Willow Tree

Yesterday was Christmas Day and Hubby and I celebrated by hosting a lunch for his immediate family and my sister. We had a lovely, relaxed time eating the obligatory prawns (if I had not provided prawns my brother in law would have seen to it that I did not make it to New Years alive) and enjoying such timeless Christmas traditions like playing Guitar Hero. In the midst of it all we received a funny text message from friends of ours down south saying “Enjoy your last peaceful Christmas!” and even though the thought of a screaming infant is never fun, it brought smiles to both our faces.

Tricky was on my mind all day, with Hubby even wishing my tummy a Merry Christmas first thing in the morning. I wore a dress that best showed off my still pathetically small bump and had the latest ultrasound pictures ready to show the family.

So they all arrived and we exchanged gifts and I felt very spoiled. My sister in law, K, gave me a beautiful statue. To truly understand my affinity for these particular little sculptures, we have to go back a bit though...

A long time ago (Hubby was called Fiance then) I told my sister, P, how much I adored Susan Lordi's Willow Tree sculptures by showing her a piece titled “New Dad” and saying how I'd love to give it to Fiance one day, possibly as a way of breaking the news that I was pregnant.

For our wedding, P was my maid of honour and her help and support in the lead up to and on the day of the wedding were invaluable. Because of all the effort she had put in I didn't expect a present – her time had been her gift, or so I thought. But she had other ideas and presented me with a fantastic Willow Tree “Promise” statue which now sits next to my bridal bouquet in our lounge room, right next to the TV - because lets face it, that's where everyone looks.

"Promise"

So yesterday K gave me another Willow Tree called “Cherish” (she had seen my other statue and had made a mental note when I was going on and on about how gorgeous they were one day when we were shopping) which is a beautiful sculpture of a heavily pregnant woman. I was so overjoyed to receive it, and immediately placed it next to the original one.

"Cherish"

The Willow Tree range is so simple and elegant. The website explains much better than I ever could how the “forms reveal their expression through body gestures only... a tilt of the head, placement of the hands, a turn of the body. Emotions are left to the viewer to discern” as they have no facial features. This enables you to see who you want in the sculptures – unlike my Amish doll that doesn't have a face because the Amish believe a doll with a face is a 'graven image' as 'only God can make people'.

So now I have two of these lovelies and can't wait to add more. I still really want to get Hubby “New Dad”, even though I missed the boat with the whole announcing the pregnancy thing (I showed him the positive test result), hopefully I can organise it for him for the birth of Tricky. Our little statue family will grow as our real one does.

"New Dad"