Decorate Stuff

Just a random shots of some ornaments on my Christmas Tree Chair and scenes from the chair itself. The ornaments on the tree itself are all equine themed.

I will often change things around when the mood strikes me.

 The Winged Pegasus.

On the chair itself...

I have a few more but just got distracted by other fun ideas.

Sometimes characters just show up and I just have to make a go of it.

You never know who is going 

to sit on the chair next.

I finally started to set up my Lego Winter Village.
Seems mini-me and mini-Charlie are about to 
meet Bad Santa!

Just for fun.

This is not the Christmas Chair but a scene on one of the cabinets I built earlier this year.

Nothing much going on here other than snow, cold, and more snow and more cold.

I was plowed out twice this week! And we have been snowshoeing.

PS: my kids used to call Decorations ... Decorate. Thus the way I define it!

Rudolph is missing!

I love a good short story. When I wrote for my Grandkids, I used Morris and his toys, I kept the theme rather simple. Someone or something got lost. 

There always big search of some sort. I seemed to  always gravitate towards a theme about friendship and trust. 

When Morris passed on, I couldn't bring his toys to life again. His stories came to an end and I didn't have the heart to even finish his last chapter.

So maybe in some ways, having Legos and endless ways to tell stories will be energizing.

Here we go!

Owner: Welcome to the Alpine Lodge! Name?
Batman: Batman.

Owner: Okay we have a reservation for Bat Man.
Batman: No, it is Batman.

Owner: Okay. Mr. Man.

Batman: Grrrr. It's...Batman.

Owner: Sure Mr. Bat. Man. The room with the balcony is all yours.

Santa: Psst Mr. Batman!

Batman: I am Batman. The Dark Knight. This is my balcony!
Santa: I have a problem I need your help!

Batman: Ok, but I warn you ... I am a night stalking, crime fighting vigilante, and a heavy metal rapping machine!!!

Santa: Um. Okay. I still need your help.

Batman: Of course! I hate criminals. I fight criminals!

Santa: Well it's a reindeer. I'm missing a reindeer.

Batman: Huh?

Santa: I'm missing a reindeer. Rudolph.

Batman: A reindeer. A Rudolph. Heh, is he a criminal that needs to be brought to justice??

Santa: Um. No. He is a reindeer I need for my sleigh.

Batman: He isn't a criminal?

Santa: Well, no, not really.

Batman: Oh. That could be problematic.

Santa: Um. Well, rumor has it that his nose has gone dark!

Batman: A reindeer that has gone to the DARK Side? Tell me more!

Santa turns away and mumbles something about going back to having coffee in the outhouse.

Meanwhile ~~~~~

Santa's elves take to the woods to ask anyone they can to help find Rudolph. Of course they run into ... who else? But the Brother's Odd. 

Elves: The carrots are to lure the missing Reindeer back to us.
Yeti: Well. I am starving. Can I have one?
Elves: Oh. Okay.

Big Foot: Me too?

Elves: I guess we won't argue with Forest Creatures. Sure, they're yours!

Elves: Hi, we are looking for a reindeer named Rudolph.

Chewie: Is that so?

Elves: Yes. Have you seen a reindeer?

Chewie: No, but Stinky and I can keep a look out! I have seen deer though.

Elves: Really? 
Chewie:  A few days ago we saw deer being hunted by a hunter.

Elves: OH no!

Chewie: Don't worry, the hunter didn't have a clue.

Elves: Whew....
Chewie: You know, if you had something the reindeer would like perhaps he'd be easier to find.

Elves: Um. Well. We gave our carrots to a Big Foot, a Yeti, and a Squatch.

Chewie: Oh. Them.

Crazy minds and creative thoughts...

I am not always at play.

I do have a complicated life. I run our place and am a full time Caregiver. There is always something I need to address and work on for our place.

 Thankfully, I can have great daydreams. Some would think that a person my ahem, age, shouldn't be like this. My father was a very creative and imaginative person. 
He had no talent for mundane things. His brain was always on the go. My mom was the opposite. She could plan things to the smallest of details. She is regimented in thoughts and actions.

I may be a bit of both. 

Funny how things come to you when you are mucking out a stall [Lil' Richard is the one equine won't try to tear apart our large stall.]

