USS Constitution by GGibson - Model Shipways - 1:76.8

[GGibson]

Nothing really to update on my Constitution build.  Since my last post, I have been assessing where the gun deck cannons will be placed in order to prepare for the cannon framework and, as a follow-up to Mustafa's critique after my last update, determining where exactly the new spar deck beams will be placed so I can get the old beam stubs out of the way.

 

What I have been working on, though, diligently over the past week or so is my annual Christmas tree hanging walnuts project.  Back when I was a young child, my father would carefully crack open walnuts, dig the walnut and other pieces out of the shell, place money back in the shell, glue it, put a hanging bow on it and paint it so it hung on the tree on Christmas Eve.  I carried on that tradition with my children and now with my grandchildren.  Every year I come up with some new combination of ribbon and walnut colors in order to identify whose walnuts are whose.  Most of the walnuts have some denomination of currency folded and stuffed inside them, but some just have a few pennies in them just to tease them. (Even the ones with currency in them also have a couple of dimes in them so they rattle when shaken.)  Here's a picture of one of them.

 

 

Each of the five grandkids have a dozen walnuts this year, so with five grandkids, that's... 60 walnuts!  It's a bit of an organizational challenge as I complete them all (and keep them identified for whose are whose!), but I do enjoy it and the kids all look forward to "Papa's Walnuts"!

 

Here's to a Happy Holiday season to all of my MSW friends! 

[tmj]

That's a very clever idea! I like it! 🙂 

[hamilton]

My grandfather would do exactly the same thing when we were kids - I was always mystified about where he found walnuts with money in them - a folded up Canadian 5-dollar bill...felt like a fortune at the time...Merry Christmas!

hamilton