Wintertown 2004

Our humble beginnings...

Wintertown 2012

Nine years ago, my grandpa and grandma got front page coverage in the local newspaper for their last and greatest vintage Christmas village display.  The next year, my family picked up the tradition, and we've been expanding our Victorian village ever since. We still haven't reached the grandeur of our grandparent's display, but we get closer every year. Rather than just set up our village for Christmas, we decided to create a seasonal winter village.

Here is the ninth annual display of Wintertown. I may post pictures of our grandparent's 2003 display and our first display for comparison.

 Wide-shot with our Michigan March snow out the windows

 Town center

 South side of town

 North side of town

 The firehouse and a ritzy new mechanical marvel cruising down Main-street

 The bank and barber shop (that's the place for local news, you know.)

 Royal Oak Presbyterian Church (given to us by Grandpa and Grandma McClure; it is the name of their church.)

 The city hall, hotel, and restaurant, with some carolers in the foreground

A fife and drum parade!

 The one-room schoolhouse and gingerbread house

 The park; usually frequented by young couples. Christ Covenant Church stands nearby (named after our church here in Midland).

 The skating rink; a child's delight

 Behind the town, Westminster Presbyterian Church (named after our previous church in Vincennes, Indiana).

 The town cannon, and an anachronism underneath (see if you know what it is...it's our little joke!)

 Town life: a man is passing out some newspapers while having a chat with his daughter. Meanwhile, the gentleman in front is trying to restrain his dog from "treeing" a cat on top of the mailbox.

 The train-station

 More local happenings around the park

 Country life: re-shoeing a horse.

 My favorite piece: two gentlemen discussing politics from today's issue of the newspaper.

HELP WANTED

My dear friends,

I need some peer review for the first three chapters of my thesis on Scottish history. Who's interested in helping me out? Please email me (at the address in my bio to the right side of the page), and I'll send you a copy. Be ruthless; I need this to make sense to the general reader. I will add a short introduction and conclusion soon, but for now, I need to see if this is working.

Thanks,
Wesley

The Eighth Wonder of the World

Not in Egypt... Not in Asia... Not in Europe... In my own farm-country state of Indiana, near where I grew up. Please take a few minuets and view this magnificent monument (be advised: mute the euphemism of God's name at 0.35-0.39).

San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival

Just watched the Christian Film Fest last night; a very God glorifying ceremony with many Christian testimonies.

Greetings for the Great White North

Welcome to the crisp woods of Middle Michigan; some of you may know it better as Narnia. We had another great snowfall the night before last, and now the snow lies deep and quiet about our great northern forests. In the words of my sister, today's sunshine is truly a "glorious morning." The thermometer read -5 degrees Fahrenheit at 9:00am. Hear are some pictures...

Yesterday:

 "A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood... with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air...."

 

This Morning:

"There was a crisp, dry snow under his feet and more snow lying on the branches of the trees. Overhead there was a pale blue sky, the sort of sky one sees on a fine winter day in the morning. Straight ahead of him he saw between the tree-trunks the sun, just rising, very read and clear."