The Holiday Village

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Originally uploaded by FuzzyKryton

As I sit here today trying to decide what to write about, I find myself browsing through holiday pictures and am drawn to the ones of my mom's holiday village that she sets up each year.

This village started about 15+ years ago with just a few houses set up on a small table in our living room. She said that she was going to add one house to the village each year. Each year she would add a building to the was reflective of events of the year, family activities or personalities. But very quickly we realized that adding just ONE house a year would never happen! Each year it was 2-3 houses or more.

Almost all of the houses were lit from the inside with small lights. Finding enough extension cords to plug everything in was always a task. Someone was ahead of the game thought - there were cord designed for just this type of set-up with 6 lights on one cord so it took less outlets and extension cords to light the town.

Her village quickly outgrew it's small table in the living room and she had to find a bigger table. Moving caused other dilemma's - the But she made it work - and still managed to add more to this every growing holiday spectacle!

The newest feature of these houses are "open" windows that feature the inside of the house! Many of the new houses have families sitting around the kitchen table or enjoying time in their own living rooms!

With one more move now complete, she has a bigger living room to work with again! Once again the large table that was home to the village was no longer big enough! The good news - the bay widow in the apartment provided extra "land" space for the growing city!

Yes, we have graduated from a small village to a full blown city. We have now added more trees, people, vehicles, a ski hill it shows no signs of slowing it's growth!

This year as she was working on setting up her city, her neighbor from across the hall had to stop over everyday to see the building progress. With all the buildings, people, trees and everything else that is part of this annual presentation, it usually takes her a few weeks to get everything set up! One of her other friends has already told her that she wants to be there for the town raising next year!

Maybe next year we will manage to actually get a picture of the entire thing - we forgot to do that this year when we were visiting! Might need to get John a good fish-eye lens for his camera!