Ye Merry ol Dearborn....Greenfield Village with Michael and Michelle

You know how some people collect toy doll houses or toy villages?

Well Ol Henry Ford did too.. only his are life size..

That's right He collected actual homes and factories....this Step back into time is called Greenfield Village.
A peek at what life was like when things were alot simpler.

If you are ever in Michigan Checking out the Village or the Henry Ford Museum is a must...

At Christmas time the Village puts on an event called Holiday Nights. The entire Village comes to life with Period Characters and almost all the buildings open to check out.
Being that Mr R's Sister and Boyfriend are in town for a couple of days... we invited them to share this experience with us.. So after filling our belly's with a delicious meal of Sushi at Kabuki Restaurant we where off to visit life in the good ol days.....

This lovely couple where the first to greet us...They seemed to pop right off a Christmas Card....
It was cold that night... but not intolerable... to me it added to the wonderful atmosphere.

A look down Main Street...

I kept waiting for George Baily to come running down screaming at the top of his lungs...

"Merry Christmas... you ol building and Loan" !!!

Instead we followed our noses ... and found ourselves more so in the countryside.... amongst the sheep...(How cool is that snow! )


While standing outside of Henry Ford's Birthplace ... I admired the decorative cabbage... Ironically... I have some outside MY door too!!

( Only mine are covered in snow now) I guess it's true... Great Minds DO think alike...

Further down Main Street we have a small collection of Model T's
Passing along the Watchmaker's Shop we were treated to the gonging of the Bells and chimes...
In the midst of all this history... Mick still managed to find a shop....
I don't blame her... the ornaments were half off. (You go girl... shop till you drop)

On the corner we heard the lovely sound of Carolers...

It was enough to make you brake out into dance.... ( and some did ! )Scattered throughout the Village were small bonfires.. where folks could stop and warm up.. maybe even catch a flickas long as you don't mind it being in black and white ... and with no sound.

(Hey ya gotta keep it authentic)

Speaking of authentic... we soon encountered steaming evidence that there were horses around...
Yep... there they were.... Horses AND a Nag.. ( I kid... I kid...)

The cold never bothered us one bit... there always seemed to be some way to keep warm
How could one even notice the cold with all this loveliness around you?... Music... Merriment... and...

Mummers....Yes... I said it... Mummers..Basically a traveling group of actors..

dressed up as fictional characters... putting on plays (read about it.)

As we walked through the back part of the village... we heard the steady march of these fella's Now.....I don't know who... but SOMEONE may have said something that they didn't like...Mr R... being the brave soul that he is.... TRIED to come to my rescue.. only to find himself in trouble as well... Michael didn't help matters much either... I guess Mick batted her eyelashes or something and soon ... we were cool...
I mean... they are just doing there jobs.. right?
Brother and Sister arms around each other ... helping each other out of jams..
just like the good old days...During our walk about... we even came upon the skating pond...

(There was a carousel for the kids too but didn't get a picture.. sorry)
It was about time for us to stop into one of the restaurants and get something warm to drink..
The place made you feel all warm and toasty...

While we were there we ran into more militia... He was a little peeved when I asked him if he was a yank or a confederate...

(What??... the coat looked grey to me)
I learned my lesson from the WWII guys.. and simply thanked him for his service... YIKES..Who knew I could agitate the Military so much?

Maybe I should repent... Lucky for us..we were right around the corner from the Martha -Mary Chapel...

People still get married there....
It's beautiful !!

Time was running short... How did I know??.... Father Time was on the balcony of a house telling us so...At first I thought it was a mannequin.. but as we got closer.. we found out he was real..

We knew that soon it would be time to gather at the town center for caroling and fireworks.... THIS... was the view on the way...

Cool.. no?

Sitting next to one of the bonfires.. we watched the fireworks start...

What an awesome way to end the evening....
On our way out.. we (Mick) had one more stop to make... The Gift Shop of course...

and it really was nice...Several large decorated trees...
Here's one made completely of Raggedy Anne and Andy dolls Thanks Mick and Michael... Hope you had fun.....I know we did...