Christmas Countdown!

Hurray! It's the last day of school before the Christmas break! The kids will be off for 16 days! They don't return until the Monday after New Year's! I'm so excited about that. I'm hoping to get some nice photos of the kids on the days they are off. At 14, my son really doesn't like his picture taken but he may make his Momma happy and let me take a few shots of him with family. :)  To the contrary, Caitlin (like most 8 year old girls) loves to have her picture taken!

Here's a little of what I've been doing--still decorating, wrapping and baking.... I remembered I had this little village I bought from CVS drug stores about five years back. The little buildings are sold individually. I have about a dozen different ones and I really couldn't find a place on the first floor to display them so I chose four, added some color lights inside them and some snow, and I put them all on a crystal pedestal cake plate! I had gotten "Vermont Mountain" ceramic backgrounds that I never used from ages ago and I just used one as a backdrop.  It adds some cheer to a corner of one of my kitchen counters.

We didn't set up our big Heritage Village in the basement this year. I packed away the handmade mountains and lights for that as we decided to set that up every few years as a treat. I do have out my other village. I call it the Honeymoon Village--Billy and I bought it on our honeymoon at Walt Disney World! It isn't Disney related with characters. It was just sold in the gift shop near Cinderella's Castle. 

Obviously, it is all in white and sparkly and glittery! My husband has a real sentimental attachment to this village! He personally wraps the base it sits on every year because he worries about it!

Our manger....I'm sentimental about this manger because I have three of them! I have combioned the sets choosing pieces from each one. My Mom bought three sets of the figures sold at Woolworths in 1949--one set for herself to save, one set for her Mom, and one set for her future mother-in-law. They are made of chalkware and are painted so nicely! They are very fragile and some have chipped but I still love them! 

 Some of them still have the prices on the bottoms. When my grandparents passed away, I asked for their set. It wouldn't be Christmas without them!

Happy Friday!

Baking and Remembering

Here's what Christmas 1971 looked like at our house! Very festive and happy. Our "umbrella style" style Christmas tree. The one we had before that was silver! When the umbrella tree was done for, we started driving near Stockbridge, Massachusetts to cut a fresh one down. Somewhere I have those photos too!

 Also in the living room was our fireplace, also decorated and lit up! We hung our stockings there. The living room smelled so good. My Dad would play the organ.

I always loved the styrofoam letters spelling NOEL we had on the mantle. Can you see them? Wish I still had them!

In 1971 I was six years old, and wanted a special doll named Velvet. She was a "growing hair" type of doll. You may remember her more famous older sister, Growing Hair Chrissy...

In the background below, you can see on Christmas morning I received her! And much more! I remember all those gifts!

I even got Velvet's hair dryer and beauty set.  The white ceramic bunny statue in the photo is now in Caitlin's room on her dresser. I see I got pink fuzzy slippers....

Yesterday I was baking. I've been working so hard to be a good cookie baker! I never really did cookies; I was better at other baked items but this year I decided to challenge myself, and I am enjoying cookies so much! Baking makes you think and think and think.....and it brought me back to Christmas past. How I love those days! They've shaped how I celebrate my holidays now as a Mom. Thanks for letting me be six years old again!

Visit with Santa

We visited Santa on Sunday!  Caitlin read him some items from her list and asked if he would please bring them. She'd like an American Girl doll and some Calico Critters items. She would also like more bands for her rainbow loom.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

She showed Santa the bracelets she makes out of those rubber bands and Santa seemed impressed!

We have actually visited this same Santa since Caitlin was born! She has never seen another!
Here are some photos from various years! How my baby has grown! Santa is such a jolly old elf!

Meanwhile we had some snow on Saturday that turned to rain on Saturday night and melted some away.

We are getting more tomorrow! That's fine with me; I love snow! And Red Cat and Robin will sleep through it anyway!

Happy Friday!

Hurray! The weekend is here! So much to do!

Did you write your letter to Santa yet? You had better get that in the mail fast! It's almost the big day!

Did you finish your decorating? or ARE WE EVER REALLY DONE? :)  I'm not....always something new to do and try! That's what keeps life interesting!

But always find time to relax and enjoy the beauty of the season and the special ones around you!

Candy Sleds & Cozy Mouses!

Brrrrrrr...That's all I can say about the weather here! 22 degrees and going down to 15 tonight! Bundle up! Bundle Up! We had about 2 inches of snow yesterday and now that has turned to ice :(   dangerous. It sure looks pretty though. I always think how, to me, the "whiteness" of a blanket of snow on the ground and coating on the trees gives such an incredible feeling of peace! "All is calm, All is white"....I love how the snow outside can be so bright that it actually casts a glow on a dark room.

Keeping cozy in my house are some little mouses! Not real ones--and you might think my grammar is bad calling them "mouses" instead of mice but since our cat Robin was a baby and he would play with his furry mice, we referred to them as "mouses." I have always loved mouse things! My dollhouse I had growing up was inhabited by little dressed up fancy ones! Do you remember those? I had a whole bunch. I had a "maid", a lady dressed in a fancy dressing gown that held a mirror, a little boy and girl , and a whole bunch. I never see them anymore. I even had a little Irish mouse that was dressed for St Patrick's Day! I wish I still had them... That's what I would like to live in my doll house that I picked up a few months ago but I never see them. Even on the internet...If anyone knows of any....calling Kim K...come in, Kim K......dressed up mice....any ideas where I can locate some at a reasonable price..... :)

Well, I have a few of my favorite mouse things to show you and I have to confess that in "my mind"  all real mouse and squirrels and raccoons and other little woodland creatures live like this...The inside of their hole in a tree, or their burrow in a hill looks like this.....It does, right? If my Dad was alive he would and I asked that, he's say "Yes Margaret, they do." Love my Daddy.

