Teleidoscope

Fri, Dec 07, 2007

Beginning to look a lot like...

Posted at 9:37 pm MST to Weather

My schedule has been very hectic this week, since I was working for both my on-site customer, and mornings and evenings for a remote customer. And I had a dental appointment Monday evening and a user group meeting last night that ran long: I didn't get home until after 10pm.

Today there was snow on the ground at dawn but the roads didn't turn out to be too bad when I drove to my on-site customer. When I drove home at noon time, the snow had mostly stopped, but the snow clouds were sitting on the ridge here, so it was very foggy.

I have to be escorted when I'm on the site and they were having their holiday party, so I had the afternoon off. It was nice to have a little time off. But it is frustrating only being able to work on the on-site project in occasional 3 hour chunks: it seems like I just get some momentum when I have to leave.

After lunch I went over to Nanette's for a cup of tea and a nice long chat. They have the farm decorated with lots of lights, and they already have their Christmas tree up and a gingerbread house on the coffee table. I think that combined with the snow to finally put me into a holiday mood.

I've done a little already: I brought holiday cards and stocking-stuffer presents for Shawn and our employees to the meeting yesterday, and I've bought some gifts...

I stopped at a couple of stores after leaving Nanette's and made some more progress on the shopping, even though the snow never really stopped and actually picked up a bit after dark. One of the stores was McGuckins Hardware, which has a wonderful Christmas ornament department and great kitchen stuff as well things you'd expect to find in a hardware store.

They are predicting more snow for tomorrow and Sunday, and I still need to buy a few more things. But if the weather is bad for the weekend I can spend the time decorating the house and wrapping the presents I've already bought. If I can get the out-of-state stuff shipped Tuesday morning (I can't be on-site until after lunch) I'll be in good shape.

I need to reorganize the house to make room for the decorations, too. Buying a tree next weekend isn't going to work if there in no place to put it.

And I've added some pieces to my winter Village, so I'll need a larger space for it. I added a blacksmith for my blacksmith shop, and a waiting customer and horse, and some carolers for the Dickens' Christmas Carol side of things. I also got a sparkly white 'snow' mat and some trees so it will look a little more like a landscape and less like a bunch of stuff on a shelf.

All of my pieces are by a company called Department 56, but I'm mixing pieces from their Dickens Village and New England Village lines. So far I have:

HollyBerry Cottage
Chas. Hoyt Blacksmith (that's the smithy)
A Christmas Carol Visit (Scrooge and the 3 ghosts)
Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim
The Big Prize Turkey (Poulterer's stall, with man holding the turkey and a boy)

The Hitching Post (Horse and owner)
Town Blacksmith (hammering a horse shoe)
Christmas Carolers
Village accessories (that's the trees)
The snow mat.

I may eventually get some more landscaping stuff: they make little shrubs and paving and bits of stone walls and street lamps and such. They make a Halloween Village that might have some gravestones for the Ghost of Christmas Future to lurk among. A horse and sleigh or horse and carriage might be nice. too, but I'm not sure I have room for them. I really need to find a better place for the village than I had last year. Especially if I ever want to add any more buildings.

Another piece I need to add this year is a big tub to store all the village piece in their big styrofoam coffins. They won't really fit into my other ornament-storage tubs, and they deserve a home of their own so they won't be lost or damaged in the off season, or colonized by the dratted mice.

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