Nutcrackers. Sweet!

This past week I went on a holiday house tour in Ocean Grove. And I have to say it exceeded my expectations. I thought we'd just get a quick peek at some trees in living rooms, but we pretty much got to wander aimlessly through people's homes. My kind of tour!

One house (on my street, in fact) housed the largest collection of nutcrackers I have ever seen. In. My. Life. Tchaikovsky's got nothing on this guy.

That's the homeowner above, playing holiday tunes as guests arrived (nice touch! I could play the kazoo if our home is ever on the tour). Below is a wider shot of the living room...there are even nutcrackers above each window! (And, throughout the house above most of the windows and doorways.)

I went to a lulu of a yard sale at this house this year -- tables brimming with antiques and collectibles. Now that' I've been inside the house, I can see why! Clearly the gentleman needed to clear some room. His collections didn't end with the nutcrackers. Tucked in his cozy little den was the Santa collection, part of which is here:

And the rest of which is on the other side of the room, surrounding the wood burning stove, and the large elk (moose? gigantic deer?) -- who got in the spirit by donning a big red nose:

He even collects candles (!), cleverly displayed in his kitchen on an old drying rack:

And since the table was set so lovely, I considered asking if my clan could just crash here on Christmas. I mean, we're right down the block. We could make it potluck!

I'm exhausted just thinking about how long it took him to set his house up. When I asked, he just sort of shrugged and said, "Well...I'm retired."

Yet another reason to look forward to retirement.

If you haven't already, be sure to leave a comment on my cookie post (click here) to enter my Boxing Day Giveaway -- a lovely pair of earrings by my friend at Piedra. Just leave a comment there by midnight Eastern Standard Time on December 26 to be eligible (that sounds so official!)