Boy do I need to catch up. Christmas around here is, as usual, extremely busy. We got all the lights put up by the 6th of December but took until a week before Christmas before the inside was done, and even then there were more things to add to and fix. Finally just relaxed and let them go undone.

We did have a nice Christmas though. Tom's Mom and David came down and we had Roast for Christmas eve dinner then turkey and dressing for Christmas day dinner. We tried to make it as simple as possible but still spent 2 whole days in the kitchen cooking. Wonder if we will ever start early enough to get it all done before the last minute. Our town, Big Spring, TX, has a festival of lights each year so we went to see that. Very pretty. Lots of giant candy canes and poinsettias.

I made ornaments for everyone this year, and some gift baskets for the ones that weren't here. That was kind of fun. Haven't ever done that before so made game time baskets for the sports fans with Chex party mix, pkg's of microwave popcorn, pkgs of instant cocoa and cups, and fudge and magic cookie bars. Did a similar one for movie night for the non sports fanatics. If I had planned ahead a little more I would have included some mugs and napkins but was a last minute idea.

The ornaments I made are folded star and so much fun to make. I sold quite a few of them on ebay and plan to sell them on my new etsy site.

A while back I posted that I didn't sell any of the little lamps I made but guess the timing was just off as I relisted them closer to Christmas and sold quite a few. Have put the rest of them on my etsy site and will be making more stuff to sell on there.

Here is the link to my etsy site.

GleamingDollhouse.etsy.com

Here are a couple of videos of our house this Christmas, kind of blurry but you get the idea. The Christmas trees are live trees we bought in years past. There are 10 in all. We haven't been able to buy trees the past few years as no money, maybe we can start again someday.

Here are some pics of the house where you can get an idea of how many lights we put up and how much work we put into it. I still enjoy it and wish i could just leave it up all year but the weather would destroy it all. I do have plenty of storage space though and I enjoy putting it all away and organizing it almost as much as putting it all up Here are the ornaments I have been making, or rather a sample of them. I started real late but sold almost all I made. I have plans to make them all year and have some great ideas for making them with pics like the Coke ones, dogs, horses, letters, etc. Maybe can get enough made to sell at a craft show or two as well.