YooperVille Goes Back Into the Boxes

I love Christmas~~the lights, the meaning, the cookies, the trees, the snow, the lights, the parties, rummaging through the boxes of stuff from our parents, the lights~~all that stuff makes me happy. So putting away all the stuff makes me not so happy.

I took the tree down on New Year's Day. We always get a live tree and this year's was a doozie. (See my post from 12/xx) It took up so very much of the family room that I decided to take it down earlier than usual. I haven't put the boxes away just yet, since I was birding all day on Jan. 2 and exhausted on Jan. 3 (not to mention DH is sick with bronchitis and very gloomy). We had a bit o' warmth, so the goofy inflatable train and penguin made it as far as the front porch from the front yard. The lights down the driveway stay up all winter, so the school bus can see where our yard is. It really is dark at frickin' 6:30 a.m. when the boys have to get on the bus. I used a lot, and I do mean a lot, of fresh greens all over the house this year. I'm slowing getting those taken down.


But the stuff I hate to pack up and put away the most is my YooperVille Village. Most folks put up nice Victorian villages. Uh uh, not me baby. If I could find shacks with tar paper on 'em, I'd use 'em. As it is, I use Lemax stuff and then change the names on the buildings to suit my own funky taste.

So here's a little tour. I had to cram the stuff differently this year--more stuff and less table. And thanks to blogspot's crappy picture handling stuff, this tour jumps from the UP to here to there and back again. Don't get whiplash trying to follow this.


It started so innocently~~four little fishing shanties from Lemax. I got them on sale at The Andersons on an impulse buy. Dang you Lemax! Now I own dozens of buildings, hundreds of trees, and I plot out ways to use the stuff all year! I'm possessed! I'm obsessed!




I found this addition this year--when I swore I wouldn't buy any more buildings. I had to give it a proper name of course~~there really is a Yooper Tourist Trap! And it's a riot.



Odd things happened in YooperVille this year. One morning I came out and nascar had taken over every building. Then there was the Giant Squid invasion. I'd move it, it came back. I gave up.

A certain someone had to add some other stuff. Hmm, would that be a kid who has lots of O gauge model stuff maybe?

On the back side of YooperVille is West Whereever, Wyotnana. These buildings will be properly named Bucks 4-T next year.
Here in Whitehouse, my friends the Rhoades are the suppliers of the Big D Family tree each year.BadAmy arrived on the scene this year, too. So much for me not buying any new buildings. She wishes she had a house sitting on a mountain.



Molly and Joe, Montana's bestest fishin' huntin' guides, do have a place. Okay, their cabin isn't quite this big, but they do have the biggest hearts. And that's DH's Old Yellow Bus--just like the one he drove in '64. Great stories, those. Ask him to regale you sometime.

Here's a bird's eye view of half of YooperVille, minus the Giant Squid.

But the best part about YooperVille is that we answer the age old question:
Does the Bear poop in the woods?Apparently not if there's an outhouse around.

Holiday Home Tour

We had a nice turnout for the 3rd Annual Whitehouse Community Library Holiday Home Tour last Sunday. Numbers were a little bit down, I think, from past years. In part, it was due to the weather. We finally got some snow and of course it started right at 1 pm when the tour started and by 2 it was really coming down. At our house, we took turns shoveling the front steps.

We not only got the house decorated nicely, but it forced us to get several much needed fix-it/do it projects done. Since we didn't exactly finish the house 15 years ago when we finally moved in, we're now faced with repairs and finishing all at the same time. Among the 'do it' jobs were painting all the closet doors (only one left to do--the pocket door on the pantry), putting up a hand rail on the basement stairs, and trimming the bathtubs. Tom got them all up, now they all need to be painted. I hid several of the ickier looking trims with old woolen Pendelton coats. Yep, buffalo plaid was my decorating scheme. Among the repair jobs was to rebuild the bottom two basement steps. When we had the new floor with hot water heat added, the steps ended up being the wrong height. He made a new set and they look terrific and work terrifically.

And now that the Tour is over, and the house is clean and decorated, I actually got to spend some time sewing up jammie bottoms for the great nieces/nephews. 5 pairs down, 6 to go. I stumbled upon the world's easiest, one piece pattern so I can do one pair in less than an hour. Since the kids will all outgrown these jammies in a month or two, I really whipped through them--no pinked or finished seams, etc., etc.. If only I had some elastic here. Oh well, guess I'll have to make another trip to the fabric shop. After all, I used up my first coupon, and have one that's only good for the weekend. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Things I Wasn't Planning

I'm a list maker. When I make a list the item at the top is always: Make List. Then I get the satisfaction of crossing at least one thing off my list when I'm done.

My list for today included: Make List. Make meatloaf for supper. Email Home Tour map to print shop. Go to Library~~pick up wreaths and take to Invite!. Get check and gift certificates for Home Tour. Go to Print shop and pick up maps. Because of the Tour, I have time-specific things for Friday and Saturday, making today's list pretty important to get through.

Here's the abridged list: Re-decorate the Tree. See rest of list.

At 5 a.m. this morning, DD came into our room and said, "Mom, a bunch of your old special ornaments got broken. The tree fell down. Oh, and there's water all over the carpet." Had his list stopped at 'tree fell down', I'd have gone back to sleep. But DH and I both shot out of bed at the one about the water.

Damn.

For me decorating the tree is a process. We always get a live tree from our friends~~Rhoades Christmas Tree Farm in Whitehouse. FTD's Scout troop helps out cutting and lugging trees for the customers and in return the owner makes a generous donation to the troop. DH and FTD have spent Sunday mornings in December over there for the past 4 or 5 years. This year, FTD didn't sign up for a shift working, but we did go pick out our tree. Much to my surprise and delight, both boys actively helped out picking just the right one. We have criteria: can't be a pokey tree. Can't be any taller than DH can reach. Must be fat, but not too fat to fit in the family room. Since our home is on the Whitehouse Library Home Tour this year, I gave the boys the option of putting a ginormous tree in the living room~~a good 12 footer, or a regular one where we always do. I was sure they'd go for ginormous. Again to my surprise, they want it where it's always supposed to be. How sweet.

We slayed the tree and brought it home last Sunday. It went up easily and this year we didn't prune much off the bottom, since there won't be many presents under it. And the boys got an actual chuckle when I told them that they both asked for stuff like video games, which take up no room at all. They both laughed and got my point. (Verra verra unusual that.)

We let the tree stretch out it's branches for a day or two and then put on the lights. Then the pretty little angel on top. Then the snowmen garland, then the red bead garland, and then the ornaments, all of which is done over a couple of days.

This year I decided to do something super special, partly for the home tour, but mostly because the boys would get it~~I got the ornaments from my Mom and Dad's out. I showed them the Woolworth and Shiny Brite boxes and told them which were Dad's special ornaments and which were Mom's. The boys haven't had a knock-down-drag-out fight in the house for a long time, and I figured the ornaments would be safe this year. So much for best laid plans of mice and men.

I don't have time to grieve over the loss of a dozen or so glass bulbs. There will be time for that when I pack the boxes away in January. But grieve I will. For a part of my childhood that's gone, for the ever present grief of missing parents and especially the boys' grandparents, and partly for my life now which never, ever goes as planned.