arranging and rearranging what they sent to us.

BUT. Nana’s angel was different. Special, really. My mother always opened her angel right then and put her right out on the shelf with the rest of them. No waiting until Christmas Eve like the other gifts. The Nana angel was opened right away. So here we are now, 33 years later and my Nana gave these beautiful angels to each of her nine children each and every Christmas.

What I didn’t know is that she would have to place her order for them in the spring each year for the following Christmas in order to be sure to have them. Last spring as she was dying she placed her order for her 2009 angels. Her final Christmas gift to her nine children were passed out at her funeral…everyone got their 2009 angel, albeit 5 months early.

So I got to thinking. I finally have some pieces of furniture that I can actually display things in enclosed glass. The only thing I have ever really collected is doctor and nurse dolls/figurines, etc. I have two sets of salt and pepper shakers from my Nana on display in an antique buffet but I got to thinking about those angels more and more. They were such an exciting part of my mom’s Christmas each year when I was a child. At least that is how I remember it. It was always like….”what is she holding this year?!”.

I’ve decided to collect these angels in honor of my Nana. It will take me awhile but it can be done. I have already found a few on ebay. I have 1976-1979 and 2009 and I think my Aunt Laura may have an extra or two that I may be able to get too.

my Nana angels shelf

My mom said that when Nana started to give them to she and her siblings they were less than $4 each and now they are almost $40 each! So anyways, food for thought. If you have a daughter, or son even…maybe start a tradition of some sort when he/she graduates from high school or college or gets married by giving something like my Nana’s angel.

I have her. Or I guess I shall say we have her. Our family, that is. We have the bestest great Auntie. Auntie Kay, that is. She is awesome. For as long as I can remember she will send boxes (sometimes at random times of the year) covered in the coolest stickers to you. The boxes are always stuffed to the brim. There is ALWAYS something she has knitted in the box and usually other random things such as calendars, pencils, you name it.

Her gifts are special and forever kept. For my high school graduation she sent me the cutest little paper mache heart box with a handkerchief and I had yet to meet my great Auntie Kay at this point in my life. As you can see, I still have these to this day. I think there was even a pencil or two with them and at the time I thought what the heck?!

In the last several years though knitting has been her thing…I mean REALLY been her thing. Four Thanksgivings ago we got a huge box of hand knitted hats for our entire family and took a family photo of all of us with our hats on~it was hilarious. The problem is, see…we all have big heads. Ginormous, actually. And I think her head is average. Some of her hats fit, some are a little snug so when a box comes everyone goes a’ diggin’ looking for one that will fit them. It isn’t as much about which one matches your winter coat as it is about which one fits your gigantic head. Man alive I wish I could find that family picture but I can’t, darnit.

Fast forward to Nana’s beach bash~the family reunion in July, 2007. Great Auntie Kay came and brought a knitted hat for everyone…yep, all 70ish of us!!!! It was amazing. So so cool to look around at all of us big headed people (not in that way~well kind of sometimes I guess) wearing these great hats. Below is my Pepe and late Nana in theirs.

Last week another Auntie Kay box arrived adorned in many stickers once again. A pocket calendar was in it as well. Four pair of booties were in it and 20 hand knitted hats. She hand wrote a note saying that she ran out of yarn and got tired so she was sorry if there wasn’t enough for everyone. The thing is, see….there was. Plenty. Everyone in our family got something from Auntie Kay. Seeing how I (puffing chest out proudly now) got to dig through the box first after my mom opened it I actually found a hat that fit AND matches my winter coat! Yes, it is pink and red but that is ok…it’s from Auntie Kay!!!!

Her latest shipment…