Before all you sentimental crazies get all upset, please try to remember that our choice, as it usually is with holidays, is to get stuck on a certain date that someone else decided on and the girls and I celebrate on our own, OR pick our own date and have the same great celebration as a family - all of us together. Doesn't seem like a hard choice when put like that now does it? Well, at least not in my mind. :-)
Anyway, I think this story will make you smile, so it should be worth it. What you see below is actually a doll house built by our girls' great-great-grandpa. He built it by hand for his grand-daughters and it has been passed through the family since then. Poppy's sister called us this year and wanted to know if the girls would want it. (Thanks Margarethe!!) I had no idea what they were all talking about as my family doesn't have much stuff like that, but M and his mother were so excited we jumped on it.
We had it and the rest shipped to us. I painted them white (that's as far as I got before we needed to wrap them) and we gave them to the girls as their present. I do have pink paint and plan to 'pink it up' at some point but I am going to let the girls help me out.
Yes, they also sent all that stuff inside and more! The tiny stuff is really cute and ridiculously fun! There's even a silver set of dishes. Ok, the princess dolls are not old...those might be from K's collection.
The roof even opens and closes...
This was the cabinet sent with the house.
And the manger/cradle...I know it's hard to tell which toys were theirs already but I hope you can figure it out.
And that brings us to Christmas Eve...we brought them in from the garage and wrapped them up.
In my family, on Christmas morning, you have a good breakfast before you open presents and that is what we have decided to carry on. So while K waited to look under those big pink wrappers, she painted. We ate and then finished the advent tree (M's family tradition) and read the story of "The Other Wiseman" by Henry Van Dyke (one of my family's traditions and easily one of my favorite books of all time).
Then finally it was time to open the presents.
They were pretty excited and frankly stopped paying any attention to us. I did not see their faces for quite a while.
Em, of course, immediately took the pieces out and, well, built a tower. What else do you do with doll toys?
K grabbed her dolls and immediately started setting them up all over the house.
Em ended up with all the extras and her sesame street friends.
And K with the house...so as to allow K to play in peace for a little while. :-)
The tea party was first on the agenda.
We did eventually tear them away and have them open their other gifts that had arrived already. Yes, since we have to mail everything all over, my family gets on Christmas pretty early.
My mom bought the leap pad reader for the girls and I thought Em would care less about it since it is for reading (it's a pen that reads the words as you drag the pen over them) and she doesn't even know her letters yet, but it turns out that it does way more than that! It can read the whole story, letters, sounds and play educational games, but best of all, no matter where you put the pen down on the paper, it tells you what is there and what it does. They both play with it a lot but I am amazed how good it is for Em. She points the pen to a part of the picture and then climbs on top of the book to get a closer look at what it is talking about.
Remember these old record players from our childhood??? What fun!
Well that was the end of it. We had a great day and I can only reiterate sentiment I have heard a lot lately: it is so refreshing to see Christmas through fresh eyes! We tend to lose the joy of the holidays as we age, at least I have. Children have pure joy and excitement and they express it unashamed. Un-jaded, they are beautiful to watch!
4 comments:
Oh, thanks for this post. So fun to see how the girls love the doll house and cabinet plus the others house items! I should clarify though that Great Grandpa Eastvold actually made these two items for me when my daughters were growing up in the 1980's and then Grandma Mil also helped her father by getting "excited" to make some furniture to go with the doll house,so that is actually the story of when they were made. Have fun K and E playing. So happy you like them. Hugs to you.
Should also clarify that I had asked if he would make them since I knew how he liked making wooden toys like trucks, etc. for the boys.
In thinking and remembering further, it all started when Doug was working at Webb Co. in St Paul back in the 1980's. One magazine they would print was "The Family Handyman". One issue was about doll houses so to print about it they had a set up of a doll house to photograph. Doug was intrigued when he saw their set-up and told me about it. They referenced about a Doll House book so I purchased a copy and in talking with Grandma Mil I asked if her father would be interested in making a doll house for our daughters and if so if he would also make each of them a cabinet/buffet. (one cabinet must have been given to some other little girl to enjoy but I don't remember who). so Grandpa Eastvold made these with Grandma Mil getting excited about the project and in reading the book she learned measurements to make furniture to fit. She made the stuffed sofa and chairs, some parts of the bedding. Her father liked to do woodworking in his pasttime and this fit the bill for a project. (My own father had made me a buffet when I was so young and I enjoyed playing with it so much. He was no longer living here on earth otherwise he would have loved to do this for his granddaughters.) So the project proceeded and now you have made them even nicer with painting them. I am just so thankful your daughters seem to enjoy them so much now and that they could get to you. I have experienced another thrill by looking at your photos and seeing the joy in K and Em's faces while playing with them. Maybe in February I'll get a chance to have a tea party with K & EM and their new toys!! Much love from this G-Auntie M.
Oh how wonderful!!! I have tears in my eyes! I would love it if you would show the girls a picture of me and Julie and let them know that the doll house and cabinet were ours when we were their age. I loved playing with them, setting up house, playing "Restaurant" with the cabinet, and spending hours and hours being creative. As I grew older it became very dear to me that "great-grandpa", who wasn't really my great-grandpa but my cousin's, had made these for me in his old age. And that Grandma Mil had made all the furniture and my own grandma sewed some blankets and quilts for the beds. Hopefully someday Brent and I will have a daughter that we can bring to your house and play with K and E, but I'm so happy that the dollhouse and cabinet are now being used by the real great-great-granddaughters.
Love to you all! ~Kari
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