Those of you who have read me over the last few years know that I go a little “Griswold” at Christmas. Because of a modification to my Christmas village this year, I had to move my train set and railroad station. So where…where do we put it??🤔 I know, I will go by to childhood years and put it under the tree. Okay, which tree?🤔 The living room tree and the dining room tree are too formal…
the ocean tree is not thematically correct…
and there is no room under the bedroom tree because of the large 4 foot stuffed Santa Claus…plus Daisy has issues with moving things.
That leaves me with only one option…buy a new tree…lol. And since it is going in the sunroom with the other outdoor themed decorations, lets make it an outdoor tree…so here we have the bird tree featuring many owls. And below we have the working train carrying its many imaginary visitors home for Christmas.
So as you enjoy the fun parts of Christmas, remember the heart of and why we do Christmas. God sent us a marvelous gift that came to give us life and to show us His power love that is to be shared with all of creation. Merry Christmas and remember to always be kind.
Thursday Doors is a weekly feature, hosted by No facilities, allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).
His post this week of Ginger bread houses inspired me to show some favorite doors from the village I painted with a friend way back in 2000. We wanted to have a small village for Christmas but could not quit finding cute houses. So now 48 houses later, I have my village. The village gets put out every year. We won’t talk about the 10 I gave away as Christmas gifts. Wish I still had them. But alas it is what it is. The first pictures are a few of the ones I painted that have more interesting door features.
The next set of pictures are from a new village I started this year. These structures are only 3 inches high against those above that are 5 inches or higher. I call this little village the Candy Cane Village. They feature Mr. & Mrs. Claus and I did not make these. They are actually supposed to be ornaments, except for the Mr. & Mrs. They were my mom’s.
The red sign says “Believe in the Magic of Christmas”
If you enjoyed these, I will post more village pieces this weekend. Have a great end to your week and remember to always be kind. It shows the sweeter side of you.
Good morning friends. So far I have shared my living room tree, more on the elegant side; and my bathroom tree, the down under tree. Today I am sharing my bedroom tree, the kitchen tree and the woodland animals tree. Its the fun side of Christmas or at least my quirky side.
My bedroom tree is the more personal tree. It has the ornament that my children made when young, happy ornaments that make me me smile and it is fast becoming the S’more tree.
I know as kids we all ate S’mores, or should have, but over the past 20+ years, I have collected S’more ornaments. Its my kids fault, they started it – I have just kept it going. My S’more ornament this year made me chuckle when I saw it, so, yes I had to have it.
A Graham Cracker truck, lol
Below are some of my more favorite ornaments from this tree because I cant show them all – they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t a favorite of some sort.
Notice the date on the bottom of the angel – ’81, my oldest made this when he was three. It always goes on the top of this tree.
Moving from the bedroom to the dining room and you have the Woodland Christmas including a cabin, the outhouse with cow, woodland animals and the hedgehog Christmas.
Then from dining room to kitchen, yes no room was left untouched by Christmas, we have the rest of the critters celebrating Christmas. All enjoying the fun of the holiday, singing, playing instruments and playing in the snow.
On Thursday I will share the Sunroom Christmas that has the big tree and the Christmas Village. I added a side village this year – the candy cane village. Until then, I hope you have wonderful week. Stay warm, its 12 degrees here in Iowa and remember to always be kind. It shows the very best side of you.
Time to share more of my fun and wish you a Merry Ho Ho Christmas. We have to say that this time because we are featuring Santa. When I was 8 years old, I went show shopping with my grandmother, my mom’s mother, Miss Lottie. She was a gentle spirit and a much beloved 2nd grade teacher. Since it was during the holidays, the shoe store had a three and a half foot tall stuffed Santa that they were having a drawing for. Well I had to put in a ticket for it but I also put one in for my grandmother, my parents and probably other people. The week before Christmas, we were called and notified as winners of the Santa, still not sure who actually won it. And now 60 plus years later, I still have it and it comes out each year. But like most folks who reach our age, we don’t stand as tall as we once did. So I place him where his stature adds interest to Christmas. Here he is admiring the beautiful tree in the living room. This tree is a white light tree and most of the ornament are white.
Closeup of Santa with his two friends, Straw Dog and Straw Elephant, that each have their own tree. Both trees are live trees with battery operated lights.
This tree also has a lighted church and a country inn underneath. The angel for this tree is well over 20 years old but an elegant ceramic lady. I love angels and they stay on tops of the large shelves year around.
My favorite ornament for this tree I have had for a couple of years. While I did buy a couple of new ornaments for this tree this year, the lamb laying with down the lion is still a favorite. You can’t see the top of the ornament very well, but it is and angel and her wings taper down to form the sides of the ornament.
