Christmas Troubles and Towns

Last Sunday I was informed by my mom that the plant where my dad has worked for the last 18-20 years has been shut down. Apparently, the company, American National Rubber, filed bankruptcy and was bought out by another company. This company then proceeded to place ads in the paper to hire new employees before informing the former employees that they were fired.

Now, the old company was unionized and my dad had been the local union president for about 5 years now. Since the new company waited until foreclosure of ANR, they don't have to recognize the union and since my dad was president, there is almost no chance that he, or any other member of the union’s executive board will be rehired.

They could not have picked a worse time. In addition to the usually bills, they will have to deal with the Christmas spending on a reduced budget. My dad draws unemployment but it is not as much as he was getting. Plus, with the economy troubles, it will be very hard for him to find another job.

So I might be moving back home to help with utilities and other bills. I spoke to my landlord and he said that this being unforeseen circumstances, granted he could re-rent the apt, he didn't mind.

On a better note, every Christmas my mom puts up a large Christmas town set. She has been building on to it for about 10 years and has grown out of three former locations in the house. It started on the mantel, moved to the sideboard in the dining room, then to the dining room table.

It not only outgrew the table, it also got in the way. Three hundred sixty three days of the year, that table serves as my parent’s desk. It is only used on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It now lives from about mid-November to January on an 8x4 piece of plywood in the living room. My family uses the den for all activities, so it is not in the way there. When I was taking the pictures my dad told me that if she used all the houses, building and accents she had, it would cover a board twice as big. She must have 50 houses and well over 100 accent pieces.

So here it is: That's my dad, turning on the town set's lights.

This one is my favorite. This one nicely shows off the detail of the set.

Sorry this one is so blurry.