A little toy village

I found my Christmas spirit today and have been decorating all day long. This little toy village was handmade for me by my mother and sister. We grew up with this village under my mother's tree and later she made me one for my very own. Don't forget you can enlarge each photo if you really want to go inside Christmas Village...


My sister's childhood song of the Little Toy Village haunts my mother and I as we put up our villages at Christmas. She used to sing that song all the time and I have never been able to find all the words to it...

"There's a little toy village, underneath the tree.
Sweetest little town you will ever see.
There's a Little Toy Village underneath the tree
And it comes to life on Christmas."

If anyone does know it, I would love to have all the words. Perhaps these carolers know them?


These boys are having a grand snowball fight at the pond in front of the toy shop. Of course, in Christmas Village, the toy shop is the largest building in town.


Carolers and bell ringers are everywhere...


People are busy preparing for Christmas and searching for just that right tree to bring home. Uh oh boys! Watch out as the school master is on his way to the village square.


And just what are these little rascals getting into?


Do you have your yule log ready for Christmas eve to keep you warm?

Don't you wish you lived in Christmas Village?

Santa and nostalgic moments...

I love reworking an area of the house to make it look seasonal. I especially love sideboards as there is lots of space to really be creative. Our Christmas sideboard is now ready for the holidays...


My wall above the sideboard is normally where I have my little collection of silhouettes hanging. I love antique Santa cards and have a number of them framed. I would look for gilt frames each year to add another Santa postcard. This year, I worked them out so they could replace the silhouettes.


I had one nail that I could not find a small enough frame to fit well so I hung a very special card that was sent to me by my sister many years ago. I keep this card hanging on my hutch all year round to think of her.


She sent it to me once just because, as she wrote on the back, she said she was missing me. This is a real treasure to me now that she has passed on. I can just peek at her handwriting and it makes me smile!


I am setting things out a little more simply this year. I wanted a change in how I was using things. A few choice items placed just right...




I hope you turn up your speakers and enjoy the Christmas medley from the movie White Christmas. We were talking about this movie on my online stitching list and I could not resist to give everyone a nostalgic music interlude. Hope you enjoy it!

A Sunday of peace

The second Sunday of Advent is a symbol of peace. I have lit my second candle today on our table.


Peace is a word that many talk about in these troubling days but what does it mean personally to you? For me, it is another word for home. I think when you have a haven to be in that makes you feel comfortable and complete, it gives you peace. How can that not but affect how you are in your daily interactions in your own area of the world? If we all felt peace in our own homes, perhaps more peace on this earth would exist? I would like to think that the peace I have created in my home reflects out to those who come to my home.


These posts each Sunday until Christmas are meant to provoke you to think about your own life and things that mean something to you. I hope will stop by and leave a comment and tell me what you think about home and peace. I would love to hear your reflections...

'Pakjesavond' in Holland

Here it is! 'Pakjesavond' in Holland. The night all little children have been waiting for weeks for with excitement and anticipation. The night that SinterKlaas will land on his white horse on the rooftops and lower a burlap sack full of gifts to all the good little boys and girls. They don't even have to wait until morning to open the gifts.


Who is SinterKlaas? You can read about him here in a blog post I wrote back in 2006.


The Sint is the Dutch version of Santa Claus but also very much connected to who everyone now knows and loves as Santa. Read about this connection here in an entry I wrote last year.


I am afraid I have enjoyed playing Zwarte Piet this year and even just delivered a surprise to someone. *grins* If you live here in Holland, I wish you a warm and fun 'Pakjesavond', and if you don't, how about drinking a cup of hot chocolate and having a ginger spice cookie today to honor the Dutch SinterKlaas.

My nutcracker prince

What child is not mesmerized by the Nutcracker Prince? What child does not want to escape the Land of Sweets and dance with the Sugarplum Fairy? What child is not amazed as they watch the Snowflakes dance? Or Clara fight off the Rat King? Or Fritz being ... well Fritz. (I had a Fritz in real life. You know that annoying little brother. Only his name was not Fritz. *grins*)


This is my collection of nutcrackers that I set up each year in December.


I had loved the Nutcracker ballet and when Jos and I went to Seiffen, Germany many years ago for the first time, I was able to buy a genuine nutcracker there. We loved visiting this pretty Christmas village where nutcrackers originated and it is Christmas every day of the year.


Since then, my collection has grown considerably. I set it up each year in our laundry room with is also our cloak room. Everyone goes in there to hang up their coats and lingers to look at the nutcrackers.


There are caroling nutcrackers...


...a miner or Santa himself...


...the Nutcracker Prince and his father the King...


...a shephard, a guard and a hermit...


...or if I became a nutcracker, this would be me I think, a mushroom gatherer...

Advent - a season of anticipation

This year has been a true celebration of the seasons and all that nature has to offer. I feel that blogging has brought me closer in my wanting to move with the treasures of each season and not rush along. So this year, with each Advent Sunday, I will focus on a 'virtual' candle and reflect on what Christmas means to me while sharing some photos of my home.


I waited to start decorating so I have only decorated the entrance hall of my house so far. The first advent candle is traditionally the candle of Expectation or Hope. I found by waiting that my feeling of expectation resembles that of what I felt as a little girl. I was most excited about being able to start setting up the tree. I was bursting while waiting for my mother to say it could go up.


