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Show A , , i m v N -. i v - : H - - 5 S - 4 - . . . ...,..... ., . ... . .... -it . . k ; . v J ; -i '- Vy H r '. " pi I - - !' op! S : tm 1 VT7 .iv...,,,..,.....,,,,,,.,..,,.,,,,,, I Lee Atwood arranges train which is part of village built into his Christmas tree. I I This Christmas tree is !' home for imagination When the Lee Atwood family go looking for a Christmas tree, they j y look for the one nobody else wants. ' !' Then Atwood transforms it into J J(& one anyone would love to have UXY complete with miniature village, j people, and a nativity scene, j sf "We always look for the imper fect one the one nobody wants," Atwood said, explaining they go to the Christmas tree farm where they choose a tree that has grown out of a tree stump, giving it a unique bushy shape. He has it flocked wh ite for the first couple of years he flocked it Tree village includes ski lodges, frozen ponds and ice rah) skaters, and other winter scenes. himself but after ending up with the flocking everywhere but where he wanted it he decided to have it done professionally then places cotton at strategic places in and around the tree to resemble heavy snow. A tiny village is then set in the tree boughs. Among the 13 miniature buildings build-ings in the village are a "large" ski lodge complete with nativity scene in front, a medium size ski lodge, a church, a mill complete with paddle wheel, a train depot, and several small A-frames and log cabins. Skaters skate on a frozen ice-pond, ice-pond, a bridge provides a walkway across a smaller pond, and skiers ascend the trails from the hilltops to the lodge. There are deer, ducks, and other small animals. Tiny children and adults abound. Lights shine through the miniature windows of the structures, struc-tures, a small scale train is just coming from one tunnel and ready to cross over and go through a second sec-ond one. Atwood said he used to have the train going around the track, but it would get caught in the "snow" around the tree and when it stopped it was always (or so it seemed) behind the tree. He first began designing his unique structure "6 or 7" years ago when the family got ready to decorate deco-rate a tree they had just purchased. When they got it home, they found there was a "hole" in the . ... . , mv I middle where the tree had grown W!t around the stump. Instead of dis- Pj carding the tree, however, Atwood fcetj 8 decided to build a manger scene (ItJl i and put in the center. Then he 0m I highlighted it with lights. "You could only see it if you -ij 1 looked down into the hole," he H laughed. jLM The next year, he decided to V H make a similar tree but added a ' (Iv'xC $ lodge to go with the manger scene. Vax f Then, like Topsy, the village scene just kept growing. Q&i if "I didn't add any new buildings l this year but I did put in the tun- Tree Continued from front page . :iV he said, checking over it to tike sure. Hie train depot was the last wilding he designed, he said, and " t was last year. He designs and constructs each "tnebuildings himself, usingraw 'wood and balsa wood. Heshaves a 4 x 4 to less than an a8h inch thickness, using those esfor walls and roofs. Dowels sedtoform the logs for the log wans. a gravel and red lava rock can ; 'ound on some of the building : "signs. The church has white cal-: cal-: "fock on it; the little ski lodge, ' of flagstone. : Lights are part of the many :76s of miniature lights that w up the tree. j ,'"1983, he decorated a tree for 1 festival of Trees; another year ' ecorated one at the Dickens 1 in Salt Lake City; and he y honorable mention in the wman's Day" magazine contest. o years ago, he put one at a lbank."Wedecided(thatyear) A" a regular tree, but nobody 7 V he laughed. '"all, he has made 5 other sets "Plages. "When I first started, I just built "! and didn't care if the build- 8'were squared up. Then when I 0ne to the Festival of Trees, I gesureeverything was square." j 6lne then he has made a set of ePnnts to use in his construc-' construc-' f he buildings. Kj alles him parts of two days to ernLtlle tree each year- Fami,y L, rs set in the people where witthem. Hi v ntly retired from theUtah Jjway Patrol, Atwood said he j, "is designs while driving dowr "ighway. oLd 866 a building 1 liked anc iofi,stoP and make a sketch of il 11 have an idea where I wan tec idows,"he said. tow he's retired, he plans to dc JJj'gs from tree stumps, mak Km .horns. and eniy gins tc j, "tain Men rendezvous thai "o'lr, a he isnt dreaming u '"gelseto add to his Christ 98 tree village. |