Es ist der Zweiterweihnachtstag!

Here is yet another version of Santa Claus/St. Nicholaus, in purple robes with fur trim, another pleasing combination of colors.  Understated and simple, but sometimes that is just as pretty as more intricate designs.

It's the second day of Christmas!  For those of you who observe, I hope Christmas Day was filled with fun, happiness, and friends/family. . .  and, perhaps, a few moments of quiet contemplation.  Here's to a jolly Christmas Week of continued celebration, delicious leftovers, sugary goodies, and eager daydreaming ahead to 2012, wargaming-related or otherwise.

Christmas Day here at Stollen Central was all about Young Master Paul, and it was fascinating to note the difference in his level of curiosity and involvement this time around versus last year.  We even managed to get all of his gifts opened in one session instead of two or three as was the case with Christmas 2010.  Another lovely afternoon and dinner for the three of us followed, neat gifts, and some goodies in our respective stockings left by Santa Claus/Father Christmas.  ;-)

Later yesterday evening, I enjoyed  some more German gluehwein with the Grand Duchess, and we had some quiet downtime together around the coffee table after the Young Master's bedtime, opening our Christmas cards to each other as quiet Austrian and German choir music played in the background, and we chatted about the day.  Then we brought up Netflix on the Grand Duchess's laptop computer and began watching the version of Auntie Mame (1958) with Rosalind Russell.  It's 143 minutes long, so we only made it through about half of the film before the fatigue of the day kicked in, but we'll finish it this evening.  A fun movie that I haven't seen in about 30+ years!  Oh, and in all of this, the tireless Grand Duchess prepared and baked us another Dresdner Stollen, so I've just finished the few remaining slices of last week's stollen and enjoyed a slice from the Christmas Day stollen with my morning coffee.  Heavenly, but I think 2012 will see me needing to get back on my bicycle in a serious way!

On the wargaming front, Santa Claus/Father Christmas left 7-8 new bottles of Citadel (ex-Games Workshop) acrylic paints in my stocking, to replace a few aging bottles in the current collection of hobby colors.   Mother-in-Law and Father-in-law also provided an embarrassingly generous subsidy to the Stollenian Tabletop Treasury for books and more figures.  It would seem that someone doesn't want me to dig out from under the pile of lead and plastic here in Zum Stollenkeller.  So, tomorrow, there are a couple of recent Charles Grant titles to order from On Military Matters as well as a 30-strong battalion of RSM95 pandours/croats from the Dayton Painting Consortium.  

After the first of the year, I just might contact Frank Hammond of Minden Miniatures to order a few of his pandour/croat figures to compliment the RSMs and provide a bit more variation for the unit.  Jim Purky did something very similar over on the Der Alte Fritz Journal not that long ago, and the two ranges of figures seem to compliment each other extremely well.  And then, who knows?  Perhaps another unit of Holger Eriksson cavalry like I was nattering on about a week or so ago in a previous post.  Or, maybe that wagon train I've been thinking about for a couple of years?  Or maybe the pontoon train and battalion of pontooniers?  Or maybe. . .  

Now, one of you Stollen Regulars asked me a week or so ago what my plans are after completion of the Sittangbad-sized project in the next three weeks or so.  Well, I'll be staying in the mid-18th Century for the foreseeable future, adding some specialty troops to the basic forces, like those I mention above.  Then, maybe a unit of uhlans, another unit of musketeers or grenadiers for the Zichenauers, or possibly some more hussars (I know, I know. . . ), and the list of possibilities goes on and on.  Watch out!  That daydreaming will get you every time.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, the Grand Duchess and Young Master Paul have gone a-Christmas calling today, visiting some friends an hour away, leaving yours truly to his own devices until mid-afternoon  So, after dressing, emptying the dishwasher, starting a load of laundry in the washing machine, and another mug of coffee, guess who will return to the painting desk to begin wrapping up the black lining and touch-ups on the current crop of ten Luebecker Musketeers?  Yep.  And once those are done, two more batches of ten musketeer figures each, two officers on foot, two drummers, and the mounted colonel.  Yikes! Suddenly, the January 16th Painting Challenge deadline doesn't seem so far away, so it's time to get thing cranked up again and shift into high gear here in Zum Stollenkeller.