Vive l'Empereur!

Yesterday we decorated our Christmas tree. Some readers might remember Napoleon got broken last year, but we got a new one, and so this year he's back up.

The Napoleon ornament was an original purchase in 2015 (of course!) - every year we buy a special Christmas ornament - and is slightly above the 2016 Brexit ball (not that we're sympathetic to Brexit, but it definitely colored that year ;-) ), And in the back you can see our 21014 Canada ball, which we brought home from across the pond after a family holiday.

Le Nouveau Napoleon est arrivée!

After the Napoleonic Christmas disaster, a new Napoleon arrived today. Once more, he will be up in our Christmas tree!

Vive l'Empereur!!!

Napoleon met his Waterloo

I have reported our Napoleon Christmas ornament before.

Today, when setting up the Christmas tree, he came to his end. Now to find a new one ...

Christmas City

A few days ago I set up my fantasy city, with the purpose of running some solo skirmish games.

When I came back in after having done some work in the garden, I was surprised to find my cityscape being illuminated with Christmas lights. "I thought it would be a nice Christmas village like that!" was the answer. Fair enough. Now I have to think about how to handle my solo games ...

Xmas table setup

During the Christmas season, it's almost a certainty relatives are coming over for the traditional turkey Christmas dinner. Invariably, after a few glasses of wine, there's always a request to see my man cave.

Instead of having to explain that "normally, we play with toy soldiers here, but now, it's full of junk as you can see ... ", I always try to clean up and set out a visual attractive battlefield. It doesn't have to conform to any plausible plausible game setup. After all, they don't have a notion of rules, so better go for visual appeal rather than game appeal.

So, this year, I decided on an ACW setup. And yes, it got the "oohs" and "aahs" going, especially amongst the younger male crowd.

Merry Christmas

For some reason, I always associate Christmas with little tin soldiers. Blame Hans Christian Andersen with his fairy tale about the Tin Soldier, and Tchaikovsky with the Nutcracker Suite.

Anyway, it's therefore not a coincidence we have some military-types hanging in our Christmas tree. I reported on our little Napoleon before, but are two more nutcracker figures.

Napoleonic Christmas ornament

Yesterday the family Christmas tree was set up. Each year, we buy one special ornament which is then labeled accordingly by year in which it was bought. So we have ornaments that go quite a few years back, and it is a bit of fun every December to rediscover the stuff we bought the previous years. "Hey, look here, you remember the nutcracker we bought in <turn over the thing and read the year written at the bottom because I don't remember all these years> ... 2008?"

Most years, we buy something on one of our travels. The 2014 acquisition was a Christmas ball from Canada, with the motif of the maple leaf worked in.

Anyway, this year the plan was to buy a new piece closer to home, and we ended up in the Christel Dauwe Christmas shop in Antwerp. After some browsing - and this kind of shops always makes me very wary of not breaking anything - I found the piece that I wanted to have. The 200th anniversary of Waterloo just called for this little Napoleon. Luckily, not much familial diplomacy was needed and Napoleon now hangs in our Christmas tree in the Liezele wargaming mansion. It's rather easy to remember the year, but nevertheless, it was marked "2015" at the bottom ...

 If you want your own, go to the shop's website mentioned above, and look under "This is Belgium" or "CDC Exclusive".

Merry Christmas

A Merry Christmas to all!

At the Liezele Wargaming Mansion, some unusual wargaming miniatures have taken the place of the usual nativity scene.

Merry Christmas

To celebrate Christmas, here's a little scene showing part of my toy soldier collection, along with my original copies of Little Wars and Floor Games, the books that started hobby wargaming in the early 20th century.

The soldiers of the Regiment are proud of their well-decorated Christmas tree. Meanwhile, father and grandfather are busily testing the new wargaming presents, much to the anxiety of junior.