They are a comfortable well-to-do couple whose children have families of their own. As fate sometimes has it, their grandchildren are all girls, a lively bunch of kids who have the run of the house.

Marj admits that she can’t stop herself from buying clothes for them. After all, they grow so fast and girls’ clothes are so cute and — really cheap, at consignment shops. I see what she has been doing when I look in a long closet stuffed full of outfits in ascending sizes.

Marj confides that she’s saved a lot of her daughters’ toys and why not, today’s kids love them. She points to a row of dolls, sitting shoulder to shoulder, legs dangling, their tiny furniture stacked up close to them along with a blue and white tea china tea set with twice as many saucers as cups.

The bedroom near the hallway is painted dark navy. The ceiling has a trail of stick-on stars that glow in the dark and look like the Milky Way. Marj tells me Glen hurried to finish it one Friday afternoon just before the grandkids tumbled into their house dragging their over-night bags.

I’m thinking, who wouldn’t love being here? And Marj yells from upstairs, “Go ahead, take a look. ”

In the basement, there’s a huge stack of holiday wreaths, strings of lights wound tight on plastic reels, and a bunch of plywood stand-up caricatures  —  a giant elf, a witch and an Uncle Sam.  There are candy dishes and bric-a-brac, turkey place holders, candles, swags, banners and doormats.

Their kitchen table expands to seat 12 to 14; a place for the family to come together plus there’s a huge dog pad.

The living and dining rooms are tidy and little bit formal. Open shelves line most walls. Stacked neatly side-by-side are used books on things like insects, birds, and geography. The wallpaper is solid cream with an embossed gold chandelier pattern.

I pick up an orange and black cylinder shaped box with a lid, swivel it in my  hands and decide to bring it home. The lady working the sale, rings up my purchase, says, “I didn’t see that, that’s really nice.”

Yeah, it is, I thought. It’s all very nice and I wonder what it means. And I wish good will on those little girls.

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