Merry Chrismas Eve! ... 24 Dec

It's almost here!  We will be off to make merry this evening, at J&E tonight, then to wait for Pai Natal (Father Christmas) at Vóvó's.  I hope o Menino Jesus fills up our shoes that we will place by the hearth!   Good thing Vóvó has a fireplace no novo apartamente!

Here are a few tricks of the trade...  Having found some miniscule paper flowers that Mai got during her dollhouse frenzy, I decided to practice "creative avoidance" of all the really pressing things that I should have been doing, and instead used them to replace lost roses from those magnificent tiny rosebushes.
BTW, I must make a correction - those are British - not German, as I had previously reported!
The picture shows the tools that I use.  )The flowers are all lined up like shish-kebobs on those pins).  Spoons help with dispensing and smoothing the various grasses and gravels.  I also make extensive use of tweezers - from picking up stray bits of root or pebble that will ruin a planting, to gently placing some of the tiniest creatures - they are indispensable!
And something I am doing more of this year, as a time saver...depending on where the people are going - either on the road, in the fields, or on the lawns, using the flour glue on their bases, then sprinkling on the appropriate stuff to match.  Really saves having to try to bury them, and then minimizes the scope of hte disaster if they fall over.

(If you click on a picture to enlarge it, then hit the "Back" button in the upper left to get back to the blog)

OK - off to do some more baking now!!!!
Merry Christmas to all!  Feliz Natal!  Joyeux Noël!  Frohe Weihnachten!