Christmas Season has begun; The Village 2013 is completed!

Our goal every year is to complete and light our presentation of a Department 56^® collectible Victorian Collection^© and Charles Dickens Collection^© during Thanksgiving Weekend.  We begin our project on Veterans' Day and work on it mostly during weekends when our daughter can help us.  We dismantle the Village shortly after New Year's Day.

We've been putting progress reports here and so these are probably among our last words on the Village for this year.

All the structures and a few accessories are electrified so the last act of construction is to "flip the switch."  Right on schedule, we "flipped" it Thanksgiving night.

The majority of the pictures I take of the project have now been published on my personal website for family and friends.  However, I've chosen six to show you here.

The Village is divided into five areas.  The one above is what we call "The Main Section."  You can see the structures and accessories on the table, but you can't see the Department 56 Fresh Fallen Snow that, when viewed at our home, gives it the winter wonderland feel.  Way off in the back corner is a mountain with a lodge and many woods creatures.

This close-up of one part of the Main Section gives a little more idea of the detail throughout our display.

The Skating Pond is also a featured Main Section creation.  The pond was built by our daughter but the figures and accessories are Department 56.

In our front window area is the story of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  Nearly all the structures and accessories are from the story.  It is probably the favorite section of most of our visitors.

 

There's a lot of activity in the Dickens Village Square.

Finally, we have this view from a narrow section that runs the length of one side of our sectional sofa against the wall. 

I hope you've enjoyed our quick look at the family Christmas Village.  Friends and family can see the full photo gallery on my personal website.  If I had a clue on how to post such things as the gallery on Facebook, I would have done it, too.

Merry Christmas, Dave

Village - 2

As you know, we, i.e. my wife, daughter and I, erect a village display in our living room as our celebration of the Christmas season.  We start work on the project on Nov. 11th, not because it's Veteran's day, but because it is also my wife's and my wedding anniversary.  Our goal is to have the display lighted and ready for enjoying during Thanksgiving Weekend.

We were ahead of schedule this year.  In all fairness, because the 11th was on a Monday, we got our start on the previous Saturday giving us a two day head start.

 

I have three scenes from the Village to show you today.  The one above depicts Charles Dickens reading his A Christmas Carol to listeners in a park in his section of our display.  Below is another view of the Town Square park.

My problem of the flash washing out parts of pictures has been corrected, thanks to Adobe, and the corrected pictures will appear when I give you a final peek in the next post. 

 

All of the structures, people, carts, and other similar accessories are collectibles from the Department 56® Victorian and Charles Dickens collections.  About 90% of the trees are from Department 56 as is all of the "New Fallen Snow."  Two major areas are homemade: a cemetery and a skating pond.

In all of these pictures I'll blame the weekend's high winds for the leaning of some of the trees.

 

The full photo gallery on my personal website will feature all corrected pictures.  The website is scheduled to be completed this weekend.

 

Dave

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nothing fancy here this day;  just a very simple

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.  I hope you enjoy this bountiful day.  And don't forget to be thankful for the wonderful food you have been provided.

Dave

Village is ready -- 1

As you know, we, i.e. my wife, daughter and I, erect a village display in our living room as our celebration of the Christmas season.  We start work on the project on Nov. 11th, not because it's Veteran's day, but because it is also my wife's and my wedding anniversary.  Our goal is to have the display lighted and ready for enjoying during Thanksgiving Weekend.

We were ahead of schedule this year.  In all fairness, because the 11th was on a Monday, we got our start on the previous Saturday giving us a two day head start. 

I have three scenes from the Village to show you today.  Each of these are from a long, narrow section behind on leg of our sectional sofa.  My flash washed out some of the pictures, but you can see the intricate detail we attempt to include.

I'll work on that flash situation before I publish a full gallery on my website.

 

All of the structures, people, carts, and other similar accessories are collectibles from the Department 56® Victorian and Charles Dickens collections.  About 90% of the trees are from Department 56 as is all of the "New Fallen Snow."  Two major areas are homemade: a cemetery and a skating pong.

All these samples come from a section we call The Couch Section.  In all of these pictures I'll blame the weekend's high winds for the leaning of some of the trees.

 

We'll have three samples from the most popular section, a representation of Charles Dickens' story of Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim in the next showing in a day or two.

 

Dave

Village Weekend 3

From a display out of the past.

