The Christmas Doll House

I may be behind on decorating my house for Christmas, but I did get the dollhouse decorated on time! My granddaughter checks to make sure the elves are on the job after Thanksgiving- and they were! 

First, a word on the dollhouse. It was built in the late 1970's by my father in-law as a gift for my sister in-law. She allowed her young daughter to play with it, hence the missing bannisters. She had invited my son over, when he first bought his house, to go through her garage furniture before donating it and offered him the house if any of his friends had children.  He remembered his grampa had made it and brought it here. This did not make her happy. 

Regardless. I will say that taking photos made me notice the general shabbiness and I really need to make time for another remodeling project (after he finishes the bathroom). 

Here are some reindeer reading maps and watching the weather channel.  

These elves are all Hallmark ornaments from the 90's. I got them on eBay when things were inexpensive on eBay. 

There are two kitchen areas. Because I like kitchen accessories. 

And the last room. 

And that's it for the dollhouse. Santa needs an upgrade!

The dollhouse lives in my bedroom, on top of my double dresser. I ordered it with no mirror when I had the Amish build it with this in mind. It is almost four feet wide. 

And . . . . I put up the tree! I stayed up very late on Sunday and just made up my mind to do it. And . . . . . because I am even crazier than you can imagine, I put up a second tree. 

You may remember my husband found 7 trees in storage.  I told him to put the others back.  There can be too much of a good thing.  

Still no Tree

 Still haven't put up a tree. I think it is a mental block. It seems I can find all kinds of stuff to do instead. I did order photo Christmas cards. They are still sitting at Walgreens. 

Meanwhile we spent 2 1/2 hours with a cable television technician in my living room on Friday because my husband has to be able to watch local weather at 5 a.m. and the nearest city to the west of us doesn't have the capability to stream. At the end of the afternoon I never thought would end, the technician decided the issue was our 8 month old giant television and recommending brands I should buy my husband for Christmas. He did leave a new cable box. We waited about 20 minutes, plugged in the new box ourselves and the television and cable is working just fine.  They eliminated all local offices so in order to trade in a box on our own, we would need to drive an hour one way. Next time we will drive an hour one way, get a new box, go out for lunch and drive home.  Or cancel cable. 

I saw our local Mexican restaurant was decorated for Christmas. Hello Saturday.  

So I suggested we take me out to dinner. 

Yes I am drinking a margarita. He is drinking Pepsi, yet took this photo. 

Mr. Merry having a fabulous time. Actually, he was. We were "early birds" and he was able to order off the lunch menu. His favorite is Huevos Rancheros with their homemade tortillas served separately so he can make them himself. He just looks cranky. 

Talked him into going through our fairgrounds which is about a block from our house. The Jaycees had set up drive-thru displays with help from area businesses, churches, civic groups and schools. It is free, but they did take donations for some adopted families for Christmas. It was very cold so no one left their cars. 

Often displays have costumed characters. But it was cold. 

I think the FFA built the this house this year. 

All photos are taken through car windows. 

I'm thinking this was from a local ATV dealer. 

Our favorite was the high school choir singing Christmas carols.  The acoustics in the pavilion were incredible and you could hear them from the turnaround before you reached them. And their voices blended so beautifully. 

And our second favorite. The city got a new garbage truck. 

You may remember the town's Halloween decorating contest. Well, we aren't having a Christmas contest because people need no encouragement to over decorate.  

Here is a house that I took 25 pictures of as the colors and shapes change to match the Christmas music. We have at least four houses in town that have set up these elaborate computer displays.   

The next series of photos are one house. I will tell you the story after the photos. 

So. This family has a company that made septic systems. Then the dad (older than me) invented some kind of free standing system that can operate anywhere. And somehow some sheik or dictator or king in a middle eastern/African country found about about them and that they can operate in a desert surrounded by nothing and now the family owned company and the family has millions and millions of dollars.  And they hire a company to come every year and decorate their house.  

Obviously the whole town is aglow. We seem to have lots of money for electric bills! I will say there is a high fatality rate for the blowups due to high winds. 

I will be back with my completed dollhouse photos in my next post.  Hope your holiday preparations are progressing! 

December 5th and I am already behind

Another photo heavy post.  We don't have a tree up yet. I have to confess that my husband asked me which tree I wanted him to bring in. I made the mistake of asking how many trees are in the shed. The answer was seven. So all seven are on the back porch and I am overwhelmed. So instead .  .  . 

I wanted to decorate this doorway and I have been pricing garlands at various stores and websites. And it was getting crazy. I was at the home improvement store one day and they had fake pine garlands for 7.99 each. The doorway only needed two.  Then I went to the dollar store and they had the ornament garlands for $5.  I bought four.  So the total cost of the doorway was only $36.  One garland at the craft store was $40 and even on sale, I would have had to buy several. I think this was a win. My only regret once it was up (of course) was that I should have put it on the other side of the doorway where people will be sitting for Christmas so it could be a backdrop. Next year. 

I started a dumb tradition of framing the grandkids Christmas photos and this is where I am at this point. I should have started with wallet photos . . . 

I had picked a date for our family Christmas about six weeks ago but three different grandchildren now have sports tournaments that Saturday so my Christmas has moved to Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. so everyone can quickly eat breakfast, open a stocking and leave for more sports events.  I am done being bitter, but I did pout for twenty four hours.  The kids have reached the teenage stage and coaches are not family friendly when scheduling and penalize them for not attending. So whatever. 

Our stinking schools had another two hour delay for a teachers meeting (following a five day weekend for Thanksgiving) but it did give me a contractor for two hours to set up the village for me. 

I have also decorated the 3 story dollhouse in my bedroom, but this is another dollhouse I picked up two years ago for no reason and this year it is decorated for Christmas too. Amazing what I will do so I don't have to deal with the trees. 

We did brave the frigid temperatures and go to the city's tree lighting. I wore heavy socks and my fake ugg boots. As my toes froze I remembered that in the winter I should wear my insulated boots that were home in the closet. 

Five out of my ten frozen grandchildren joined me. 

There were celebrities

Cute store windows

Bounce houses, food trucks and s'more stations. Also activities inside stores. 

Actually a larger crowd than it looks like in my photos. 

Yep, back at the home improvement store. 

Flooring.  In order to get the necessary pieces to go with the flooring I ended up completely organizing the bins and shelves of accessory pieces to find the last one that was listed in inventory and that they could not order in since it was listed in inventory. My husband found it over in ceramic tile.  It was a long afternoon. I think we were there close to three hours. 

And - in case you missed it, I starred in a Hallmark movie. 

Everyone thinks that Donna Kelce, the football mom, is my doppelganger. As I joke, I changed my facebook photo to a photo of Donna Kelce. Everyone "liked" it and did not notice it wasn't me.  So I am now assuming her identity.  

I don't know where I think I am going to find time for this, but I ordered Christmas cards today. 

I took the high road and ordered grandchild vs my true holiday feelings.