Sunday was MY day of stall cleaning. I filled the skid steer bucket with manure and drove the skid steer to dump the pile of old hay, straw, and shavings. Rich said he was too unsteady to climb in and out of the skid steer.

So it is my job to keep that machinery running and useful. I would much rather use the little 4 wheeler and cart to clean up stuff and dump it, but he sure loves his skid steer. 

I abide by his wishes as my 'job' as his caregiver and wife is to make his days as pleasant as I can.

Here I was dumping and spreading manure when I thought about the recent Lego build we did together. 

The Alpine Lodge build has a cute skating rink, an outhouse, and rooms to rent. It is like having a doll house to play with.

During my shoveling I thought .... wouldn't it be funny to have the Lego Batman sign in as a guest? I mean what on earth would the Dark Knight be doing at a winter lodge???

Wouldn't it be funny to take a photo of Santa Clause being interrupted in the outhouse by one of his elves?

And why would all of this occur?

Oh...And what of The Brothers Odd?

How would this fit in with the much anticipated delivery of the 9th deer for Santa's Sleigh on the MOC build??

As I refilled the bucket with manure and hay chafe, my mind skipped from one thing to another with a story line of images jumping about like quick movie clips.

Did Batman sign into the Lodge because he knew Rudolph went missing for nefarious reasons? 

What did the Elf give Santa as a reason to be interrupted while doing his morning constitution?

How would The Brothers Odd even fit in?

I drove the skid steer to the pile and dumped it, then spent time backing it into the shed to the spot where it can be plugged in on cold mornings for using. That effort took all of my brain power.

I dusted myself off and started towards the house.

What IF a Hunter chased Rudolph into the woods? What IF the Brothers Odd decided to help search for him and found Chewie?

And to think that I kept letting these thoughts engage in the back of my mind while I prepared supper and set up appointments on my calendar for the week.

All because of a Lego Outhouse and an Etsy order for a 9th reindeer.

Santa: What the $#@#$%???
Close the door and let me...
finish!
Elf: But I have important information! 
It seems we've lost Rudolph again!

Santa: Oh NO! Not again!
That foolish reindeer!

Maya is right. The more I think about something fun and creative, the more fun I have. 

Haha. My husband just came over and patted me gently on the head. He says I will be committed to the nuthouse before he goes.

Meanwhile at the tree

Here is another shot of my Christmas Chair and tree. 

It is the light that I really love. Oh and of course all of the toys that are running about.

These are carousel horses that were given to me years ago. Funny that three different people purchased these and gave them to me. The horses match. I've always thought that was amazing. 

The horses were on the chair and I guess that made them vulnerable to the Star Wars Storm Troopers who thought they'd go for a joy ride. I don't mind, it looks like they were having a great time.

I hope my 'chair shenanigans' don't bore anyone. After all, I do it for me and not really anyone else. 

During those cold, damp, dreary, and grey December days with longer nights and shorter days...I generally need something to distract me.

On the chair. Miss LaFleur and Yvette rearrange ribbons and add an ornament to the tree. They are so happy that the chair allows them access to the branches!

Oh my! It looks like the Dinosaurs are back giving Santa a hard time. 

I wouldn't worry too much. Santa usually has these things under control. He just keeps some of Charlie's dog treats handy....

I've heard this year that the dragons wanted in on having fun at Christmas.  I also heard that they took over the space under the chair.

I understand that they are not exactly happy about the color of the string of beads.

I heard one grumble:

I thought you said there'd be gold under this place! I want gold!

Behind the scenes, the Lego elves are getting involved. This one is busy feeding one of the unicorns who jumped off the tree for a treat.

....

and not on the chair we find Rabbit and Bear. Rabbit is always kind to Bear trying to find ways to cheer him up and make him feel better.

Rabbit to Bear:

Here you go Bear, this small box represents all my love and caring for you. 

this time of the year is not easy

for everyone

remember kindness

and

love....

Meanwhile back in Lego land....

MOC

...it stands for Make your Own Creation. 

I'm not good at this. But I keep looking at the bricks and pieces and after making the last build of the Elf Clubhouse...

I thought, wouldn't it be fun to make my own thing?

I'm not brave enough quite yet to start a big tear down and rebuild. However...