This last sharing from the living room I shared last year. It is the inside wreath for this door. The front door wreath that is outside has a Christmas tree inside of it. One day I am going to count just how many Christmas trees I have that light up, there’s lots.
This wreath shows the mood for the season, Joy. It was one of my fun crafts from two years ago.
Remember to share your joy and kindness this season in all that you do.
But the people of Whoville seemed to have it right
For they dance and sang around the tree so bright
Christmas is still coming even with a virus so bad
It’s coming even though we are depressed and sad
I encourage you to feel the love of this great season
For it was Christ that came to give us the reason
The reason we love to make all this fuss
Is because we believe in the Magic of Christmas
This is a monumental and challenging year especially now at Christmas. But we can’t let this virus and fear define us. We can still wave at a distance, give lots of air hugs, and remember we all have many things to be thankful for. Do I make light of the situation we are in as a world people, by no means. I spent my concerning time in quarantine, I am fully aware of the danger, the risks and the possible outcomes. At my age it is even more dangerous but I refuse to not shine my light of love and kindness in the ways that I can that are safe. This year in defiance of being shut up inside, I decorated two weeks earlier and added another tree…in my bathroom. That brings me to 4 trees. Since my bathroom has a beach theme, so does the tree. So I have posted my pictures below and hope you enjoy with a smile. Do we need to be careful, yes, but do we need to be sad, no, disappointed, yes but this hopefully won’t last much longer. So spread your cheers through the cyber ways, enjoy this wonderful season and always be kind.
I have been so super busy since the end of September that I have not had time to even look at the computer much less get on it to write. In September I finished painting and decorating the kitchen from the grossness of tacky wallpaper…
The plants in the hangers are live. I decorated the grapevine wreath on the wall and now the room looks bigger. Then my Christmas project came in…
So since the kitchen was done, I have been getting the wooded decorations painted to hang on the fence with garland and red bows. Here are a few of the 11 balls. They go up 1st week of November. Yes I decorate early. And this year we are looking to get it done and have better things for the coming year.
So now we are varnishing them to protect them. And while the paint is drying, I am posting. As I sit on my couch and watch the feeders, I forget how big the Blue Jays are when I usually just have the Chickadees or sparrows.
Striking birds
It is fun in life sometimes to just stop and watch nature’s beauty that is all around you. So take the time today to see the beauty surroinding you and remember to always be kind.
One all the painting is done, I will get back to my daily words of interesting tid bits. Be safe.
Our lives are generally setup by our priorities, our goals and things that move our hearts. For me Christmas moves my heart as I watch people be more loving, more compassionate and overall kinder to each other. So I push it’s envelope a bit by decorating early but I know the average person wants to get through Thanksgiving first before throwing all the Christmas out. I kind of do that as well, but since I have so much stuff that moves my heart over the years, it takes me awhile to get it all up so that the week of Thanksgiving, all lights go on. I have less than 2 weeks and so much still to do as I have added outside features this year.
So this post features old much loved traditions involving how we decorated our (only) tree when the children were very young.
The very first item that got put on the tree, even before lights, is the Christmas Nail.
The Christmas nail is placed on the tree near the trunk where is really is not seen. It is not meant to be seen. It is meant to be felt, honored and remembered for what it symbolizes…one of the nails that pierced our Lord when he was hung on a tree(cross made of wood). I put it on my large 7.5′ tree.
The hidden nail is lost in the bright lights of the tree, representing that as Christ died for us, His light shines on us and we in turn should reflects his light to anyone needing the light of hope to shine in their darkness.
The other old but another first is the angel for the bedroom tree.It is an irreplaceable angel made by my oldest child when he was 3 in 1981. This one is a true heart ornament and until he left home to create his own life, he made sure it was the first thing on the tree, after the nail. The nail was always first.
Sometimes the most valuable things we have are made with wooden clothes pins and wrapping paper. As you start off the beginnings of the holiday seasons, remember the reason for the season. After all, its a marvelous birthday party. Spread the love and the cheer to all. And as always, be kind, it more important now than ever as so many people are hurting.
For some of us, getting ready to decorate for Christmas is almost as fun as the actual decorating, especially if you are into making the decorations or making gifts to give to family and friends.
Today we are in snow #4. While they have not been big snows, its still too early for my liking but we pull up out boot straps and deal with it. I only work 3 days a week now, so I was able to swap out today with tomorrow which allows for me not to have to go out in it.
If you remember I told you about the dog, the tree and the snowman ceramics I bought to paint and that they light up. The snowman turned out the cutest. They are about 7″ tall.
