Frankenmuth, MI

Today we spent the afternoon in Frankenmuth, a German/Barvarian town in Michigan. I fell in love with this town. They are proud of their German & Christian heritage. Something I can identify with.

View of some of the shops from the parking lot.

One of the many Nativity scenes throughout Frankenmuth.

Kids in front of one of the Christmas Trees.

Jessica posing for a pic.

Jessica loved this bench.

She also liked the table & chairs. She said I need these for my backyard.

Beautiful waterfall next to the river that cuts through town.

The river & one of the bridges.

Some of the many Christmas decorations.

A fountain in the middle of town.

Another fountain.

Another nativity.

Frankenmuth has a history museum. This exhibit depicted the trip from Bavaria.

The people who founded this town were strong Christians who believed

they were here to reach others for Christ.

They taught German to the natives along with sharing Christ.

Some hands on exhibits.

An early General Store.

An early school.

Exhibit talking about traditions in Frankenmuth including St. Nicholas.

Frankenmuth through the years.

Jessica got to try to design an Alpine style house.

An exhibit dedicated to Michigan & the War of 1812.

Map of Frankenmuth.

Outside the Frankenmuth Cheese Haus.

Tiffany's restaurant. Made me think of my cousin.

Inside the Brewing Museum.

A covered bridge in the middle of town.

Another view of the river & waterfall.

One of the breweries in town.

I love this town as it is all decked out for Christmas.

One of the many scenes outside Bronner's Christmas store.

I love the motto for Bronner's!

Love this!

David liked these lights.

This plaque says it all.

Kids in front of one of the many nativities inside the store.

Inside the store.

Inside the store.

This Christmas store is awesome! The joy of Christ's birth is celebrated all year at Bronner's - whose motto is: "Enjoy CHRISTmas, It's HIS birthday; Enjoy Life, It's HIS way."

 

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More Christmas Decor

Over the last week, I've added more outside decoration & lights.

Here's a view of the front of the house.

 

To the left of the garage are 4 deer my Aunt Linda gave me plus a

Christmas tree that used to be my Mamaw & Papaw's. The star is from my Mom!

 

This is my favorite part of my decor. My Papaw always had a nativity

in their yard. This is similar to his & I always think of him when I see it.

You have to love Snoopy!

This is my patriotic tree. It & it's decor are from my Aunt Linda also.

It fits perfectly next to my front porch!

Another tree from Aunt Linda. The Peanut's gang is skating below it.

This is my Redbud tree in the backyard. On the lower left

of the tree you can see my finch feeder.

This last picture is of my bushes in the back of my yard.

When I tested them, all these blue lights worked. But now they don't.

An hour of work for nothing. So frustrating!

 

I hope you enjoyed my lights!

 

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Christmas already??

I know some of my friends think I'm crazy, but we have already started decorating for Christmas! I love Christmas. My Papaw started me in my love for all things Christmas. He always had lots of lights up & a life-size manger in his front yard. I do have a manger scene similar to his to put up in my front yard but will wait a little closer to Thanksgiving to put it out. 

Here is our downstairs Christmas tree. The decorations on this tree are more fragile. I decorated it. The stable under the tree was made for me by my brother many years ago.

 Here's a close up of the mantle with all our stockings hung.

 This is the "window" in the middle of the living room. 

(Rockband equipment is not part of the Christmas Decor!)

This is Jessica's Christmas tree. It is in her room & was decorated by her.

 This is David's Tree. It is in his room & decorated by him.

Here is Jamie's tree, decorated by her & in her room.

This tree is in the loft upstairs. I put the lights on it, but the kids did rest of the decorating themselves.

 Here they are in front of their handiwork.

On Tuesday, we had a very warm day so we put up our outside lights. David convinced me to use my rope lights to outline the playground.

He was a big helper & helped me wrap them around the playground.

The kids also had fun laughing at me as I threw the light strands up over the big cedar tree behind the playground.

It took several tries to get the strands to go all the way across the

 top of the tree as my throwing was not very good.  

In front, I put lights across my garage & down the porch post.  I also zig-zagged a few strands across my bushes. I think I need to get a few more strands for the bushes.

The kids were enjoying being able to run around out front while I took pictures. They keep begging me to turn the lights on at night but Hubby has a rule that before Thanksgiving we only turn them on to test them. But if other houses in neighborhood turn theirs on early, then we can too.

I thought this last picture was really cool. It is of the skinny window right beside my front door.

I have crocheted snowflakes that my Mamaw made hanging on the window.

The light glowing through the paper shade made a very cool effect!