My brother's birthday is on December 17th and my mother made us wait until then. Oh how hard that was! One year, I asked her if I could set it up earlier that year and she said only if I was going to do it all myself. I did and happily. My father, who was from German descent, loved telling us that he never saw the tree until Christmas eve. His parents would set it up in a closed room and only let them see it when it was finished. Thank goodness he did not follow that tradition or I would have burst each year from expectation.


My expectations of Christmas have altered over the years. My husband and I no longer exchange gifts. We pick out two charities and donate money at Christmas. We are grateful that we have so much and feel that Christmas should now be about sharing that with others.


Regardless of your nationality or religion, maybe you can spend some time this week reflecting on your own expectations and hopes for the holidays. I hope it is not spent only in the hustle and bustle of shopping, baking and decorating but also thinking about what makes Christmas important.


I found this quote on the internet and felt it was good to pass on to you today for this first advent as SinterKlaas or St. Nicolaas is this week in Holland. Ponder this in the coming week:

A St. Nicholas’ Note . . . Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac (adapted)

"It is fitting that the feast of St. Nicholas comes at the beginning of Advent and the beginning of the shopper’s season. As the patron saint of shoppers he proclaims, ‘Keep it simple!’ Keep it simple enough to fit in a shoe or a stocking.

"One gift that could fit in a…shoe, or in a stocking hanging on the fireplace, is a note that speaks of one of our most precious gifts, the gift of time. Such a St. Nicholas note might read: ‘The gift I give to you is half an hour of quality conversation each night right after the dishes are done.’ Or, ‘The gift I give to you is one Saturday a month to be with you and do whatever you want to do.’ We can appreciate the value of such a gift if we keep in mind that according to a recent survey, the average married couple in America has only 30 minutes a week of communication outside of exchanges that take place at the dinner table, and between parent and child is only 14 minutes. As you can see, the possibilities are almost unlimited for these St. Nicholas shoe gifts.

"Come, St. Nicholas, patron of shoppers and gift-seekers, and make Christmas this year fun, creative and love-filled."



On a separate note, this is what our drive home from Cranberry Cottage looked like. It was snowing heartily in the north. As we drove farther south, it turned to rain but we enjoyed a little bit of a winter wonderland.

Goodbye to autumn.....

For me, Thanksgiving has one more meaning. It is an end to autumn. I am always very thankful for autumn and all its glories. It is the most colorful and scent filled season, from the parade of colors on the trees to harvest time's bounty to forest woods magical show of toadstools.


I am sad to say goodbye to autumn 2008 but look forward to the new autumn of next year. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal last night and I put some symbols of autumn's bounty on our dinner table.


I am looking forward to winter and hope like a little girl would for some snow days. I started my holiday decorating now. With my next entry, I will start sharing some of the festive corners of my home.

I hope you also had a wonderful autumn and are excited for the upcoming holidays?



"How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colors gleaming in the sun.

At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow."

~ Elsie N. Brady, Leaves

A day of thanks!

I wish this could be me today bringing my mother a bouquet of pretty mums. She always loved them. But instead, I will close my eyes and think about her today ~ Thanksgiving Day! I am thinking of those things I am thankful for and there are many. I decided to dedicate this post to something I continue to be thankful for each and every day ~ my mother. She is a wonderful friend to me as well as a guiding light as a mother. I am glad that even though I am not really into many modern things of this day and age, the computer gives me the chance to be in contact with my mother every day at the click of a button. We no longer feel we are an ocean apart when we can talk to each other daily and share little things. Perhaps today, you can take a moment to contact someone in your family or a dear friend that you are thankful for...

Meet Mr. Turkey! He was a gift made for me by my very dear aunt. She passed away a couple of years ago but this little fellow she created spends each Thanksgiving with us. He looks over our dinner table and sheds a tear for his long lost cousin on our table. *grins* That is if I get to the grocery store to buy our turkey. We can buy a turkey breast here so I don't have to wait hours for it to roast. I am breaking tradition and not having pie for dessert. I really feel like having warm tapioca which gives me a feeling of home. My little brother and I would dance and sing the tapioca song when my mother made it for us. I decided that it was the perfect way to close off our Thanksgiving meal this year.

I wish you all a warm and happy Thanksgiving Day!

Creating cozy...

This is what happens when one season melts into another. Today we are having snow which is unusual for us in November.


While we were still in the throws of autumn, the winter has appeared and the Snow Queen has placed her white cloak over our garden.


To me, autumn and winter are times to make a home cozy and with our new furniture, I find myself moving things around trying to find the best way to use things now.


And with this, last week I moved one of my sideboards out of the room as it was just too full. I then moved the sideboard I normally use behind the couch to the wall near our woodstove.


A winter roses tapestry tablerunner, chocolate colored lampshades and a floral arrangement with red carnations, branches and berries give a cozy and warm glow to the living room.

A piece of my handmade bobbin lace works well with one of the miniature portraits in my collection.


A magnifying glass for examining things just that little bit closer.

For years, I have had this sideboard set up to look like a writing desk. I have always enjoyed the look of it like this so was a little weary to change it. Now I am pleased with how this corner of my living room has turned out so I am glad I did change it.


Still not wanting to rush the season, regardless of the snow, our autumn tree is in a new corner of the dining area of the room. It lights up a very dark spot and makes it nice to sit there for our dinners. I am not going to start any holiday decorating until December has come but this creates a festive mood for the current season.