Visions of Christmas Dancing in My Head

For the past week, I have been up and down in Christmas decorating. I usually do not put a tree up until after Thanksgiving but for some reason this year we got a new artificial tree that, thank goodness, has prelit lights and I'm ready to be done with it.


Yes BG and I went back and forth in the Walmart checkout about if we wanted multicolored or clear lights on the tree that was in our buggy! I wanted all clear lights and he wanted multicolored. Does this opposite thing surprise me? Nope! LOL So, I caved and said ok, the multicolored but he insisted then on clear and had to actually drive out of town to another Walmart the following day to get the one with clear lights. I think when God made my husband he then made me the total opposite and put us together!
Is that love or what? It's in a box on our front porch and as soon as my regular coffee I'm drinking sends me into orbit, I'm going to wake him.....yes, wake him at 9am.......to get this tree out of the box. I'm ready to find a spot. We were out of Decaf this morning so I'm humming on regular right now.........sometimes not a good thing. ;)

Our house is......not cluttered......but has alot of "stuff" in it so finding that spot for a tree every year is a different spot every time. This year, something for sure has to be stored in the basement for the season. I'm thinking of this wild idea to fold up my dining room table and store and then have plenty of room for the tree and more room to walk around if I invite guests over for finger foods and cider. And when I invite our community friends over we will have room for a little Christmas dance by the tree........ Hmmmmmm............anyway,

Yesterday I fretted over where to put the tree. This morning I'm fretting over if I should put the tree up. Because this holiday is going to be one stressful one. So, maybe I could just show you a few pics from last year (when I had Christmas spirit) and you will see what I usually put up.
But today, is one of those dreaded monthly meetings from the military and I usually end up crying all the way home and the day is over, done.
I can't predict how today will go but it's anxious-inducing enough to wonder about it right now with all the craziness in Afghanistan, sometimes, I would just rather not know. But again, it's all over the news and online and an up to date from the commander in person today will be .......interesting. I'm not so sure I trust them anymore with the truth or even if they have any sense of care. At first I did, but like most, it's just a job for them and the morale has reached an all time low.


I have enough china to feed 16 people. Honestly, I had no china until I got married to BG. We were on a trip to Pigeon Forge Tennessee and he insisted I get some china if I loved looking at it so much. So after a few years of collecting............now no one to eat on it!
But, I do love the Old Country Roses pattern and I'm glad I have it......just in case.

I want to show you on the left of this picture the large silver tea pot and cup and sugar. He surprised me with this silver last year and I love it! Right now, it needs polishing bad, so I'll show you last year's pic. I did not ask or even hint of it but he surprised me with it!

Now, these are Christmas dishes given to me by a friend ;ast year. She gave me the glasses and the plates to feed 12. Each plate on the bottom sings one of the verses to The Twelve Days of Christmas. She is in her 70's and said the plates were very old. The glasses were added later but she knew for sure the plates were used by her husband's mother each Christmas for dinner.
She wanted us to have them.
We used these last year when my family decided to run over for an hour to pick up their gifts. I rushed and cooked a big feast to present on them and they stayed about 30 minutes longer than usual.....really surprised us.

Here's the most favorite part of Christmas that has been a tradition only since BodyGuard and I have known each other. Every year we expand pieces of this village. Last year it was so big, my piano would not hold them, and I had scenes in both upstairs bedrooms as well. Each piece has a story and throughout the Christmas season this year, because we will be alone, I will share from time to time an ornament or part of a village and tell the story behind it.

Two years ago I added this market, Dept 56 pricey lil' piece when I was in an extreme Christmas spirit!! The people in the market go around like their walking and it's so cool! The fruit and meat are detachable so they really "hang" there. As long as these folks are on a magnetic strip they don't break their necks on those trees close to them! LOL

This is most of it and the house in the back, directly center is called Jennifer's Craft Shop. I got this one at Walmart 5 years ago. Instantly when I saw it, had to add it, with my name and all.

This camper and old car was one of my first gifts to BG when we first dated in 1996. We were really good friends at first, then,......well.........things changed. But he had a camper just like this and liked to go fishing so I gave him this Dept 56 collectible. When we married 5 years later, it became part of our one village.

This is my future craft shop, lit up at night.....really at the top it says Jennifer's Craft Shop!

If you know anything about Helen, Ga. you would know that this would look just like a building there too. An Alpine looking shop. Oh, wait a minute, That is ME in the top there looking through my linens! LOL Be careful when you visit the shop, there is lots of ice on the ground.....

The house on the left, not fully visualized in the pic, was a Walmart find and looks almost exactly like our old house in Waynesboro. The red house is a Dutch Colonial Dept 56 piece I added 2 years ago. Got it on Ebay or otherwise wouldn't have been able to get it. The Dutch colonial roofline is just like our house today, even has the chimney on the left side.

This piece I stitched from a Mill Hill design. It's on perferated paper and has many beads. The skating couple in front of a village was inspiring to me, reminded me of us.

Well, this was yesterday, when the sun was out. The 2 Lumps of Coal are our Labs. They haven't gotten the attention that Miss Abbie has this week but they are still loved.

Well, I'm fixing to wake up Santa so I can get moving on some of this stuff. Outside today is a rainy, gray, misty day, a miserable weather indeed.

Yes, the village would just take my mind right out of war right now. So, it's a must.

This year I found a small outdooor dog kennel.

I have looked for 3 years now for a Vet office for the village. If anyone sees one on Ebay or knows of one at Walmart or such, send me an email. I would really like to add either a Animal Shelter or Vet clinic to our village!!!!!!!

Abbie is calling to play, must go.

Talk later...

Jennifer