Christmas Trains & Grandpa

My grandfather collected stuff. Most notably trains. He picked up a lot while in Germany after World War II. He favored the Marklin HO scale trains. I can remember trips to my grandparents house always included a trip to the shed to see what new things grandpa had done to the train set up since the last time we were there - and of course sneaking a coke without grandma or mom knowing. He came to live with us when I was in high school after my grandma passed away. He was grouchy until we cleared a space in the garage for him to set up his trains - ok he was still grouchy after we cleared the space, only just slightly less. We couldn't ever find the train cars that he wanted to purchase (or rather, we couldn't find the train cars that he wanted for the price we wanted to pay for them... the brand he liked was not cheap or easy to find) so we ended up finding him things that he could use for a village/town set up. We wanted to include him & his trains in our Christmas festivities, so we focused on town items that were Christmas specific. Since he has passed, my mom and dad have continued to purchase items to make his Christmas town so we could have our Christmas train have a nice Christmasy town to pass through. After several years of not being put up, my dad had the time to put things together this year. He did a great job - Madi loved it!