Heather Haven is a multi-award winning mystery
author. Her work includes the Silicon Valley based Alvarez Family Murder
Mysteries, NYC trail-blazing WWII lady shamus of The Persephone Cole Vintage
Mysteries, Death of a Clown, a Ringling Brothers’ Circus stand-alone mystery
noir, and anthology, Corliss and
Other Award-Winning Stories. Today she
stops by to share a Christmas memory with us. Learn more about her and her
books at her website.
A Christmas Memory Tree
Twenty years ago during the
Christmas season, I was visiting a dear friend and noticed a small, jewel-like
tree glittering on her hallway table. When I asked her where she got it, she
told me she had made it for her mother using ornaments, broken jewelry, and so
forth from her family’s life. Now that her mother passed, she had the tree and
would someday leave it to her own daughter.
All you need is a small fake
tree, a charming container to hold it, plaster of Paris, lights, ornaments,
costume jewelry, and a glue gun. I ran, not walked, to my local craft store and
bought a small one-and-a-half foot tall tree, a bag of plaster of Paris, and an
attractive round plant holder.
Day One: fill that charming
little container about 3/4 of the way up with plaster of Paris (follow the
directions on the box). Pull the little tree out of the base it came on, stick
the tree into the wet plaster of Paris, hold the tree straight for a minute or
two until the plaster begins to set, then go about your business for the rest
of the day so it can dry thoroughly.
Day Two: Starting at the
top, take the center of each wire branch and bend the branch back into itself.
This keep it from looking scraggly. Next, wrap the string of lights around the
tree, pushing the lights into the tree. Be sure the cord plug is at the bottom
of the tree with enough length for plugging into an extension cord or the wall.
Even on a small tree, you can use a 500-light or a 1000-light string. The more
lights, the more glitter.
Any balls and decoration that are slightly broken but too
important or sentimental to have thrown away go on the tree first and in a
place of prominence. With the hot glue gun, dab some glue on one side of the
ornament near the metal loop that hooks it on to the tree. You don’t want all
of that metal distracting from your jewels. Keep gluing, then sticking
ornaments and jewelry wherever you want them to go, hold in place for a few
seconds and voila! It’s like magic. Leonardo da Vinci couldn’t do better.
After I added a beautiful
angel Mom had kept through the years to the treetop, I lovingly packed the gift
in bubble wrap and shipped it off to my mother who lived three-thousand miles
away. Until the end of her life, every year my mother took the tree out from
the back of the closet and put it on a table, reveling in all the holidays and
memories the tree represented. I was happy knowing that even though we were
separated by miles, that little tree brought us closer with our shared
memories.
Happy Holidays!
Iced Diamonds
In late December 1942,
Persephone (Percy) Cole, one of Manhattan's first female PIs, has been hired to
find out who killed a Santa Land elf and left the body in the storefront window
of a swank 5th Avenue jewelry store. Was it the spoiled heiress whose big buck
handbag was found on the scene? Or was it the rat who broke out of the big
house to settle a score? Shortly after, the corpse of the Christmas Angel is
discovered stuffed in Mrs. Santa's workshop. Will Santa Claus be next? With a
penchant for Marlene Dietrich suits, pistachio nuts and fedora hats, this
working mother finds diamonds to the left of her, diamonds to the right, and
skullduggery aplenty. Armed with her noodle and a WWI German Mauser, Percy is
determined to solve these crimes or it just might be the 'kiss off' for
Christmas.
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