One of my mom's favorite activities was ceramics. She made all kinds of things,,animal and human figures, napkin holders, plaques, buildings and more. She made a large Nativity scene for herself and smaller sets for my sisters and me. You'll see a photo of my set later in the photo section. Early in one November I took her to the ceramic shop. It was a great place with shelves of all kinds of greenware for people to buy and finish themselves. Two sisters owned and operated the little shop just outside a small town. They had all the supplies needed to do the work with tools, paint brushes, paints, stains, and decals. And they had three tables so people could work on their projects and if finished, leave them there to be fired. Mom would spend a morning or afternoon working. So on that day I stayed with her so I wouldn't have to make the trip back. I figured I would enjoy watching her. While there, I had an idea and asked her to make a snow village for my Christmas present. She thought it would be a good idea and picked out a church and school to do first. If you've never done ceramics, you probably don't know the work that goes into finishing a piece. You have to scrape off the excess clay from where the two halves of the mold comes together, from the windows, and the base and smooth out any imperfections. And you have to be careful because the clay is still wet and crumbly. Well, I watched her for a while, then she asked me to help her clean one of buildings. It was fun, but that's all I planned to do. It was her present to me right? We left them to be fired and went home. When we went back the next week, she asked me to paint the school while she painted the church. That got me hooked! I took over the village. I picked out a bakery and took it home to clean and paint. That started a series of 2 day a week visits to the little shop with me adding more pieces. Meanwhile, Mom had started another project. Next came 2 houses, then another two houses, a bank, a market, a toy store, a post office and on. Each was painted with different colors and I kept a record of the paint schemes of each building in case one of them didn't come out right or was broken. By the week before Christmas my snow village, complete with lights was completed. I had spent all my free time from work working on the village and had been very detailed in the painting down to the face on the wooden soldier out side the toy shop. I found some very small human figures at stores around town to complete the scene and we set it up on a big plywood board in the living room. I was quite proud of myself. My sisters came home for Christmas and both thought the village was pretty. So pretty that my older sister asked if I could make one for her! Well, I had all the paints written down and I agreed, telling her it might take a little longer since I only had Saturdays to work on it at the shop. She said to take as long as I needed. In about three months, I sent it to her in California thinking,"That's That". Wrong! When her daughter saw the village, she called and asked if I could make her one! I couldn't say no. I loved doing it. I'd really gotten into it, buying all kinds of brushes and tools. This set took four months and got to her in time for Christmas. I haven't done any ceramics since then, mainly because the sisters retired and there is only one ceramic shop left in the area. I still have the village, but don't have a place to display it in my house. The layout covered a four by six area. But, I remember the challenge of making the village,,,,,and the fun.