All Is Calm, All Is Bright

How many of you remember having a train under your Christmas tree when you were growing up?

I think many of us who grew up in the 50's seem to have those kinds of happy memories. I know I sure do.

If you look behind this sweet little innocent angel, you can see there is a train and village under the tree...Yes, that's me, in one of my more angelic moments...they had to capture them whenever they happened, because they were fleeting and few...LOL.  

My interest in trains comes from a long time tradition in our family, starting with my father and his father. My grandfather actually built their first little train set, and then together they added to it over the years, and that interest led to my father having quite an extensive display when he retired and became a member of the "Toy Train Collectors of America"

I know I've shared the above picture recently, but it gives you an idea of just how much my dad loved trains. Here he is showing them to my son Matthew and grandson, when Noah was just 4 months old. I'm not too sure he fully grasped what it was all about at that tender age, but the rest of us were having a great time watching "Grandpa Choo-Choo" run those trains around and around the track.

When our three boys were little we always had a train set up at Christmas, but we also had it set up in their "playroom" for them to play with anytime. They had lots of fun mostly crashing the cars and seeing how much stuff they could load into the train cars without stalling the train. It was great fun to hear them laughing and making "choo choo" train noises.  Happy precious memories.

Here they are, circa 1980. We also incorporated their Fisher Price Village with the "Plasticville" Village houses and buildings, to make a fun and user friendly place to play.

Well, those trains and houses and buildings were all packed away many years ago, and with our many moves over the years and our boys growing up and moving away, we just never got around to unpacking those boxes and setting up the train again.  Our youngest son thinks it has been at least 35 years since we set the train up. Mostly because we didn't have the space or the patience to do it...

But the other day I just couldn't stop thinking about that train all boxed up out in our shed and wondering what kind of condition it would all be in after so many years and moves. And so hubby and I brought the old dirty boxes in and opened them up.

What a mess!

The box that had the buildings in it was in such bad shape, I already tossed the box, but here is what was inside: This is after I washed each and every single piece.  

The little church buildings and some others were so badly stained and dirty I had to just soak them in bleach for a while...and then began the repairs. Many pieces were broken, some were missing parts...what a mess!

But I was not to be deterred by the unfortunate mishandling of these precious goods over the years. I got to work scrubbing, and then gluing, "replacing" stained glass windows in the church (because the originals were made of paper that had basically disintegrated over the years in the heat of storage), and so I got the bright idea to glue ribbon inside the windows to create a lovely new look:

See how it looks with the lights on?

And after spending most of my day repairing, I called our woodworker son to ask if he had any spare plywood sitting around that he could bring over later if they wanted to come have spaghetti for supper. Of course that sealed that deal, and yes, he and our sweet daughter in love came over to see what was going on now...

And so after supper I put the family to work...the boys put the 4 x 4 piece of plywood under the tree that was already set up...yes, that was a feat that I should have photographed, but I was too busy telling them to be careful not to knock all the ornaments off the tree, and to be careful the tree itself didn't pull apart in the middle...and...and...and...you get the idea.

And they did it perfectly. You'd never know it wasn't done that way from the beginning.

And now here the brothers are, playing with the trains:

Just like in childhood, with the exception of one very important brother Matthew, but I bet he was watching the fun from heaven's windows. (I know there's no such thing, but then again, how do we know that for sure??? I like to think they can witness our happy times and that they are cheering us on)

And sweet daughter in love was put right to work building houses:

While I built the hospital:

And she built the barn, while I still built the hospital, because this Plasticville stuff doesn't like to stay together...the snap together sides don't like to stay snapped together. It can really be a pain...(that smile may be a little forced...)

But with some help I finally got the hospital ready to move...

Even had the second floor all set up with furniture:

And then it collapsed and we had to do it all over again. I think we decided to put some tape in the corners to hold it together after that...

Here's the pretty house Rose built. I wouldn't mind living there, would you?

And here's another nice house...

And a covered bridge...she was building all these things while I was still stuck on the hospital. LOL.

And then came the fun part of transferring them to under the tree and hoping they wouldn't fall apart again!  Somehow, with the help of my carpenter son, we managed to get them all in place.

Here is one video with Rose as the engineer for the first time ever. She enjoyed this very much, as did we all.

And here we have some pictures of the finished product...even that hospital is finally standing!

And the cows and horses are in the barnyard:

On Sunday morning the people were all at church.   There's even a little church back there on the other side of the tracks out in the country...

Some people live up in the hills in a log cabin, and have some wild animals roaming around while they build a snowman in the yard

And the people down in the town are waiting for the train to appear:

Sunday evening and the lights are on in the churches...people are having their Sunday evening services, perhaps singing Christmas carols or having the children's Christmas program....

Yes, I can hear the strains of 

"Silent Night, Holy Night,

All is calm, All is Bright.

Round yon Virgin,

Mother and Child.

Holy Infant so tender and mild.

Sleep in heavenly peace,  

Sleep in heavenly peace."

And thus ends another day in the little village under the tree, where the train goes round and round, and the people go about their daily business not realizing that someone is watching and helping them from beyond.

Just like here in our "little village"...

Someone is watching and helping  us from beyond....

Jesus...that "Holy Infant so tender and mild", the Son of God, 

grew to be a Man, and became the Savior of the world, 

so that we could

"Sleep in heavenly peace."

Amen.

And to all a good night!

Merry Christmas!

I just joined Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage for her Christmas "No Place Like Home" week 4. Please pop over there and visit the others who are sharing their special posts this week. Thank you!