Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy 2011 to all our friends. We thank you for following The Museum, and for following us on Twitter. We hope to have Articles filed soon, and we have several speaking engagements pending for 2011. For those who love shopping for your collectibles, I recommend Killer Stuff and Hollywood Stuff, both by Sharon Fiffer! Also, of course, Mary Randolph Carter's American Junk Books. Check your local thrift shops for bargains; Discover Shops are marking their holiday offerings, including many doll and bear decorations, at 75% off. Target and Michaels are good sources, and Sears already has 3 plus foot tall Mini and Mickey Mouse, Charley Brown and Whinny the Pooh plush figures at 60% off. They also had A Christmas Story villages and Victorian ornaments done up in plaid that featured little girls and dolls. Penney's has marked theirs at 75%, but I regret to say I've not been there yet.


I like to wait for the 90% off sales to begin in a couple of weeks; they certainly are a way to beat the winter doldrums!

We've added several books from Anne Rice's legendary library to our collection; one doll book was written by a friend of mine, Mr. R. Lane Herron. It is serendipitous that it should show up in Ms. Rice's library. She also had many good books and Blue books on collecting and making and restoring dolls. I also was able to buy books she had underlined, and marked with postits, something I do, that show that she used them in her research for her work. Sometimes It is a small, wonderful world.

Consumer Reports; Dr. Santa's Health Blog

A few tips from Dr. Santa; it is his real name as he explains. Especially pay attention to heart attack symptoms and how to avoid a Christmas heart attack. I will try very hard to follow his, and my own, advice!

Dr. Santa’s 12 tips for a healthy holiday
Yes, my name really is Dr. Santa. (It’s Hungarian.) I like doctoring around the holidays—my name makes it fun, and a lot of important health issues come up then, too. I hope this series helps you navigate the season.

TIP 9 Don’t be a holiday heart attack

It’s hard to sugarcoat the statistics: You’re more likely to die of a heart attack on Christmas or New Year’s than any other day of the year. Why? It could be a lot of things. Stress. A particularly high-fat meal. Shoveling snow. Substandard care in an emergency room staffed with a limited holiday crew. But my guess is that denial plays a big role.

Denial, after all, is pretty common over the holidays. We want lots of laughing, all the meals gourmet feasts, and everyone a picture of health. In other words, we think life will take a holiday. But it won’t. You want to believe that slight pain in the chest is just heartburn and not worth making a fuss over. Right? Wrong.

Precisely because heart attacks are so common around the holidays, you should be especially alert to these warning signs:
Chest discomfort, including pain, pressure, squeezing, or a feeling of fullness in the center of the chest. The symptoms may wax and wane.
Pain or discomfort that radiates to one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach.
Sudden onset of shortness of breath, even without chest discomfort.
A cold sweat, nausea, or lightheadedness.
If you think you’re having an attack, call 911. Then chew and swallow a regular-strength aspirin.

Of course, it’s even better to avoid heart attacks in the first place. So take these common-sense steps:

Avoid overindulging in food or alcohol. The risk of an attack appears to double in the two hours after a particularly large meal.
Get a flu shot and treat any respiratory illness immediately. In frail folks, those infections can sometimes precipitate an attack.
Minimize emotional stress. Negative emotions, such as anger or stress, trigger the release of hormones that can threaten your heart.
Bundle up outside, since cold temperatures can increase blood clotting and cause blood vessels to constrict.
And take it easy when exerting in the cold, too—whether it’s shoveling snow, or playing with the grandkids.

—John Santa, M.D., M.P.H, director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center


TIP 1 Don’t shop till you drop: How to navigate the holidays in a stress-free and healthful way.

TIP 2 Lights, ladder, and candles: Avoid holiday accidents.


TIP 3 Dr. Santa’s stocking-stuffers.


TIP 4 What not to get for the holidays this year: A cold or the flu.


TIP 5 Over the river and to the ER: What to do if you get sick while traveling.


TIP 6 Raise a toast—but not too many.


TIP 7 Stuff the goose—not yourself.


TIP 8 Difficult holiday conversations.

Holidays

I can't beleive that I've not posted yet in December, but it ahs been that kind of month. We missed a major blizzard, but are subzero and ice covered; some of long for a nice, warm trip to Siberia! The museum joined the Montana Lady's Antique Doll Pages today which is a terrific reference site. I recommend it to all. She is faithful about posting and sharing information. Best online "doll club" yet!

My thanks to my friends at the Warren County Doll Club; we had a great Christmas meeting and party, and the ornament exchange was terrific. This is a devoted and wonderful group of people, warm and sharing in the true spirit of doll collecting.

Christmas is a sad time for us at the museum; since my mother died, there are really no gifts, and no festivites at my parents house. My dad, ever a scrooge in somethings, is now in his glory. It's HIS way of keeping Christmas. Our holidays consist of trips to her grave, but I don't mind that. I look forward to it, and I have left her small dolls and little things like we used to buy together. She loved Christmas, and busy as she was with me, Dad, and a job, she always made ornaments and dressed one of my dolls in a fantastic outfit. She knitted and crocheted till the day she died, for the dolls. She hated old things, but gamely went with me to antique shows and stores, and got to the point that she "loved the hunt" herself, and would ask for dolls for "our" collection for special occasions. We will have a gallery devoted to her work, and the doll she made and dressed. Her specialty was outfits for "ugly" dolls, like the Alien Queen, and two-headed Halloween monster baby, who now wear tasteful knitted ensembles. She also created fantastic Barbie wardrobes, shoes, trousseaux for china heads, and knitted stuffed animals.

She loved to decorate trees, and we had all kinds of all sizes. My late puppies were always in the act, and my Smokey dog didn't bother the tree, but loved to brush by it because his tail set off an ornament with a bell. He liked hearing it ring.

We scoured the after Christmas sales all over the country; Macy's and Marshall Fields were tradition. We also cooked and baked till we dropped, cleaned, looked for real holly, and organized gifts for the next Christmas. We wrapped everything, and even our puppies had stockings. The room was filled with all kinds of beautiful stockings and wrapped gifts,and we always had something to exchange through the 12 days of Christmas and Epiphany and Russian Christmas on the 7th.

Now, I honor the season for her sake, but it is painful, and the stark "do without" is a shock. I try to put up my own decorations, and my husband and his family try, but it is not the same. There used to be more than 12 people around our Christmas table, even if we travelled to my Grandmother's. Now, there aren't even two.

But, Christmas is about love and sharing; I bake for my friends with her recipes, I visit her grave, I do things at work and we send things to the Children at the Sun Valley Indian School in Arizona. I also like to donate to Goodwill, Toys for Tots, and The Salvation Army. Sometimes, I'm sad, but a little releived when Christmas is over. January was her birthday, and the month she died, and the month we have lost others in my family. I've come to be more of a spring/summer person, with fall my all time favorite season, but Christmas with its old traditions and my mother's love of dolls and doll restoration will always live in my heart.

Seasons Greetings and Merry Christmas to all of you from The Doll Museum.