A seasonally appropriate question for many around the world. If you've been reasonably good for the previous year, chances are that you might expect that coveted military history or wargaming book come Christmas Morning. Or, perhaps, a package of well-proportioned, slim miniatures, whatever your chosen period might be. I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed for you either way.The Grand Duchess and I decorated our trees -- yes trees -- last night, and both look lovely. The taller one (about 8' tall) is of the open tree variety, as discussed by Jeff Hudelson on his blog a few days ago, and is the fancy tree with lots of shiny ornaments all over it. The smaller tree (3') is in the dining room and is for family ornaments, sometimes stretching back thirty years or more. Needless to say, it looks very seasonal in the decked halls of Stollen Central this morning.
The pre-Christmas illustration for today is another Scandinavian image (above). This time, we are looking at a the Swedish Tomte with his goat-drawn sledge. It looks like this image comes from a cocktail napkin, but it's still kind of nice I think.
Unfortunately, there will be little to no painting today. We have our Chrsitmas open house this evening, and there are still a few things to be done around the house this morning. That, and I need a few hours during the afternoon to finish those final four chapters of translation, so I can e-mail all 14 chapters off to the publisher tomorrow and send the CD with the work burned onto it Monday morning. But hopefully, I'll be able to find a few hours for painting tomorrow evening.
Comments
Actually we have two trees too.
The one in the house (about 8') is the Fraser Fir pictured on my blog.
The other is an artificial tree about 6' tall. We have it outside on a coffee table on our front porch.
It has red and white lights, white plastic eggs and icicles hanging from it . . . and yes, it is well lashed down to keep it stable during windy days such as we are having now.
Okay, now that I think of it, we have three trees . . . because we have red and white mesh lights on the pear tree down by the street . . . which looks great at night with the wind whipping things around.
Still, I think we need to see photos of the trees at Stollen Central.
-- Jeff
I do have better luck asking for books. Mrs. Fritz is pretty good at tracking down books.
I order figures and/or books and have them addressed to my dear lady wife . . . who then wraps them up for me to discover when we open our presents.
Yes it takes some of the surprise out of it, but it also guarantees that I get what I want.
-- Jeff