So John did make it to Virginia for Christmas, but what a production it was! I drove up to Jersey on Christmas Eve to get him. The store was supposed to close at 3pm, however as usual exactly at 3 a flood of never-ending people began to stream in. Even when they were told “We closed at 3, please be quick if you need something” they weren’t! It’s one of the reasons I never shop the day of a major holiday anywhere, because those people want to go home to their families too.

We finally left around 5pm, exactly when the snow and sleet came into the area. So that made for a slow commute. We were on schedule to get in at 8:10ish according to the gps . . . until we hit a huge accident on 495. Of course this accident was 15 miles from my home in Virginia, and it apparently happened only minutes ahead of us at the exit we were coming up on. Therefore there was no way for us to get off the highway, and all 4 lanes ended up shut down for about 2 1/2 hours. We had no choice but to sit there and wait. We finally got in at about 10:30. Oy!

We got a little Christmas Eve snow, and then some day after Christmas snow, but no Christmas snow and nothing that amounted to much. Below are a few fun photos I took as well as scanned of a little me.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2013!

So given the whole end of the world thing that was supposed to be going on today, I decided to put out the entire village of Bethlehem. It’s been about two years since I dragged them all out. There are so many, and it’s such a chore. If we ever get the two downstairs guest rooms cleared out and set up (I’m making it part of John’s time off project this year) then I hope to eventually get some kind of display cabinet or shelf for them all. It can just be Christmas year round for that part of the house!

So I have traveled home to Virginia for the holidays. HOPEFULLY John will be here Christmas Eve, though the weather forecast is starting to look bad for travel. Right now they’re calling for snow/sleet on Wednesday, and Christmas Eve and Christmas are a 50/50 rain/snow shot right now. It’s too early to know, it could go either way.

The surprise for my mom that I talked about in my last post was completing our vintage chalkware nativity set. It belonged to my great grandma and was made in France. We were always missing one of the wise-men, and the Baby Jesus was some wax thing that wasn’t original. I got both, a lot of new animals that we didn’t have space for, and the weird guy all the way to the right in the photo. Ali Baba? The Inn Keeper?

My mom got a larger tree for all my sci-fi ornaments this year. They just weren’t fitting on the old little one we had, and it finally broke and fell apart this year. I was thinking we have way too many Wizard of Oz and Star Wars ornaments, and now with new sets of movies for each franchise coming out . . . it’s probably just gunna get worse!

Finally there is a shot of our regular Christmas tree in here, along with an ornament for John that my mom got this year. Awwww!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings and whatever else . . .

I have not been in the Christmas spirit much this year. I have a lot going on with work stuff, and once again John’s plans for the holiday are up in the air. It was so nice to have him in Virginia last year and finally spend Christmas with him (after 10 years apart!), however it seems his family (i.e. his mother) wasn’t happy about it. So this year, I don’t know what will happen. She has a daughter and grandkids here, but it seems last year was just the worst Christmas ever because John wasn’t there. I think they are trying to convince her to stay the night with the sister and the kids, which she should have done last year, but who knows! She was not alone mind you, she just went over to their house Christmas Day, and of course John wasn’t there.

We did put out tree up, and I put some of the lights up outside. I was hoping this would get me into the spirit some. However we still haven’t finished the lights outside, which I need John’s help to do that last part of. I also have got nothing else up in the house. I still have the villages to put up and nativities to put up. I have no idea when I will get to it!

I tried to get myself into the holiday season by buying some vintage Christmas stuff I found online. One piece I got was this scary Santa. My grandma used to have one exactly like it and put it on her coffee table every year. It was one of the things I looked forward to playing with when we went to her house. However after she died, my dad packed her stuff up and I don’t know what happened to it. I have some of her Christmas stuff, but forgot to ask about this. So I don’t know where it is. Therefore I was happy to get one online for fairly cheap, and in good working condition, given it’s from the 1950s.

I also scored another surprise last night, but it’s for home in Virginia

How pink and gay art thee!