our village keeps growing

I grew up with lots of traditions over the holidays. I hope to instill some of them with dylan as well as start some of our own. one of them, which is sort of a combination of old and new, is our Christmas village.

we get a new house and people almost every year and this year we even had to add another table! although I will draw the line at building a separate room if it ever comes to that! sean prefers everything more spread out, while I like the crowded look (kind of like our landscaping discussions! ha ha). his sister and brother-n-law have an amazing, huge village, and seeing theirs got us excited to start our own….all those years ago.

to say that dylan loves our village is an understatement. he helps me unwrap every piece, he carefully places every new piece we buy or receive (my mom often buys some for us) in the perfect spot, and he proudly shows everyone that comes to the door “the MacDonald Village”.

after we had unwrapped everything, I got distracted doing something else (no surprise there), so dylan decided that this year he wanted to create a mini village on my great-grandmother’s buffet that we have in our entryway. all the mini houses, trees and figurines were ones from my childhood, as well as my grandmother’s. my mom thinks she even made the little ceramic train. he was SO PROUD of his display. (and never mind the fact that it is SO not where I would have put it….I held my tongue. how could I rain on his excitement? I have come so far as a mother!)

he designed the “christmas tree’s for sale” section all by himself! putting them all within a little fence with the sign outside. so creative!

our 2011 addition….the colonial house. oh how I miss those!

more detailed construction….

it is so much fun to look at everyday. I did find a lego guy on the park bench yesterday, but so far, I haven’t found this…..(picture from last year)