Why I Oughta...

Released in 2015, this building from Lemax is called "Twas the Night" and has all the bells and whistles that Lemax offers including lights, music and interior scenes.  It even has Santa in the house with his reindeer awaiting him on the roof.   Here's the official product page . Unfortunately for Mantleburg , there's a moratorium on residential construction in place until they get more businesses or the train station in place.

Recently, Nat endured a little trip up to Wheeling with the express purpose of trying the 2nd location of Superdawg .  We went to the original back a few years and after hearing about how the Wheeling location had a bigger dining room, I wanted to go.  And...it was delicious. We all had our own Superdawgs - lounging inside their boxes - 'cushioned in Superfries' and the kids always get a kick out of a meal in a box.  Of any kind.  Their own little special box of food. The Superdawg in Wheeling feels a bit different than the original location, but the food was the same.  Nat isn't a huge hot dog lover, so I'm grateful she went along on the journey. And who doesn't love the rooftop wieners that adorn both locations??

As we begin the *actual* building of our new old farmhouse (gasp!  Could *it* really be happening??  Appears that way, but I don't want to jinx us...), we now begin to move from the 'drawing phase' to more of the real, actual, 'selection phase'.  That's where Nat reigns and is in control of everything from the big decisions to the smallest detail.  We find out more this week in terms of schedule and such and will be updating our farmhouse blog in short order. But, as I know she reads the blog here, I figure I'll use this platform to try to influence her and persuade her to something I'm keen on:  this tile as seen in the queue in the Peter Pan ride at WDW. In our house at Hilltop, we have designed a vestibule of sorts right inside the front door before you enter the hallway.  If you've been in a period house from 100 years ago, you know the type.  Think about something like this .  Usually has an 'inside' door and serves as a sort of a

More Christmas village stuff, Jake?  Yep.  More. This time it is the East Lake Station that Menards is selling at $69.99 because of both the interior lights and the exterior ones, but also because it plays music.  That is, according to the product listing on the Lemax site . Mantleburg - as a once proud growing community - might need a commuter station, to inject some new life into the village, right?  Become a bit of a bedroom community to some other larger town (that we don't need to construct?), perhaps? Maybe.  But the federal grant didn't come through and funding is tight with the drop in sales tax, so the Mayor of Mantleburg has shelved the station project.  Too bad.  Maybe next year.

We might even be able to consider this one 'vintage' when it comes to Lemax at Menards.  From the Caddington Village Collection comes this Big Ben Pub .  And I'm thinking because it *is* four years old, that's part of the reason for the pricing at $29.99.  That's $10+ cheaper than most of the other Lemax buildings Menards is selling these days. And, no, Mantleburg isn't big enough these days for both a tavern and a pub.

Today we veer off from Lemax to the private label collection from Menards Christmas Village buildings under the banner of "Enchanted Forest".  Menards does this seemingly more and more - by bringing their own private label goods to market.   They've done it with O Gauge trains and now with Christmas Village buildings. This little Maple Syrup Workshop is boxed right next to the Lemax stuff - see below- but is in a bright red box. They price these a little bit cheaper than the Lemax versions, but if you look closely at the top photo, you can tell it is kinda sloppily painted. Does Mantleburg need a Maple Syrup Workshop?  Nope.  Sorry.  Not this year.

Another day, another Lemax lighted building.  This time, it is a new release from 2016 called the Village Wine & Beer Garden.  This is part of Lemax's Caddington Village , which they seem to have rolled out tons of new buildings for this season. None of which are destined for Mantleburg .  Sad face.  (kinda)