 

Our annual Christmas Village celebration of the season is completed and ready for viewing.  However, we'll maintain our annual plan of officially lighting it and opening it for display on Thanksgiving.  But it is finished for this season one weekend ahead of schedule.

 

Dave

Village 2nd weekend

Last time we told you that our village 2013 is well underway.  You can read about the village itself here in the last post.  Our goal every year is to begin the construction of the village on Veterans' Day, Nov. 11th, and complete it for showing that Thanksgiving Weekend.  We started on time but it now looks like we'll be finished this coming weekend.

We won't open it officially, though, until after Thanksgiving as the village is our celebration of the Christmas season, which in our house runs between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, or unofficially until New Year's Day.

We completed the construction of the tables we created to hold the display of Department 56 Victorian and Dickens collections structures and accessories.  This year's structures have all been placed and trees and accessories have been added to a large portion of the display. 

 

A limited edition of Charles Dickens' reading his story, A Christmas Carol, highlights the central section of our display .  Most all the pieces in this section highlight places in the story.  Those three buildings in the back, for example, are Ebenezer Scrooge's home, the Scrooge and Marley office, and Nephew Fred's home.

As we place the structures in the "main" section of our village, you can get an idea of what our table structure, Styrofoam base, and wiring looks like.  Once completed, we put a skirt around the whole layout to conceal everything under the very top.

Many of the trees have not yet been added, but we have five boxes of them, two shown here, just waiting to give some life to the display.

 

During the week we'll add most of the trees and accessories and next Saturday and, perhaps Sunday, my wife and daughter will put the skirt around the outside.  The final touch, New Fallen Snow, also Department 56, will be sprinkled about and our village 2013 will be completed, but waiting for another week before it becomes official.

 

Dave

Village Time

As we've done for years, we began construction of our Christmas Village during the Veteran's Day Holiday Weekend.  We made some pretty good progress, too.  It helps to be using the same basic table (base) design for the third year in a row, but the placement of the structures and accessories change annually.

About 99% of our Village arises from Department 56® Victorian© and Charles Dickens© collections.  Even the Newly Fallen Snow© is from the collections.  We do have a skating pond and a few trees that are not Department 56.  The Village uses one wall section between part of our sectional sofa and a wall, the entire window section and the area behind the other section of the sofa is the story of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge.  The biggest section is near our front door.

We're off to a good start this year and will easily meet our goal of officially lighting the completed Village during Thanksgiving weekend.

Here is the wall section mostly completed:

We still need to add the accessories like trees to this section, but that will wait until the final weekend.  The last to be added to the table tops is the snow and then we conclude with a skirt around all the tables.

The structures for the window section and some of the accessories are now in place in about half of the window section.  When it is completed, it will consist mostly of structures and people in the Christmas Carol story.  Annually, this is the most popular section of our presentation.  That white box in front contains the next structure to be added, but we were getting tired as stopped here.

 

Still to come is what we call the "main" section, part village, part farmland, part woods and mountain.  That has not yet been started.  We have a waterfront group of structures and accessories that we're considering adding this year after a couple years absence.  That may not happen, though, as we're still in the talking/planning stage for the main. 

 

Another part of our collection is mostly rather large pieces and very much out of scale with the rest.  We had hoped to include them this year, but they look so out of place, that plan may be abandoned.  In years past those pieces had a table display all to themselves when our Village was in three rooms.  We've now consolidated all the presentation into just the living room.

 

Now the construction phase is "on hold" until this next weekend.  We'll show you the progress then when the weekend is over.

 

Dave

 

Busy, busy weekend

Edited:  Monday, Nov. 11:  This is a very important day.  First, Thank You to all you veterans' for protecting us for the past couple hundred years.  We really do appreciate what you have done and offer you our humble salute.

 

However, another very important event is also being celebrated today in our home.  It was 52 years ago today that my wife Sandra and I gave our vows in our church.  We've had 52 always wonderful years even though we, like everyone, have faced some tough times.  Perhaps it was facing those times that got us here today as they were faced and conquered together.  The very best part is the good times will continue after today.  So, to my super wife Sandra, thank you for 52 great years of trust, growth, and companionship.  I'm very happy that they are continuing.

 

Happy Anniversary, Sandra.  I love you even more than I did on the November day in 1961.

 

And now, back to my normal blogging.  And village construction continues. . .



 

Hmmm.  I wonder why she isn't interested in my big ball.

