When we built our house, I thought having a fireplace in our dining room would be great. I had recently seen the movie Gosford Park and admired the stunning manor house dining room with its blazing fire. Also, from the exterior the right side of my house needed a chimney to maintain its Georgian symmetry so we included a dining room fireplace in our plans. In reality, however, a guest's back would become unbearably hot should I ever light a fire there while we were dining, so I've never used it.
But... it does provide another place to display Christmas decorations (and Herend figurines the rest of the year). This year it is home to the majority of my Steinbach nutcrackers.
The middle guy is a Boy Scout. Hockey Boy was mortified when I bought him in his honor
Geppetto is a nod to Vivian's love of Pinocchio. Pinocchio's nose can be either short or long; this year Dots decided to use his short nose
Your nutcrackers are just gorgeous. Isn't it funny what embarrases kids when they are young....they will certainly appreciate when they are older. Your mantles are just beautiful!
I just love your dining room. Hot or not, that fireplce makes the space so cozy! Libby is obsessed with nutcrackers. She's asked for a "mouse king" nutcracker. I am quite certain that she is expecting it to spring to life, and thus might be very disappointed, but Santa will bring it just the same. Yours are charming. I laughed at the boy scout story.
Married since 1987 to Robert, three grown kids: Will, Vivian, and Dots, one granddaughter: Charlotte ~~~~
Majored in mathematics at SMU, taught elementary school for six years before Will was born, currently tutoring math ~~~~
Things I enjoy: playing duplicate bridge, working NY Times crossword puzzles, reading good books, entertaining, visiting with friends, planning trips, traveling, playing board games, spending time with family, working Liberty jigsaw puzzles, cooking, keeping up with old friends ~~~ happy to correspond with other parents about raising a child with special needs
I unintentionally contaminated all of the pictures on my blog when I changed my privacy settings on Flickr. I am working backwards to correct them all, but it is quite a tedious procedure! If you encounter a post with error messages from Flickr where the pictures should be, then I haven't gotten to that post yet. Please let me know and I will update it immediately. Thanks for your patience!
10 comments:
Your nutcrackers are just gorgeous. Isn't it funny what embarrases kids when they are young....they will certainly appreciate when they are older. Your mantles are just beautiful!
I've never seen such beautiful nutcrackers!
What beautiful nutcrackers! I think my boys would take them down adn play with them.
The mantle looks beautiful!
Have you thought about gas logs in your fireplace? They don't generate much heat.
I just love your dining room. Hot or not, that fireplce makes the space so cozy! Libby is obsessed with nutcrackers. She's asked for a "mouse king" nutcracker. I am quite certain that she is expecting it to spring to life, and thus might be very disappointed, but Santa will bring it just the same. Yours are charming. I laughed at the boy scout story.
P.S. I want to watch Gosford Park now!
The nutcrackers are gorgeous. Very festive.
Eloise,
Thank you so much for your kind comments.
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.
Melissa
I loooove your mantles! Tagged you!
the mantle is beautiful!!
Oooh love the little tartan skirt on the one on the far right. :)
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