I am not adverse to changing things up with my Lego minifigs [minifigures lingo!]

I mix sets and minifigs without sticking to the sets. I trade heads to get expression that I want.

Back in the Christmas Village some things started to happen....

First was a Baby Blue Velociraptor showing up for breakfast at the Elves house! What do you do? Offer it tea of course!

This woman showed up at the Elf place with a box of...OH No! It looks like she brought a case of...wine??? And a Christmas Office Party ensued at the workshop.

She may be a bad influence on Santa and the Elves? 
or....
is she taking over at the North Pole?

Maybe Santa needed a new CEO. She certainly looks like she is taking charge.

Perhaps she is saving Christmas? 
Looks like she sure is organizing things.

It even looks like she will be refitting the sleigh with afterburners....

I built this workshop from other bricks I had on hand just for using in photography. I had fun figuring out how to 'shoot' through doorways and windows. 
What did I want to appear behind the characters? 

Some of the items are from other sets, I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to Legos. I'll mix and match to make a story fit to where my 

imagination

takes me....

Oh wait. Hubby says the guys in the white coats are coming....

yeah....

For my little pal...

While I was putting the elves in their clubhouse I thought...I'll make a little story for my neighbor's son, Aiden who is nearly 2 yrs old. 

What if Santa decided to try a truck to make deliveries in our area?
Gosh, what would happen.

Santa Gets Stuck...

A Good Samaritan Arrives

 That didn't work...so

they called on the Elf

with a magic sled...

Oh my, guess who

showed up to give a push!
And the Reindeer pulls!

Santa is on his way

thanks to all

the help!

I sent this series to my little pal's mom and she said he loved it! What child wouldn't?

Sunday Stills ~ 'Tis the Season #34

Sunday Stills 2.0 Tis the Season #34

Images from the last snowfall. 

Our table ...

Getting ready for a dinner 

for two...

More Shenanigans on the

Christmas Chair....

Tis the Season.

The Night I Knew Santa Existed.

I was just a little kid and we'd taken the longest drive on earth to go spend Christmas with the rest of the family who lived in a place called 'up North'.  Well really, they lived in Northwestern Wisconsin and we lived in the suburbs of Chicago.

We ended up at my cousins' farm on Christmas Eve if my memory serves me correctly.
My cousins had the absolute coolest ever place.  It was an old farm house and at the time I don't think they had a bathroom in the house. 

Of course as kids we didn't really mind as they weren't my only cousins without an indoor bathroom.
I am pretty sure that I preferred their place and envied them even though we rented a nice place in the Chicago suburbs.

After all, they had woods to play in.  The had dairy cows, and they had everything in my eyes, everything a kid could want. 

Anyway we were upstairs doing something and we heard some stomping and the jingle of bells.
We stared at each other then tried to beat each other down the wooden stairs.

And there he was. Santa Claus.
Now kids at my school had been telling me there was no such thing. NO such thing.  And yet.  Here he was in the flesh with a huge red bag sitting on the floor next to him.  Snow was melting off from his boots and he clapped his hands together and gave out a huge belly laugh.

Yessir, that was Santa.  He was a living breathing person.  And he was so real.
We took turns shyly talking to him and he handed us each a gift.

I don't recall what I got that year, maybe it was the gunbelt and six shooter, or maybe it was the cowboy hat and shirt, perhaps it was all three.  It doesn't matter because I knew that the jolly red fellow was absolutely real and those kids back in school were dead wrong.

Pretty soon Santa had his snack of cookies and milk then proclaimed that he had a long night ahead of him and would we please continue to be good children.

He mentioned something that each of us had done over the past year and we knew he knew what was going on.

He left and we heard bells and him calling to us as he left.

"Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!"

About a half hour after he left my uncle Freddy came in from the barn where he'd been taking care of his dairy cattle.  He seemed perplexed and wanted to know why there were reindeer tracks leading up to the house?

We ran outside and sure enough there were tracks of the little reindeer feet.
Yep, those kids were so wrong.

When I got back to school after break I got into a discussion with some other kids on the playground.  I proclaimed my knowledge that Santa was real.  

Let's just say my 4th grade teacher had to break up a playground fight.

I knew deep in my heart for I'd met the man, seen the reindeer tracks. He truly was real.