Doll House

Hands down my favorite Christmas gift ever would have to be my doll house.  As a little girl who loved to play dolls and Barbies, I had long been wanting a special house for them to play in.  Several of my friends had enormous, brightly colored, plastic Barbie houses which I had been praying for months that I would receive from Santa.  When I was seven years old, my prayers were answered as I was presented with a doll house of my very own.  It was not a three story Barbie mansion-- it was better.  It was better because my grandpa had made it himself.   My grandfather was a career Army officer and retired as a full colonel.  One of his hobbies was carpentry.  He was really gifted at it and would even sell his wooden tops and toys at local craft fairs.  He used those carpentry skills and his time to make me a special two story, three room house-- fully furnished.  Not only had he made the house, but furniture too.  Two twin beds, a dresser, a vanity table, two rocking chairs, a couch, a china cabinet, and a round table with four chairs.  My grandma even got in on the action and made curtains, pillows, bedspreads, and a tablecloth.  My grandparents added special touches like wallpapering the dollhouse bedroom with the same paper that was in my actual bedroom and using fabric for the bedspreads that matched my own bedspread!  I spent many happy hours playing with that doll house and I felt incredibly loved because my grandfather had made it especially for me.  

Eventually I outgrew my doll house and it went up to my parent's attic where it stayed for the next 20 years.  A few weekends ago, I thought it was time to bring it out of its hiding place to give it a facelift so I could present it to my girls. It was like seeing an old friend again.  Some of the furniture was broken, but some was in perfect condition.  The carpet needed to be replaced, and Mike spent a few nights repainting the outside and inside walls.  But in a matter of days, my old doll house had been updated and was ready to be presented to a new generation.  Needless to say, they loved it. They don't have any Barbies to play with, but they have plenty of little dolls and stuffed animals to make up for that!  It is a big hit.

My grandpa died the summer of 1985.   I look back and wish I could have had many more years to get to know him better.  But I do have eight years of memories, pictures, and stories to remember him by.  And when I look at the doll house as my little ones play with it in their room, I can imagine him out in his garage, sanding down one of the little wooden rocking chairs, and thinking of me.