Trains

[karlinann]

Maxie posted today about toy trains and nostalgia and it made me remember a restaurant in Knoxville that had a toy train going all around the room, up close to the ceiling. I don't recall which restaurant it was, but that was neat.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, it's not time to take you down from the garage storage shelf yet. I don't like to put the tree up until close to C Eve. That way it can stay up until the New Year and the ornaments won't get too dusty. You would be surprised how much dust collects around here.

Last fall I made the cinnamon dough ornaments. I used my Reindeer cookie cutter and they turned out so well. I have plenty of ornaments for this year.

[maxie]

Lambert's in Sikeston MO has a train that runs part of their ceiling. All the kids notice a train! we are a big train family here and that goes back to the boys grandfather who had a huge display in his basement with trains and scenery. All that is in boxes in our basement. right after Sierra was born my husband ordered her a pink Disney engine and Caboose. He wanted to add each year to it but he died before her first Christmas. Jon carried on that tradition and right up to this Christmas she is getting a Disney car under the tree...this year is a Pluto Caboose with a tail! Andrew has always gotten a car and when he was 10 his Uncle Scott bought him his own engine...the noisy one with all the bells and whistles. He gets to choose which train he will run at Christmas and this year he happened to pick the passenger set that was his grandpa's favorite. But, of course, we have to use that noisy engine!

Our tree goes up as soon as we can get it up after Thanksgiving but since I did not host dinner this year it went up early. We will take it down on New Year's Day unless I get the bug sooner. Our tree is mostly Disney ornaments and I had to sneak on my old ornaments when the kids were gone. Those ornaments are from my grandmother's tree and some my husband had bought me at auctions. They do not appreciate them but maybe someday.....? I love the cinnamon ornaments but we have critics here and since I moved in I let them do their thing. Your tree sounds beautiful...

[karlinann]

Thank you Maxie. It's not beautiful, but it's nice. My fav ornaments are snowflakes that I bought at The Dollar Tree the first year we lived in FL. They are flocked with snow white sparkling flocking and they are as light as a feather. OMG! I used to have so many ornaments. When we moved from TN to SC I gave away 8 of those big plastic containers. My clients used to give them to me when I had the cleaning biz. I don't miss them though. It's freeing to have just enough.