San Diego, CA - And the Villages Come Down

One of our favorite things to do in San Diego is helping my Aunt Marilyn take down, box up and stow away all of her villages until next October when she puts them all back up again. We’ve helped her with this task several years now and, though she still isn’t quite sure that we do it correctly, she does let us do it with her. This year we had a real treat, my cousin Tish, Marilyn’s daughter also came down from the Los Angeles area to help also. And, Fred, Marilyn’s husband, who is still somewhat laid up with his leg problems also came over. Hmmm. Sounds like a party, not a work battalion. But, isn’t that what makes work fun? ‘Many hands make light the work.’

(If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know that Marilyn and Fred married 14 years ago after their spouses had died when Fred was 82 and Marilyn was 76 - gosh, I hope Marilyn doesn’t see this blog - she might not want the world to know her age. They still live in their own homes since they both have activities and clubs in their own cities. They are together often and always on the weekends.)

But, first a few pictures of what the villages all look like in their glory. Well, actually, they are not in all their glory this year. Marilyn is slowly decreasing the number of villages she puts up each year. It is a lot of work and takes a lot of time but she enjoys looking at them so much that she does put up a lot. So, I can’t say that they are in their ‘full glory’ now. She used to have 3 levels in the kitchen but only has one now. She used to put up strings and strings of street lights which actually lit up but didn’t put them up this year. But, they all are real delights.

Here’s the village in the sun room. Each of her villages is on a foam platform above the table or counter below so that she can string the lights that glow in each of the buildings. She used to string all of the street lights under these platforms too. A long arduous project.

Here’s a small village in the entryway.

Here’s the detail of one.

And this is just a very small sampling of what she puts up in her home.

We got to her house about 10:00, got our assignments and began the day’s project. The order is: find and pack the people and other small objects first, then the carriages and wagons, then the houses and finally the platforms she has designed to hold them all. Grab a box or two with a picture of what you’re looking for on it and begin the hunt. She has villages in the three bedrooms upstairs, in the downstairs bathroom, in the entry way, in the family room, in the kitchen, 2 in the dining nook and several others spread around. Do the math, as my brother says: that’s 15 (count them - 15) places to look for these objects, some of which are 3” tall. Oh, my, maybe I need new glasses. We scurry around and, inevitably, what we are looking for in in the last place we look. Oh, yeah, some of the boxes have 4 objects which go in them. So we scurry around to 15 different areas to find 4 different objects. Whew. Luckily, I have my Misfit on counting all my steps. I’ll surely meet my goal today. Funny, Tish has her Fit Bit on too.

Tish came in a bit later and then Fred arrived. To say we didn’t get much done in the morning is an understatement. But, with 4 of us working it did go a bit faster.

Here’s Tish - wondering what in the world she should do with this building.

Marilyn was the supervisor and here she is in the family room beginning the packing job afer we have brought her some of the things to pack. She hates to have her picture taken but she takes such superb pictures.

Fred left to beat the rush home to Coronado and then it was time to quit since Marilyn had made a reservation to feed her ‘work crew’ at a local restaurant. Whew.

There is still more to do tomorrow but we made a great start.

Yes, I have a 12 Step Program: ’Never be more than 12 steps away from chocolate!’
                                                Terry Moore