The Christmas village

There are a lot of meanings of "village" at this time of year.  There are the neighbors and the friends I've made online, my work team and then there are Rob's Christmas villages, where nothing ever goes wrong and they sing carols into the night with wassail and fruitcake to sustain them.  

He built this stand this year so he could display his victorian village better.  It looks WONDERFUL and I know he's very proud of it.  

Here are some close-ups.  The neighbors came over the other day and saw it and he told them stories about what the characters were up to.  

And, here is his Retroville village.  With the availability of cars, these folks really get around.  

Let it be said that no one likes a diorama like my husband does.  We go all out for holiday decorating.  

Rob's been out of town this weekend, so I decided it was a good time to bake Christmas cookies.  What a maroon I am.  Not only did I have all the regular chores and the weekend chores, and paying attention to the animals so they wouldn't feel abandoned, but I was trying to make 10 dozen cookies.  Even taking Friday off, there was not time.  This was as far as I got.  I spread a clean table cloth over the whole thing and walked away.  Everything is outlined so just needs to be filled in and I need to come up with a brown food coloring for the gingerbread men.  Then, it's just details, like buttons and eyes and striping the candy canes.  I've got one more night to see how much progress I can make and how much table I can clear off before he gets home.  

A friend has been posting pictures of the most delicious looking small pizzas and I wanted to give it a try.  I made veggie pizza two nights in a row.  The second night looked much better than the first, but both were delicious.  And, the crust was perfect!!  That's always our complaint about take out pizza.  

He shared his dough recipe and said it made a great bread and sometimes he adds cheese.  Well, that was too tempting, so I made it yesterday afternoon.  I let it rise twice and should only have let it go once (doesn't follow directions well) so it's not very big and pretty, but it was so good that I ate half the loaf last night.  I love bread.

The camellias are in bloom.  They're so beautiful, especially on these grey cloudy days.  They remind me of the camellias that bloomed in front of my Grandparent's house.  I do enjoy having something in bloom almost year round.  

And, there was this late rose, which I cut and brought inside to enjoy.  

We've got neighbors that decorate as much as we do.  Maybe more.  This is just their front yard.  Who knows what's inside.  

I had to go to the office on Thursday to pack up my desk to move to our new location.  I'll have half the space at the office, which means half the incentive to go there.  And, since there was almost no incentive before...  I packed up what was at my old desk and carried a box of personal stuff to the new desk.  Needless to say, it's not going to fit, so next time I go up there, it will be to unpack a few things and re-pack all the stuff I'll need to bring home.  Anyway, I hope the lady that complained about where we sat is happy.  Very, very happy.  

Everybody have a great week!  I hope you're enjoying the build up to the holidays.  And, next year, right around Thanksgiving, can someone please remind me that I DON'T NEED TO MAKE 10 DOZEN COOKIES EVER AGAIN!!  And, if I do, the broken ones are not really calorie free?

Lane