Barbietown holiday decorating...

I have been quite busy this past week, not only with work & the business, packing orders from our SALE in our Ebay store, but also getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Usually I like to have all of our decorations up and the house clean and ready for entertaining, as I have so little time once Thanksgiving kicks in, with traveling, meetings, and of course- the parties! lol...Yesterday I traveled to Williamsburg which is only about 35 minutes away from my home- and Williamsburg is famous for its brand name outlets, as well as these wonderful stores called The Christmas Mouse which sells all kinds of simply wonderful Christmas trees, ornaments, creches, nativitys, dolls, accessories, lights- anything for Christmas! This is where I purchased these wonderful 2 ft, 12 inch, and 6 inch tabletop TREES with little cedar bases, for Barbietown. The lights on the trees are 20 LED battery powered light strings from the Christmas section of Walmart, that run on 3 double AA batteries each, and run about $4.99 each. I still need to get one or two more strings, I purchased three today and two the other day before that.
I also found miniature resin dogs that are perfect for our dolls, as well as a deer head trophy for the wall in the dining room. I haven't had a chance to put it up yet.
I took these pictures with the room dark and nothing but the trees and the stage at the Abbey lit up for the dolls re-enacting the Nativity for the Pageant. As you can see, they are having a dress reheasal. Some of the dolls- 2 kings and a shepherd, could not make it. Mrs. Greene was not happy about that, since she is in charge of the Christmas program for the church. I will have more pictures on that later, but for now, enjoy the progress so far.....Barbietown is still under decorating construction! The cross on the front of the Abbey's stage is a Christmas ornament from the Christmas mouse store. The trees were also from my trip there as well.

I have neglected working on the Nativity's characters- but here is a recap. Fashionista Ryan or Bryan is a shepherd, Angel Barbie purchased on Ebay at a great price; Vintage Breyer donkey purchased at a thrift store, Katniss Barbie is Mary, Sunshine family baby Steven is Baby Jesus, Basics Ken is Joseph aka Robert Green in Barbietown- (his wife Becky is an assistant to the Baroness' secretary at the Mansion, and their infant son is playing the starring role in the pageant. Becky often attends the pageant rehearsals to watch) Shepherd boy is also their other son Todd, and one of the kings in the front is a character who has just arrived in Barbietown.
The trees all around the Nativity stage are lit, as are two of the Christmas trees in the dollhouse.

As you can see, parking is beginning to get scarce in Barbietown and Black Friday isn't even here! They are still decorating the Boutique...today the workmen placed the reindeer up on the roof...

Did you notice how the dining room is coming along? Agnes, our impeccable party giver, is insistent this year that the mansion be decorated fully before Thanksgiving for Christmas...she has quite a few 'fetes' to throw, as she snobbishly put it. Agnes loves Christmas because she has a passion for 'getting' gifts, as well as giving them....and she is torn between that antique dollhouse she wants or that choice set of jewelry she saw....lol....

The dining room has really come along. Since this room is on the bottom floor, it takes all I have to decorate and stage the dolls...I am going to try and get a Thanksgiving meal together, but am trying to decide on which dolls should be having the family meal...Definitely Agnes and her Cousin, Lady Agatha of course! Hopefully more pictures tomorrow! And have a Happy Thanksgiving!
~Lisa