Are You a Village Person?

No, I'm not going to lead us all in a rousing chorus of YMCA, but you have to admit it's the first thing that comes to mind when I say 

Village People.

Are you one?

I admit, I am not.

My aunt had 2 villages, I think the Dickens and the North Pole and she had many pieces.  I always admired them and whenever I see them all set out in the store I love to look at all of the details.

But I never wanted one.

It requires a lot of space both to set up and to store.

I have lots and lots of other things I collect for Christmas.

And, I don't have the knack for display that is very much needed to make an interesting village.

With all of that being said,

let me introduce you to my village.

{sorry blurry pic, but I couldn't retake as the light got worse as the day wore on and it doesn't really matter as my display actually looks better if you can't see the details.}  

In case you can't tell, it's a Disney village.

My grands love the little villages that they have at their house.

So when I saw this Disney village that was it.  We have taken them to Disney the past 3 Januarys.  We are skipping this year because we weren't sure how Claire would do.  { You have to book so far in advance.  And there is that pesky thing called school too;-( }

But we plan to go in January 2015!!

So far I have 3 houses, with 1 more ordered and the plans are to have 5, one for each grand.  

They are really cute, and all of the accessories are cute too ~ just don't think I like it in my family room.

But it's here for this year and perhaps next year it will get moved upstairs to the kid zone.  With a couple of little kiddos we need to have it where we can keep our eye on it for now.

So, I still don't think I am a village person, but what I won't do to get the grandchildren all excited:-)

I'm almost done with the Christmas decorating.  13 tubs down, 7 to go.

Joining Richella for her Grace at Home Party.

Deck the Mini Halls

I took advantage of our beautiful weather to get my outdoor decorating done.  

The little house is ready for Christmas.

On the outside I have the same greens and wreath I've had for a few years.  They are all getting a little tired so perhaps I will get some new next year.

We talk about actually getting a different house next year, Bob will be retired and I think that would be a great project for him:-)

I love the look of this one though, and we don't have a very big area to expand.  The main problem with this one is the ceiling is too low.  So maybe we would sacrifice the porch and raise the roof.

I do have a lot of projects for him though so we will see where this one lands on the list:-)

The porch is cute, but wasted space.

I do love the heart window and this year I added some battery candles to the chandelier.  

Inside, it remains the same.

My vintage trays and the little tree snow globes I made last year adorn the shelf.

The tree and baking things fill the table.

My grandma's vintage mistletoe and elf hang from the ceiling.

This cute countdown is from the $ bin at Target.

This is the perfect spot for it.

That little peppermint light string that is so cutely hung with masking tape still lights up and plays music after 3 years.  I don't even take the batteries out ~ I can't believe it's not corroded.

How fun to introduce Claire to the playhouse!

It is just her size.

1 tub emptied, 19 to go.

I'm joining Richella for her Grace at Home Party,

and Maria Elena for her Tuesdays at Our Home Party.

Christmas Fun Begins

Our season began a little early this year, which suits me just fine.

We always take the grands to a Christmas play.  This year The Grinch was playing the weekend before Thanksgiving and so Bob and I bravely took the oldest 4 to the theatre.

The weather was very dicey that day, and we kept checking the radar to see if the dreaded ice was coming.  Our temperature hovered a few degrees above freezing so their moms let us take them.

{No way we would make that decision!  We always let the parents decide:-) }

And we were happy that it did not get icey and we were able to get there and back easily.  Or as easily as you can with 4 little ones.

The cold did prevent me from getting a good shot of the kids outside the theatre.  By the time we walked there we were all just a bit frozen so we just went into our seats.

You are not allowed to photograph during the show so I was only able to get this shot.

The show was adorable and the sets and costumes were so Dr. Seussish ~ we all loved it.

While we waited for the show to start I tried to get a few shots of the kids. 

This is what you get ~ 3 wiggly boys and 1 quiet girl:-)

Before we went to the show we had a few grinchy treats.

Ben and Elizabeth helped me make green chocolate chip cookies.  YUM

No one quite knew what our fruit was supposed to be ~ can't you tell it's the Grinch with a Santa hat?!

I served their little grinchy snack on these little snack sets I got at GW.  You see them every where at antique malls for about 4 or 5 dollars each, so when I saw a set of 7 for only $7 I had to buy them.

The cups were rimmed in green sugar.

Then for our grinch punch I used this green pop and ice cream.

It doesn't sound very appetizing to me but my gang thought it was delicious!

It's perfect isn't it?

So now with our Thanksgiving feast over, and our first holiday event under our belt we are ready to celebrate in earnest.

Tomorrow the goal is to finish decorating the trees.  Wish me luck!