Fifty one years ago I married my wife. My wife said that she would not be responsible for my breakfast. Since I grew up where the breakfast was the meal of the day, plans had to be made. Simple, I would find a diner that was open at 6 AM and eat out. For the past 20 years, give or take, this diner has been HELLAS. It's about 4 miles down the road, and run by three Greek brothers.
As many of you know, I whittle at breakfast at HELLAS. I am there at 6 AM and usually whittle with my coffee, before ordering breakfast. Most of those at HELLAS at this time are regulars, and know each other. Nobody says, "there's a old guy with a knife". Lots of the time a new comer will ask "what's ya carvin". I mostly whittle Santa ornaments or pins. I whittle at least one each day. These I put into a box to be finished later, and eventually to be given away at Christmas time, or some times sold. Mostly they are given away. I always give the owners of HELLAS a bag of the Santa's for them to give to whoever they want. Some of the ornaments are not finished, and are given to retirement or assisted living places for the residents to paint and keep or gift themselves.
I'll spend the next week or so cutting out the blanks for these Santa ornaments to be whittled in 2013. These will go into another box so that I'll aways have one handy to take to HELLAS every day. Last year I managed to get 248 Santa ornament/pins done. Hopefully I'll get as many in 2013.
This a great way to achieve several things: keep ones hands flexible in the AM, practice-practice-practice, have hand made gifts at Christmas time, and provide a fun activity for residents of retirement.assisted living centers.
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