I haven't taken down the Christmas tree, and the outside lights are destined to stay up till three feet of snow melts. Then maybe I can locate the extension cords and the all-weather outlet where everything is plugged in. Until then, the reindeer will continue to graze and light the night. They have managed to melt the snow around them, I can see their bodies again. Underneath them I'm imagining a different drift in the spring, the tulips and daffodils I planted in the fall. For the time being, the bulbs are safely insulated in their bed, and even the hardiest squirrels won't be digging through all that snow for a winter snack.
Inside, I'm still puttering away getting Christmas sorted out. When we were kids, my mother never took down the tree until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th, I sometimes use that as my excuse nowadays! Back then, my sisters and I were thrilled to find Ginny dolls under the tree.
Made by the Vogue Doll Company, they were little girl dolls in a pre-Barbie world. And we had plenty of them! Our father built a room length dollhouse against one wall of our big bedroom and we played with our Ginny dolls for hours and hours. None of the dolls survived our childhood and I have no idea what happened to them, but this year I found some replica Ginny dolls at Tuesday Morning. Who would've thought? I bought one for each doll-playing sister for this Christmas 50 years later.
The brunette doll for my brunette sister.......
And the blondie for my blonde sister. Christmas may be over but a piece of the past has been resurrected!
12 comments:
My decorations are packed away but if I had snow like you, my reindeer and outside lights would stay lit. Christmas lights on the snow is way too pretty.
I like your dolls. I have a very small collection but only three of them are nice enough to keep behind glass.
Happy puttering, LostRoses,
My sister and I had some small dolls called Storybook Dolls, but the clothes stayed on. We also each had a pre-Barbie Revlon doll, which had changeable outfits, and sparkly earrings suspended from poke-in metal rods. They'd never pass safety tests today, but we loved them!
As to Christmas decor, I am like your mom - mine all stays up until the 6th, and the outside lights glow every night until then, too. We once took everything down on January 2nd , but only because our house was going on the market soon afterward.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I am planning to start de-Christmasing my house today. A little sad but it's time (for us!). Love your Ginny doll replicas. I hope your sisters enjoyed the memory!
Those dolls were a great find. How wonderful to bring back those memories for you and your sisters (I have one blonde and one dark-haired sister, too. We all had Barbies).
Your deer look very nice in all that snow.
I don't envy you taking down all those decorations--the memory of removing mine is still too fresh. LOL. Hope you take your time and try to enjoy it.
I love when I find something like that, to remind me of something I had as a child. I still have two of my dolls from childhood, both made by the Madame Alexander doll company.
My Christmas decorations come down on January 1st, generally while I watch the Tournament of Roses parade on TV.
Mary, you're right about Christmas lights on the snow. Most years we have a green Christmas and I always think the lights would look much prettier if there was some snow. I sure got my wish!
Annie, I'd forgotten about those Revlon dolls! Ginny had a big sister named Jill and she came with those sparkly poke-in earrings too. What fun to be reminded of that! If kids today played with the kinds of things we had, their parents would certainly be accused of neglectful parenting.
And I'm glad there's someone else in the country who hasn't taken down their Christmas decorations!
Liza Lee, my sisters were so surprised and happy! Like me, they never expected to see those dolls again. It was fun to have found them.
Zoey, I keep telling you we're living parallel lives (except you have energy)! Now do you also have 3 brothers, and a sister who was "way too old" to play dolls with you?
Carol, we always coveted Madame Alexander dolls, but we knew "the clothes would have to stay on", like Annie's Storybook dolls. And of course dressing them in different outfits and changing their hair was half the fun!
I did start my puttering during the Rose Parade but I was totally mesmerized by their nature theme and had to watch for each float! Weren't they especially wonderful this year? How about that 50-foot-tall Mother Nature?
I've already put the decorations away and now there is that 'post-Christmas starkness' about everything! We're having pretty dreary weather here at the moment, dull, dark and drizzly! Oh for some crisp, white snow! Clare x
I hear you are getting more snow this weekend. I bet the sky resorts are happy.
LostRoses, are you snowbound again? I hope everything is okay - I'm just starting to Undecorate, and thought of you.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Clare, I'm still trying to get to the starkness phase! I wish you some snow too!
Rusty, the ski resorts are ecstatic. From the sound of things back East, the skiers have to come West to indulge in their favorite sport!
Annie, I'm alive and well and undecorating also. That last snow was "only" about seven inches. Funny how my perspective of a heavy snowfall has changed!
A room length doll house? Ohhh, that sound so nice! I'd like that for me now! And I'm in my 50s! I'll have to ask my hubby to make one for me. ;-)
I had a doll called Patty Playpal, she was a "life size" doll. Remember those?
The pic of the reindeer and lights in the snow is beautiful, very angelic quality to it.
Hi! I'm in my 60's and still have 12 of my Ginny Dolls from 1953. I started collecting more in 1992. Vogue Ginny's are still being made...there are many wonderful repros that look like the vintage ones. Not always available at Tuesday morning, but they have popped up there a few times! Linda
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