Thatsalota Snowmen!

2010...the year of the snowman.
At J's Aunt's house it is, and I had the honor of being invited over for the "coming out" party...coming out of their totes from the basement, that is! Sister J has an Aunt MJ who has an AMAZINGLY COOL snowman collection that rivals any collection I have ever laid eyes on. And I come from a collecting family. My Nana collected elephants (not sure why), my Great Grandma collected salt and pepper shakers (nifty), my mom collected dogs, but her collection was mostly lost when she moved. My older sister was assigned bunnies to collect because she was born near Easter, I, on the other hand, was assigned bells because I was born in December, near Christmas. Let me assure you that bunnies are far more enjoyable to collect than bells when you are a child. I was always very jealous that my sister's room was full of cute, furry bunnies and I had dumb bells (ha! get it?...Dumb bells..heehee).
Anyway, just to say I have seen a few collections in my years and this one is something to behold. Hopefully the pictures will do it justice.

Many hands make light work and with myself, J and her two daughters, J's mom, Aunt P and Aunt MJ and their neighbor, we unpacked and displayed about 10 totes full of snowmen in one afternoon. We unpacked, fluffed and placed and then Aunt MJ came around and probably moved every single one to it's "correct" position in the menagerie.
All the shelves, windowsill, mantle and china cabinet had already been cleared in preparation for the army of snowmen, so our job consisted mostly of oohing and aahing as each new snowman was unwrapped.

Here are a few before and after pictures, warning to the faint at heart... if lots of little knick-knacks and millions of "things" everywhere cause you to break out in a sweat you may want to refrain from further viewing...(Aunt P...time to look away) ☺

China cabinet before...

and after..

(I know...you're thinking, that looks pretty and oh! snowman dishes...cool!)

The staircase before...

and after...
(now you're thinking...okay, that's a lot of things to potentially trip over at night)

The mantle before...

and after...
(all the ones on the mantle light up in some fashion, very exciting!)

and check out all these little teeny guys lined up on the molding!!!


Okay, are you ready for the shelf of amazement??...
(ta DA!)

(now you're thinking...thatsalota snowmen!!!)
Guess what...there's MORE....


and more...

and some more...

snowmen in the kitchen...

snowman scissors...
(I know, I know...who knew??)

my favorite...a spoon rest...

Lulu's favorite...a huge snow globe that snow actually blows around in! Super cool!

And J's favorite...actually she greatly dislikes this one because he has man-boobs which may or may not be visible in the photo but were there none the less. He really isn't welcome at this party at all seeing as he is a snow MONSTER not a snow MAN!!!

It was very exciting to see them in their glory, I feel like Aunt MJ could sell tickets to come and view the collection! On a side note, the snowmen only come out every other year which makes it even more special. I am really feeling the "every other year" thing and I proposed to the mayor that maybe the Star Wars ornament collection could just go on our tree every other year?? I can't even begin to explain the look I received, kinda like Linus being separated from his blanket. Nice try.
Well, thank you J and Aunt MJ and Aunt P for including Lulu and me in your decorating day! It is much more fun to decorate someone else's house than my own! Viva la snowmen!