Winter Festival of Lights

When my children were small, we would travel to Wheeling, WV. to see Oglebay Park's Festival of Lights. It's not far from us, about 40 minutes. They loved seeing all of the beautiful color light displays and especially entering the twinkling snowflake tunnel of lights.

aaahorizons.com

At that time, now I haven't been there for a few years, you tuned into a certain channel on your radio, and  listened to Christmas music as you drove through the park, with just your parking lights on.

http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2010/11/brighten_your_holidays_at_big.html

It's a six mile drive through the park resort, and 300 acres. Oh, they would get so excited when they found out we were going to see the lights!

http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/local/091209-lloyd-festivaloflights/index.html

About half way through the park, we would always stop at the Christmas shoppe, because mommy loved looking at all of the Christmas decorations, and they could take a bathroom break too! We would get something to drink and then continue on in awe of the colorful displays.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Candycanes.jpg

http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/local/091209-lloyd-festivaloflights/index.html

This holiday tradition began in 1985 and went from covering 125 acres with lights and five displays to 300 acres of lights with seventy four displays today.

http://travelforchristmas.com/oglebay-christmas-lights

Every year, several new displays are added. In 2008, the new displays were using LED lights and the existing light displays were gradually going to be converted to LED lights.

http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/548781.html

The new lights would use 85% less energy and last five times longer.

http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/local/091209-lloyd-festivaloflights/index.html

SodaHead

They are a brighter bulb that you can see from a longer distance.

http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/local/091209-lloyd-festivaloflights/index.html

There's no admission charge to visit, but donations are appreciated. Since 1985, The Festival of Lights has grown into the nation's largest holiday light show attracting more than a million visitors a year,

http://www.oglebay-resort.com/fol.htm

including 3,000 tour buses from more than 36 states! This is why I'm glad my children are grown now because I really couldn't sit through the wait to get to the top of the hill to get into the park!! You would need to leave early in the afternoon for the big wait to see the lights!

http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/local/091209-lloyd-festivaloflights/index.html

SodaHead

http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/local/091209-lloyd-festivaloflights/index.html

I found this wonderful video on YouTube which is so much nicer than pictures if you would like to watch. The video quality is amazing! Uploaded by Accord03SixSPD. Enjoy!

Barbie Christmas Ornaments

Wow, this Barbie sure brings back memories! She was the ponytail barbie that I had as a child. She came out in 1963. I so wish I still had her. I had other barbie dolls and Ken too. Loved them all. Did any of you collect Barbie dolls?

My niece collects the Christmas Barbie ornaments.

Source: google.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

She's been collecting them since she was 2 yrs. old.

Source: google.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

  2008 Celebration Series

Her grandmother, my mother, bought her first Barbie ornament for her when she was just 2 yrs. old.

Source: google.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

  2005 Celebration

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 2006 Celebration

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 2007

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  2000, 1st in the Celebration Series

She is 20 yrs. old now and has 18 Barbie ornaments. Before the Celebration Series, was the Holiday Collection. This is what she started with.

1993 Barbie Holiday. Isn't she beautiful!

Source: amazon.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

  2001 Special Edition

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  2009 Celebration

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  2010 Celebration

Mom bought her one ornament each year for Christmas for many years and now she buys her own and continues to collect them.

Source: amazon.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

  20011 Celebration

Do any of you collect Barbie ornaments or have a collection of Barbie dolls? I've been looking around on the internet, and you wouldn't believe the prices of some of the vintage ornaments...$150.00 was one eye opener for the 1993 Holiday, the first one....yikes! She's the one in the beautiful red dress above.

Have a wonderful week!

Holiday Ice Sculptures

Ice sculpture is a form of sculpture which is three dimensional artwork made from ice, water that is frozen into a solid state as the raw material. 

Santa's Throne
 Ice Art

Sculptures can be abstract or realistic and can be functional or purely decorative.

Gingerbread House
Ice-Is-Nice

They are generally associated with special events because of their limited lifetime.

Holiday Display
 Ice Art

The temperature of the environment affects how quickly the piece must be completed to avoid the effects of melting.

Santa's Sleigh
Ice Impressions

If the sculpting doesn't take place in a cold environment, then the sculptor must work very quickly to complete his piece.

Angel
About.com

Some sculptures can be done in ten minutes if the carver is using power tools such as a chainsaw and specialty bits fitted to a die grinder which is a hand-held power tool sculptors use for contouring.

Toy train and Santa
 Ice Art

They also use razor-sharp chisels and hand saws specifically designed for cutting ice.

Snowflake
Ice-Is-Nice

Tree with lights frozen inside
 Ice Art

Color effects are possible by a number of techniques, including the addition of colored gels or sand to the ice.

Santa in his sleigh
Ice-Is-Nice

Holiday Home
Inside Medford

This art form is traditionally taught in culinary schools, but there are some small schools that teach ice carving.

Angel
 Ice Art 

Harbin_International_Ice_and_Snow_Sculpture_Festival in China is a famous event held annually and has increased in size over the years. Sculptures of all sizes appear, up to and including building size pieces.

                 Cool Way Ice Inc.

I love ice sculptures. It takes very talented people to create these beautiful works of art.

 Hope you have a wonderful day.

Christmas Humor

Source: google.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Beautiful Christmas Music to Dream and Relax

Lots of beautiful snowy scenes (I see some Thomas Kinkade artwork here too...love him) set to Kenny G's "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." So relaxing and dreamy! If you enjoy Thomas Kinkade's artwork you can check Here for my post with some of his beautiful Christmas Scenes. Hope you enjoy the video. I will be linking this post to Natasha's Pinning and Singing on the Weekend. Please pause music player on the left.

Image, Snowy Winter by moroka323

Found on http://www.piculous.com

Antique Santa Postcards

I found this beautiful collection of Old World Santa postcards at http://www.santalady.com/. I love their vintage look and Santa Lady tells all about each one, where it was printed , and when it was post dated. One of them dates back to 1898! You can read about her collection of  post cards Here.

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

Source: santalady.com via Dorothy on Pinterest

I especially love this last postcard! I hope all of you have a nice week.

Ceramic Santa Claus

This post is for Sundays with Santa at http://yuletideseasonings.blogspot.com/. This is a ceramic Santa that my mother made way back in the 70's! She was in to making ceramics at the time and even had a kiln  in the basement to cure the ceramics. She knew how much I loved this Santa and eventually gave it to me to proudly display in my own home. I make sure he is dust free and cover him in plastic and put in a box when putting him away until next Christmas. I don't know where he'll go when I'm no longer here, but hopefully, he'll have a place in one of my children's home!

 I took Mr. Claus out this morning to photograph and just thought that I would leave him out....in two weeks I'll start my decorating. I always start to get things out right after Halloween since it takes me two weeks or so to decorate. I only do a little each day and it's so much work bringing all of it up from the basement, the cleaning, etc., and I'm sure you all know what I mean!

 So I hope all of you have a great Sunday and join in celebrating Sundays with Santa with your favorite Santa images or collections, or anything Santa related!