Christmas Day - After The Presents Are Opened

There was so much joy and laughter in this room a short while ago. It is quiet for now as every is busy getting ready to go to church on this most holy day. They have not forgotten the true meaning of Christmas.

When they return, the room will again ring with sound as Julie tries to restore some order to the room and get the rest of the family to help her tidy up.

Later Gramma and Grampa Anderson will come over for the Turkey Dinner. What a wonderful day!

We are all ready for Santa.

The family gathers around the Christmas tree for a quiet moment on Christmas Eve. Everything has been prepared and they look forward to Christmas Day.

The presents are wrapped and under the tree and Jennifer and Christopher eagerly anticipate what is in them.

Their stockings are hung by the chimney with care and the snack for Santa and Rudolph is all ready.

The baking is all done and the house is full of delicious aromas. Julie and David are content with their family and their life as they relax and enjoy the moment with the children.

Christmas Kitchen

I did not complete Julie's story before Christmas because of real life. My daughter and grandson spent Christmas day with us and we had a very nice quiet day together. Her husband was in the states and unable to be with us. Then I had my whole family here for boxing day and it was wonderful. I have three children and four grandchildren. I do not see my grandchildren very often so it really is a special occasion when we all get together. My eldest son and his daughter even stayed overnight so I had a wonderful three days. And the children had a terrific time playing with Brandy.

Back to Julie's house. While Julie was wrapping presents if you remember, she could smell wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen. Her mother Barbara and her Gramma Anderson were busy baking for Christmas.

Gramma Anderson had to go out to buy more supplies as they had used so much more than they expected. The prep area is a little messy but that happens when you are busy. The gingerbread men are now all done.

Barbara has just taken another pie out of the oven. She baked a cherry pie earlier but Barbara's husband Peter took a slice before she could stop him.

The Christmas log is done as well as the cherry cake and the chocolate suckers for the children. The jam covered sugar cookies are almost done. There is going to be a lot of variety this year

The sugar cookies and cupcakes were made earlier and the children iced them and added the sprinkles. They also made a plate up ready for Santa.

Julie is very much like me and does not like cooking and baking so it was wonderful that others were willing to help out. (A lot if the baked goods came from swaps and gifts)

Have a wonderful Holiday

Christmas is over but the holiday spirit continues. May everyone have a wonderful time.

Merry Christmas

My husband, Brandy and I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best wishes for the New Year. May it be happy, healthy and safe.

And to all my friends around the world, may your holidays and celebrations be very happy and joyful in the manner in which you celebrate.

Peace and goodwill to all no matter where you live or how you celebrate this season.

Wrapping Gifts

While the children are finishing off the tree and David is busy shoveling snow, Julie is quickly wrapping up the presents. So the dining room is out of bounds for everyone at the present moment.



The presents are starting to pile up ready to go under the tree. Julie wants to get them under the tree as soon as possible.



Christmas cards are starting to arrive from family and friends. That is the next job that Julie has to tackle. She is slow getting her cards out this year.



One of Julie's favorite Christmas pieces is the ivory creche that she sets up in the dining room. Next year she may make a better setting for it.



As Julie works, she can smell delicious aromas coming from the kitchen. Julie is not much of a kitchen person, so she was so happy that her mother and her gramma came over to do some Christmas baking.

Living Room is ready for Christmas

Julie and David finally decided on the pictures for the walls. The two with the blue matting had to be eliminated because the blue just did not look good in this room. Jennifer is quite pleased because both pictures were the ones that she had chosen.

Jennifer and Christopher are putting the final touches to the tree while David is outside shovelling the snow and Julie has gone to wrap the presents. If you look through the window, you can see that Gramma is just coming back from the store. She is going to be doing some Christmas baking and making lots of Christmas cookies.

The creche scene from Petra in Germany looks great on the end table and the Swedish candle from Brigetta in Sweden finish off the room perfectly.

There will still need to be a few things added things before Christmas eve. The presents will have to be put under the tree and a table will need to be put in for Santa's snack.

(I will try to sneak a picture of Julie doing the wrapping. She has the dining room in a mess with paper and boxes all over the place.)

Paintings for the Living Room

I was getting ready to take pictures of the Christmas decorations in the living room and thought there was something missing. The room looked cold and unfinished. Then I realized that the walls were bare. I never got the pictures finished. This was a job that I started but kept putting off. Well I can't take my Christmas pictures until I get the room finished so I finally finished the pictures.

The first set was the large painting to go over the chesterfield. I finally settled on three scenes that I liked and now Julie and David are arguing on which one they should use. I think I caused a problem here. Even Jennifer got in the act and she likes the third one. ( I think I like the one Jennifer is holding best.)

Then I needed a painting for over the fireplace and another for the corner. Again I chose my favorite three and again David and Julie (and Jennifer) have a difference of opinion.

Up to now Julie and David have agreed on everything and this is the first time they have argued. Well I am sure they will work it out and maybe they can even change the paintings with the seasons.

Christopher is up in his room writing his letter to Santa and he could care less which paintings go on the walls.

There Are Angels Around

When I posted about Brandy destroying one of my favorite miniatures I was rather upset. Then I received an e-mail from someone I have never met. Her name is Mandy and she is a Christmas Angel!

