Over the years, I have collected a few of the Village houses that are sold at JoAnn's. For a while, I would get a new one every year, usually in the after Christmas markdown sale. I tried to buy houses that reflected something going on in our lives. Of course, this is the one that started it all:
Look! The door is open. Wouldn't you like to go inside?
The next year, I got the little Stone Church. I love how it has a little manger scene out on the front of the building.
At some point, they issued a second Quilt Shop, so, of course I chose that one to add.
I love the little quilts draped over the porch railings. Wouldn't you like to live in this village that has TWO quilt shops?
I haven't added any new houses in the past couple of years, because I ran out of room on the table to display them. But, this year, I just HAD to add one more. Can you guess which one? Here it is:
This was my nod to the new addition in our family this past year.
Toby is actually being pretty good about leaving the trees alone, now that he has grown accustomed to them. When we first put up the big tree, I started by laying down the tree skirt, and in 2 seconds flat, Toby had settled right in on it.
Notice the ever present tennis ball!
We made a few changes, like putting the Nativity scene up on the mantel rather than on a low table, but so far it's been easier than I thought. We'll see how he handles all the paper and bows on Christmas morning!