Our Family of Five: Christmas' Past...

Bits of my Christmas' past get to be enjoyed in my families Christmas present and future. Let me take you back to some of my wonderful childhood Christmas memories spent at my Grandma's home in Houston, TX... watching the vintage oil light candles bubble on the tree, stuffed musical Christmas animals, sugar coated candy laid out on every table in pretty colored glass bowls, her advent calendar, fancy china used for our HUGE buffet style Christmas dinners, blue furniture, soft couches, listening to records, grandfather clock, chime, chime, chime, the best staircase in the world, white carpet, drinking soda from my Grandpa's bar 'til we popped, chocolate covered marshmallows, rolling my hair in rags so they'd be in ringlets for Christmas morning, driving around looking at themed neighborhood lights, waiting to hear Santa's sleigh bells on the roof, waking so early the next morning with my siblings to sneak a peek before all the adults were up, the mound and when I say mound... I mean a mound of presents under the tree, always longing to be Santa's helper... that meant you got to help Grandpa hand out the presents, we took turns each year, riding vintage bikes around the cud-a-sac, walking down to the park, pine cones, catching lizards, cherry cheesecake and more! The memories are plenty and looking back most were made possible by one woman... My Grandma Greywitt. And it is because of her that some of my Christmas' Past have been brought into our Christmas present and future ones to come. She has graciously given our family her Dept. 56 Snow Village Collection, as well as adding some new pieces to the collection.

I have two traditions that really stand out to this day: one is our annual trip to get sand from the mound, bring it back to the house and fill our paper bags, then we lined the driveway and stick a tea light in them. When nightfall came we'd light the candles and the bags would glow, beautiful! One thing I need to mention, all the houses did this. So a runway of lights was created! You could turn off your headlights and drive slowly around the neighborhood while looking at Christmas lights! This is happily a tradition we still experience every other year. My husband also shares in the memory and his family still carries on the tradition to this day. I love that my children get to experience in a shared tradition. Here we are Christmas 2007 filling and putting the bags out at Grandmother & Grandpa's house!

Seven months pregnant with Ethan:)

I can't believe how much Orion has grown!

The second is a tradition of habit, my Grandmother's Snow Village that she would so carefully place out each year on it's blanket of snow. Everything so tiny and cute, to a little girl it was the ultimate play village, but of course it was for admiring and not touching. I loved sitting and looking into the tiny lit windows of the shops. Little snow bits sprinkled about, it was beautiful! And now as an adult I can appreciate it even more, as the urge to take it all down and play with it in the floor has past, for me anyway. Now my children will be the ones to want to sit and play, and I too will teach them that it's for admiring not touching because I'd love to see it passed down for them to share in their family Christmas' too. So thank you Grandma it means the world to me to have such a strong and present memory to share with my children. This year I have placed it upstairs on top of our computer desk, since I spend time up here sewing and blogging thought I would enjoy it greatly, without the stress and frustration of trying to keep little fingers away. I hope that in future years I'm able to display it on my mantle or sofa table downstairs.

~Dept. 56 Snow Village~

~The Church~

This was one of the pieces she added to the collection.

And I love it!

~Toy Store~

~The Bakery~

~The Apothecary~

~The Cottage~

Another added piece that I love! We all love the the pink Cadillac, my Grandma said that it reminded her of the one I received with my Barbie doll house as a young girl. That was an awesome Christmas... despite it's massive size, my parents still put it together so I could play with while we were staying there... thank you:)

Love the glow from the windows!