Our farm – in the village

My mother started a Christmas village many years ago.  Over the years, as the family grows – so does the village.  Each of her children and several other extended family members has a house, there is Stop-N-Shop, Ray’s Station, various churches, the grade school, a park, a reindeer training facility, North Pole etc.  As the grandchildren have grown and had families, they have started adding in their houses.  This thing takes a small army several days to assemble to Mom’s specifications complete with trees, mailboxes and streetlamps.  Each house has the appropriate “people”.  My house has me and Jim, Lexie, Candice, and David.  Jennifer and Jeremy have their own house with their kids. etc.

There are several inside jokes that are placed in this village every year.  There is a fox that is placed by Mom’s house every year because she fed a fox off her backporch for several summers.   There is an ostrich, because of an emu story.  There are horses at Andrea’s farm.  There is an art studio for Tiffany and AJ’s house is always at the top of the hill.  This is serious stuff.  Sentimental, funny, and pretty.

This year Bernie added a train – which was a great hit!  It was really cool!

But, my surprise this year was that my mom fixed me a barn complete with goats in the yard and a farmer with overalls on.   So, our family went from just a house – to a house and a barn.  Our farm sits very close to Andrea’s farm – in real life and in the village.  It was just another cool part of the holidays!  Thanks to Andrea and Bernie who were most of the village creation crew this year.  It turned out beautifully!