Pyramid 56ers

Spring has sprung in the mid-south. The flowers and trees are blooming and Easter is right around the corner. It’s hard to believe it is already April.

We kicked off the new club year with our February meeting at Russ and Jayne’s. It was great seeing everyone after the holidays and enjoying such great food and fellowship. We have another great year of activities planned and you can find out all the details in the rest of the newsletter. We also welcomed 2 new members to the club Scott and Annaree Carter. Welcome and we hope you enjoy the meetings.

I just wanted to take a brief moment to say how much we are going to miss Jim Shull. As most of you know Jim passed away in February and was a true inspiration for our club. His passion for collecting was shown through his many generous donations. We will certainly miss him.

The April Meeting will be at the home of Ralph and Alinda Norris in Taylor , MS on April 30^th at 10:00 a.m. We chose to coordinate this with the Double Decker Art Festival in Oxford the same day. You can read more about it in the article below.

To the left of this column you can see the people who have volunteered to host one of our meetings for the year. We appreciate you volunteering your home and allowing us to fellowship with you.

Please note that we are still collecting dues for the new club year. The Club dues will remain at $20.00 for individual and $25.00 for Couples. The Annual Dues helps to support the activities for the club and to provide door prizes.

The club enjoyed having the raffle last year, which the money raised went to pay for the supplies for the display at Kirby Pines, so we elected to hold another one this year. This year we will be using the funds to pay for the supplies for another display. You can read more about that in the newsletter. The tickets will be $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00 we will sell tickets at each meeting.

We received some special gifts from Department 56 to use as we see fit for out club. We will use some of the accessories in the new City Display we are setting up. I want to send a Special Thanks to Melinda at Department 56 for send us these pieces.

See you at Ralph and Alinda’s on the 30^th!

Jeffery

Mark Your Calendars:

April Meeting: June Meeting: August Meeting:

Alinda and Ralph Norris’s Pat Malone’s Gerald and Barbara Frazier’s

Sat. April 30^th,10:00 a.m. Sat. June 18^th, Noon Annual Picnic & Display Prep

In conjunction with the Double Make-n-take Billboards

Decker Art Festival in Oxford

October Meeting: December Meeting:

Road Trip Jeffery’s & Don & Mary Collier’s

Saturday Dec. 3^rd, 4:30 p.m.

Open house at Jeffery’s and then move to the Collier’s

for Holiday Dinner and Gift Exchange

Birthdays:

Annaree Carter 4/15

Maggie Miller 4/16

Jackie Robinson 4/19

Anniversaries:

Don & Kimberly Collier 4/24

Russ & Jayne Gorby 4/25

New Memorial Display Set Up:

In honor of Jim Shull, Jim’s family and George Moore have donated several Christmas in the City Houses for use in setting up another display like we did at Kirby Pines last year. It was quite fitting since this was one of Jim’s favorite Villages. The club voted to build another display and we are in the process of locating another venue in which to showcase it. If you would like to donate any pieces to the display please feel free to do so. We have several houses but we desperately need accessories and people. We also need a donation of trees of any style, as I used most of my extras for the North Pole display. We will be helping to build the foam work and layout at Barb and Gerald’s in August. I have drawn up plans for the table and we will create one like we did last year.

This is a great opportunity for us to showcase our club and to have an opportunity to share the love we have for our villages with others at a very special time of year and to honor Jim’s memory.

Department 56

2011 Introductions:

Check out the New 2011 Dept. 56 Introductions from all your favorite villages and Snowbabies collections.

This year marks the 35^th Anniversary of the beginning of Dept. 56 and they have produced a clock tower accessory for each of the villages limited to 2011 production.

Many of the villages also have new sub-series added to their collections.

Check them out at

WWW.DEPARTMENT56.COM

Club Dues:

It’s that time of year again when we will be collecting for the Annual Club Dues.

The Club dues will remain at $20.00 for individual and $25.00 for Couples.

The Annual Club Dues helps to support the activities for the club and to provide door prizes.

Please bring it to the

April Meeting.

NCC Corner… by Barbara Frazier

The National Council of 56 Clubs (NCC) is an umbrella organization for independently organized and operated collector clubs throughout the United States and Canada . The purpose of the NCC is to promote Department 56 member clubs, cultivate cooperation among member clubs, facilitate the exchange of information between member clubs, assist in the formation of new clubs, and stimulate the presentation of collector events and gatherings.

Gatherings:

2011:

The only 2011 Gathering is the Happy Trails to Arizona Gathering and will be September 29th- October 2^nd, 2011 . If you would like more information please visit the gathering website: www.southwestvillagers.com

2012:

The only gathering in 2012 will be in the fall in Chicago . It is still in the works and will be but on by several of the Illinois Village Clubs.

They will send out more details as they emerge.

The NCC website is a great source of information so be sure to check it out at the following link.

NCC website www.ncc56.com

Collectors Corner of Department 56: www.department56.com

April 30^th, 2011 Meeting Update:

As most of you are aware we were coordinating the April Meeting at Alinda and Ralph Norris’s with the Double Decker Art Festival in Oxford . The Meeting will be Saturday April 30^that 10:00 a.m. We will have our meeting then lunch and then allow for those of you who are interested in the festival to attend can make it a full day. Below is a link to the festival with information. More information is being added daily hope you will enjoy a full day of friends, food, music, and art. There is suppose to be over 136 artists.

http://www.oxfordcvb.com/doubledecker/2011/index.html

February Meeting Prize Winners:

The following prizes were awarded at the February Meeting:

Annaree Carter:

Santa’s Village Sign

Ralph Norris:

Village Lighted Tree

Mary Collier:

Village Lighted Tree

Pat Malone:

I’ll Be Home for Christmas

Snowbaby

Still looking for

New Members:

We are still looking for new members to join our club.

If you have any friends or family that might be interested in joining please let them know about our club.

New Village Blog:

http://www.christmasvillagefun.blogspot.com/

I just wanted to let you know that there is a new Department 56 blog that is quite interesting. It talks about of lot of things and there arelot of interesting stories and articles about so many things related to village collecting.

Please be sure to check it out.