On Christmas morning, I came into the living room to find a beautiful wooden dollhouse that Momma had made for me--along with the help of our neighbor who had wood working tools.

The two doors on the front opened up to reveal a living room with a winding staircase going upstairs, a little storage closet under the stairs, a dining room and upstairs, a bedroom and a nursery.

On the back of the dollhouse, one door opened to a kitchen and an upstairs bathroom.

The dollhouse was furnished with miniature wooden furniture and velvet rugs.   In the living room was a small round table with a gold ceramic lamp on it.   It even had a fireplace with brass andirons beside it and a grand piano stood in the bay window.

Momma had taken a crystal bead off one of her necklaces and made a chandelier, which hung over the round dining room table.   She had made frilly curtains for all the windows.

In the kitchen were pots and pans she had made from small metal bottle tops and a wooden stove, refrigerator, and sink.   In the nursery was a pink plastic baby buggy with a fuzzy pink wrapped baby in it.   The upstairs bathroom had a wooden, tub, sink and toilet with little towel rods stuck on the wall.

A family of jointed plastic dolls sat on the chairs and sofa in the living room.   The dollhouse was fastened to caster wheels on the bottom so I could roll it around to wherever I wanted it.

I got presents from Grandma and Santa, but that dollhouse was the best present I ever got!

I also received a "dress-up" doll.   The doll was like a Barbie doll, only larger.   Momma had made a wooden trunk full of clothes for it.   She even cut up her wedding dress and veil to make one for the doll.   It had formals made out of nylon net with sequins and beads sewn on, a winter coat and hat, made from one of my old coats that I had out grown, and many, many dresses.

Momma had made the doll a raincoat and hat from the good part of an old plastic shower curtain she had thrown away.   There were even a pair of roller skates and ice skates for the doll and a little fur hat and muff Momma had made from the fur collar off one of her old coats.

Momma always left the Christmas tree up until January 6th.   She loved Christmas and wanted the decorations and tree up as long as possible, but it had to be out of the house by Twelfth Night--January 6th, or bad luck would come into the house for the rest of the year.

I heard Momma telling Daddy, "If it weren't for that old superstition, I'd leave this beautiful tree up until Easter!"