The biggest Christmas craft project I have ever was done back in 2000. That is when the ceramic houses that you could paint yourself first started being a hot item. My friends and I started a village at the beginning of summer and by Christmas, we both had well over 50 items each. I place it out every year and last year I added a couple of items. I have to monitor sizes as my houses/business were in the middle of the scale of houses they make today. This year I added a cathedral and an observatory along with some enhancement items like bears in a tree for the mountain cabin and the coffee stand at the tree farm. The new items were already painted so I just got to add them to the collection, but still it is fun.
The layout is broken down into 3 separate sections, one due to the size and one because of it’s theme and location.
First you have “up town” with the government buildings and the large shops. There is the City Hall, the Lawyer office/Police department, the Post Office, the Fire Station, the Bank, the Library, the Theatre and of course a church are located.
This is an alcove above the fireplace for a TV/Entertainment center
Suburbia is located on an adjacent table next to the fireplace with many favorite shops, homes and added novelties. Throughout the season, I will feature a few of these at the end of each post so you can see the details like the car at the burger stand shaped like a burger.
Homes, businesses, the mountain house, the Christmas tree farm, Railroad, Antiques, the stream with the covered bridge and the feed store.
The last section is the observatory way out in the country(the other side of the fireplace) on a mountain(a bucket on a snow covered file cabinet) by itself, however there is a hotel and a church close by. And yes, the tree for that room is reflected in the window. Not fully decorated yet though.
The fun in doing this always brings back good memories, plus that fact that one year I gave some houses away as gifts and still have lots left.
Yes it is a lot of work getting all of this out but I still enjoy it and lay it out different each year.
What are some of your favorite crafts to do at this time of year or some of your favorite decorations. I always enjoy looking at everyone’s as much as I like sharing mine, so share away and lets have fun together.
And in closing you know I always stress the value of kindness. It is a true reflection of Christ and how he wants us to try to always be kind.
I am a huge fan of Christmas decorations. Jez Braithwaite encourages us to reflect on the things we are a fan of. His challenge this week is Cacti – while I am not a huge fan of cacti I do enjoy his prompt of Fan of…
Yes, I know it is early but when you have as much to play with as I do, you have to start early so that by Thanksgiving, the switch can flip and the lights come on. This year I am switching things up a bit as the new puppy demands caution. So a plan is in place. This past weekend was shopping weekend to see if there was anything out there we just had to have…not need, we long past that mark. So in celebration of a new puppy, I found these at Michael’s that you paint the color of your dog and they light up.
I also bought a snowman and a Christmas tree
Since both dogs are black and white, not sure how the light will reflect through. I will go easy on the paint.
The village was added to as well…of course, and will be moved to the sunroom where I can spread it out more. I will also put my big 7′ formal tree there so that I can better protect it from possible mayhem. I will put my short 4.5′ tree which is always decorated in white lights and white, clear or silver ornaments in the living room on a glass top table hopefully keeping it out of harms way as well. The 7′ fun tree will go in the bedroom with the funny quirky ornaments, like S’mores, things the kids made when young and other ornaments that make me giggle.
It takes a while to get all that up so we start early. Since I made new wreaths last year, these light up ceramics may be the only things I “craft” this year. As things go up, I will post my fun and show you much there is. The sad part about it, I inherited this “bug” from my mother and my daughter inherited it from me. She lives in the basement in-law suite and has almost as much fun as I do.
Why do I love Christmas so? It is the one time of year when almost everyone seems filled with joy and hope. There seems to be more kindness and compassion floating through the air creating a magical moment of tenderness and love of mankind.
I am fully aware that is just mid-October but if you have lots to prepare for and many things that needs to get made you have to prepare and get ready ahead of time so when it time, you are ready. What in the world am I talking about…
Decorating for Christmas
This year I am able to decorate some outside, so new toys. Yea! I had house repairs made which included fixing my outside energy source so, let’s let our light shine. Last year I was not able to walk much due to surgery on my feet, and the sunroom remained closed off all winter long because the fireplace had issues. The fireplace got fixed this summer, the junk in the room was dealt with and now to reorganize that room which will take time. But cute stuff goes early, so we buy early. Added more pieces to my village, added a table tree to my woodland theme for the bathroom…cant wait to get started organizing everything so that by the middle of November the trees (3 large, 2 small) can start going up. Takes time to do all that but it is my favorite time of year to decorate the house.
As we think about the coming light season, remember the inner light Christ has given you and to let it shine reflecting His love for everyone. You don’t need a season for that; that’s and everyday thing. Have a great week.
For the Love of 