So here are a few little mouses in my house:

Knitting for her babies! Scarves, mittens..see the babies peeking out below her!

Look at these little cuties watching a Christmas show. The tv actually lights up and plays music.

 The look of excitement on their little faces! I love it! Why do I think they are watching "The Ed Sullivan Show?" One of his musical guests...a duo...

This little guy below sits on the shelf. He is my elf on the shelf!

Craft fair mousie getting cozy in his matchbox.

A group of friends!

This little guy ....."Not a creature was stirring..."

What a sweet little face! These aren't "rodents"! These are mousies!

Oh and one more mouse item! My Countdown Calendar! I have had this for years! Look closely! It's Christmas time at the Mouse House! 

 I hope you enjoyed our tour!

 I went to a craft fair this weekend and one of the things I bought was this adorable candy sled!  Look below!

Get yourself a bag of Hershey miniatures, a bag of kit kats, medium size candy canes, your glue gun and some holiday ribbon! It's pretty self explanatory. My Brownie troop will be making these at our holiday party next week and Caitlin is making them for my Christmas Day table for each place setting! We are going to add a place card in front of it. Have fun!

Speaking of Brownies, our troop visited the Friendship Center of Girl Scouts on Monday night for a drive through of holiday lights and it was amazing! After  that we viewed all the trees all the troops decorated for donation. Ours was themed " A Warm & Cozy Christmas".  We had gloves, hats, hot cocoa, cup 'o 'soup, and little gift bags of toys as our decorations. The girls made ornaments and snowflakes. All of these trees were created by Girl Scout troops and will be donated to needy families.

  There were rows and rows of them! The girls were just beaming with pride at the compliments yet excited to know someone who really needs it will have their home brightened by the tree they made this Christmas.

Have a cozy day!

More Christmas!

Happy Friday! Hope you have a weekend planned with good things! We are going to finish up all the decorating so that we can put our tree up next weekend. We usually buy a frasier fir and have had good luck with those but as you know a real tree can't be brought in too early or it becomes a bald tree :)

I have really loved seeing everyone's decorating on all the blogs. Good thing I keep a notebook to jot down all the good ideas I see cause I would never remember them. I won't even think of sitting at the computer without my notebook and pen. Even if I don't get to try the idea out this year, I have the notes for next!

So I have this love for mittens....I must confess! The idea of cozy mittens on little hands after playing in the snow! Or hanging them to dry while having a nice hot cocoa!  It all started several years ago when I purchased two strands of clothes-lined mittens and hung them in my big dining area window. I have to get a photo of them as you can only see them in the background of this photo below (and more on this candle in a minute!) They just gave the kitchen a cozy feeling!

I then purchased other mittens that had happy words on them like "merry" and "believe" and added them to the big window.

Last Christmas Walmart had these adorable mitten ornaments for only 98 cents each, so I decided to buy them with the thought  I would do a mitten tree.

 Instead I decided to "hang them to dry" in the foyer where I have my mitten stand and "hats and mittens" box by the front door.

                                          I actually hung those mitten ornaments on a mug tree!

Caitlin set up our manger and she also set up the Gurley candle Christmas choir and assorted others I have. We sit this next to the manger so all can rejoice! Even the reindeer!

Lets see... what else....

I picked up two little red wreaths at the dollar store and a pack of these gold reindeer and decided to glue a reindeer in the center of each wreath. It looks so nice! In person, it is very glittery! Cheap but special!

And last but certainly not least, is this special candle. from the photo all the way up top:

This sweet candle represents something so special. You can see it is pretty old; aluminum leaves and all...

My Dad bought this little candle the first year he and Mom were married (1953) and EVERY Christmas Eve when we all sat at the dining room table to have Christmas Eve dinner (and in Italian families that's a pasta and fish dinner) right before the saying of Grace my Dad would light the candle, say the prayer, wish everyone a merry Christmas and blow the candle out. It was wish of good health and love to everyone. My parents were married 51 happy years! When the little red candle would start to melt down, my Dad would melt  another red one on to it so that the original one from 1953 was still a part of it. Now the candle is mine and one of the most special Christmas items I have! I always loved when he lit that candle on Christmas Eve and looked forward to it. It was placed in front of his place setting at the table.  A simple tradition that really filled my heart. 

Have a great weekend!

Christmas Gingerbread

I put the finishing touches on my gingerbread/candy tree yesterday.It is the traditional tree I do for my foyer. I wish I could show you the lovely colors of it;  Super bright!  Clear in red and white lights. The effect of those two color lights makes the tree look like it is shining with candy canes! I'm going to try and take some good pictures of it without my flash. Sometimes I miss the old days of cameras/film. I could take some magnificent pictures with my Pentax! This is the first of our trees. I haven't set up our main tree in the family room yet--it's a real one and I don't want to rush it for fear the needles will fall. Next up will be our lodge/cabin tree in our basement family room. I also have my Holly Hobbie tree that I keep up all year 'round in my parlor as a tribute to my favorite fictitious gal. Her spirit and what she represents always was so meaningful to me. Her gentle nature and simpleness. I still have my Holly Hobbie Rag doll from 1976. She sits on my bed! SO for now I will introduce our gingerbread/candy tree!

Over the years I have collected quite a bit of gingerbread and candy ornaments and accessories. After Christmas at Walmart I find a ton of good ones! Prices slashed too! 

I have received many as Christmas gifts.

It's fun to be on the hunt for something special.

Everyone who knows me knows I much prefer gifts for my house or decorations than clothes or jewelry! 

I have much more fun in my world of gingerbread!