Mandy has that same piece from Reutter and she has offered to send it to me. Mandy also has dogs and knows first hand how they can destroy a thing or two. She said that she would like to share some of her good fortune. How wonderful that is.

Thank you so much Mandy. It is wonderful to know that angels still exist.

Dissappointed

As many of you know, I make almost everything in my dollhouse. But I did have a few really nice pieces that I treasured, and one of them was a flower arrangement from Reutter Porzellan. I have not yet learned how to make flowers and even so, I could not make them as delicate as these.

While I was decorating my dollhouse for Christmas, I removed the flower arrangement from the dining room to replace it with a Christmas center piece. All the items that I temporarily removed from the dollhouse were in a small box that I put on my desk.

When I got up this morning I saw Brandy chewing on something and when I went to check it out I found it was my porcelain flowers.

Rusty has a habit of stealing things off of my desk and he must have stolen my flowers. We have had to hide most of Rusty's toys because he always takes them and drops them in front of Brandy. At least when Rusty took something it was misplaced, not destroyed. Now I will have to be even more careful because between them both I could have a lot more destroyed.

As I can not afford to buy lovely things like this for my house this is quite a tragedy for me. I would not have minded quite so much if it was something that I could have replaced myself. Oh well at least I still have the container and there are still some flowers intact.

The River Is Still

We have not had as much snow as we did the same time last year but it must be much colder as the river has already started to freeze over. Last year the river did not freeze until February.

Meanwhile, around the house Brandy and Rusty are usually found side by side. They are going to be great pals.

However Misty still keeps her distance. But she is curious enough to stick her nose in every once in awhile.

My First Christmas Card and Present

I am soooo pleased! I received my very first Christmas card today and it is extra special because it is handmade and there was a beautiful handcrafted angel inside. It comes from a dear friend that I have never met and yet I feel very close to. Kim from Flowers and Art sent it to me and it means so much. Thank you Kim!! She is beautiful!

The Fireplace Is Done

The fireplace decorations are now in place. Julie does have stockings for her and David but she thought it would be too cluttered to have four stockings up. Jennifer and Christopher are the important ones.

The nutcracker was a Christmas swap I received and I made the little snow scene with tiny buttons. The candles are wire covered with red gallery glass. And I won those beautiful tiny lace doilies in a pass it on challenge.

David took a moments rest and looked through Julie's cook book to see what delicious treats he would like her to make.

The dog Spike loves to sit in front of the fireplace.

The Christmas Tree Is Decorated

Julie, David, Jennifer and Christopher had a great time decorating the Christmas Tree. Christopher can't wait to put his paper chain on it and Jennifer is dreaming of all the lovely things she will get on Christmas day. (If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see the ornaments much easier.)

Making Wreaths

Julie wanted to make some wreaths to put on the railings outside so she found the perfect size of greenery to use. And she also found some great red berries to add to the wreaths.

However Rusty also likes greenery and he tried to take it away from her. Julie won out and Rusty left to find Brandy.

She finally got the wreaths done and now it is time to take them outside and attach them to the posts and railings.

She added ribbon to all the post and railings but it was a little too hard for her to reach up high enough to attach them to the top of the posts.

David came out and attached the wreaths on the posts while Julie attached them to the railings.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

The Decorating Has Begun

Now that the snow has fallen, Julie and David wasted no time in starting the decorations. Julie started by putting up the wreath on the front door. She might make a new wreath later but this will do for now.

While Julie was doing the wreath, David put out the creche. The snow is rather deep but it is quite warm so they really did not need their coats for such a beautiful day. (In any case, they did not have and coats. I'm going to have to learn how to make clothes for them.) David is also going to have to get the snow shovel out.

They then hung the icicles up. David is not being too safe by standing on a chair but he does not have a ladder so he uses what is handy. Julie helps by handing up the icicles to him. They had coloured lights out last year but decided to just go with the icicles this year to save electricity.



The children are so happy to be able to make a snowman and they are dressed appropriately for playing in the snow. David sets up the sleigh and puts presents in it. Julie might put decorations on that tree later once David has shoveled the snow.




Julie has a few bad moments of terror as she watches David up on the roof. She is so afraid that he will fall. He does not take proper safety precautions and just plows ahead with whatever he is doing.

David lets Julie know that he is fine and is well anchored on the peak. "How does this look from down there? Should I angle them more? I think next year I will have to make a larger set as this is too small but it will do for this year."

Julie and David decide that they have done enough for one day and they sit down and relax while watching the children play with their snowman. Julie still has to make some wreaths and decorations for the railings but this is enough for today.

Winter Is Here

Julie and David woke up to a white world this morning. "See I told you we had to get those Halloween decorations in!!! We got them in just in time. Now we can start with the winter decorations and getting ready for Christmas." Thank goodness David does not mind as he loves decorating just as much as Julie does.

Now I will let you in on how I achieved the winter scene. First I covered the house with thin white quilting batting.



Then I used cotton stuffing to give a shape of snow drifts and add fullness.






Then I added loose snow flakes that you buy at Christmas time for making snow scenes with. I used Buffalo snow flakes and then sprinkled sparkled snow over the top of that.



Finally I added some artificial trees to help set the scene. Now it is ready for Julie and David to add the decorations.