 

The family fun begins this weekend.  Oh, it has nothing to do with the two dogs playing outside, although weather permitting they will get a lot of time.  No, this is the weekend we celebrate 52 years of our family being a family.  Well, two of us, anyway.  A daughter and a son joined us later in the 1960s.

 

Monday is Veteran's Day, the day we traditionally begin creating our seasonal (Christmas) village.  This year we're taking advantage of the honor vets day to have our daughter here each weekend day, including Monday, to begin putting it together.  If all goes well, and it should, we plan each year to have the village completed and lighted by the end of the weekend following Thanksgiving.  We have almost three weeks this year.

 

Our village is constructed from Victorian and Charles Dickens' collectables from Department 56.

 

Our outside landscape is about to undergo a major change.  We arranged today for a couple of very old, large, probably diseased (according to the arborist), and dying oak trees to be removed.  One problem we've had with them for the last few years is the snow and ice on their limbs in the winter.  Some of those limbs are between the power lines coming into our home.  Winds cause the limbs to bounce off the wires and a couple years ago even pulled the line out of the side of our house.

 

They have completed their useful life.  There's a good chance I won't miss the acorns, though.

 

My goodness.  That got me thinking.  I sure hope someone doesn't determine I've completed my useful life while I'm still alive. 

 

Have a great weekend yourself.

 

Dave

Maine, a Center of Volcanoes

Our little grand puppy visited us today (Sunday).

Here are a couple of new pictures that show a little how well our 10-year-old dog and our daughter's puppy have adjusted to each other.

On the left is Mariah, our dog with her ever present ball, and Brandy racing to see it. 

The two of them seem to have found a scent of something and are wondering what it is.

Did you watch on TV or, even better, go to Boston to see the Red Sox Rolling Rally to thank the fans for supporting them in the World Series, which, if you've been in the dark, the Sox Won in six games?  The huge crowds were estimated to be anywhere between 1.5 million and 2.5 million people, depending on whom you believed.  It sure did look like more than two million on the TV.

Some of the speeches at Fenway to begin the showing were quite interesting, but perhaps a real highlight was when the parade stopped at the marathon finish line to pay tribute to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing last spring.  Even the weather celebrated the Boston victory as a nicer day could not have been possible.

On another topic, learning for us older folk really never stops.  I've been a Mainer just about all my life, actually all except about six years way back in the late 1950s and early '60s but I read a story over the weekend and learned something I don't remember ever knowing before.  Some of the biggest volcanoes of all time were right here in the State of Maine, although I think there's a possibility the area wasn't called "Maine" those 420 million years ago.

The information was learned from a report delivered by Sheila Seaman to the Geological Society of America at it's annual meeting and reported by Fox News today.

She told the attendees that at least four super volcanoes were spread out along 100 miles of the Maine coast with Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park, which is on the island, as a central point.  Isle au Haut, part of the Park, may have been a heart of a volcano.

According to the Fox News report, "Volcanic rock layers on Maine's Cranberry Island have a 2,300-foot-thick  layer of welded tuff, a rock formed from volcanic ash. The welded tuff from Toba's most recent blowout is 2,000 feet thick, Seaman said. On the remote Isle au Haut, part of Acadia National Park, the volcanic rocks are more than 3 miles thick, Seaman said. They're capped by an immense ash flow, more than 3,200 feet thick."

You can read the full Fox News report here.

I'd be remiss to ignore the Florida Gators' football team, one of the nation's powerhouses for the past decade and now one of its also rans.  As just about all we Gators knew would happen, the Gators lost to its most arch rival, the Georgia Bulldogs, for the third straight year.  The reason is simple:  they don't have a coaching staff.

When former coach Urban Meyer left three years ago, for some unknown reason the UF athletic director hired someone with no head coaching experience.  He demonstrates his incompetence every weekend and, since anyone who has seen a Florida game either live or on TV can call this guy's plays before every down, opposing coaches are having less and less difficulty.

The Gators may win one more game this year against a lower level club on their schedule, but it'll be very hard to watch them play South Carolina and Florida State.  The Seminoles will enjoy their alligator lunch and I dread thinking about the potential final score.

Gator coach Muschamp has simply got to be let go and some experience put in his place.  The aforementioned Meyer, on the other hand, now coaches the Ohio State Buckeyes and has them undefeated so far for the second straight year.

Dave