A tribute to Earl Martin

Earl Martin retired from Goddard Space Flight Center as a lead aircraft engineer and mechanic in 1991. He was a veteran having served in the Navy during WWII. He turned his woodworking hobby into a small business. Most of his creations were toys but he also made nativities. We first saw his work at the Christmas bazaar at Ss. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church Holiday Arts and Crafts Festival. We returned for several years buying one of his nativities at each one. We discovered another connection-he was the father of Sandy Hemphill. At that time Sandy's husband, David, was not our Pastor (he became our Pastor in 1997).

Stable by Earl Martin. Ceramic figures by Carole

I purchased the patterns for the two white nativities and asked Earl to make them for me.

The first nativity we bought from Earl Martin

It is

This nativity music box was Earl's prototype for future ones. He made it from a pew he purchased from his church and he gave it to us one Christmas. 

This is designed as a toy. Each piece has a magnet and there is a corresponding magnet glued to the base. Earl's wife, Peggy, did the painting.

A puzzle. All of the pieces fit into the stable which can also be used as a base for putting the pieces.

2018-19 Nativity Display

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We displayed 870 sets this year, down from 925 from last year because we took some out of the display to make it less crowded. 

There are more than 200 nativity sets/ornaments on the tree. We also put angels, stars, and crosses on the tree. 

It's been a long time since I worked on this blog

      It has been a long time since I worked on this blog. I reviewed it today to see what I have to do to bring it up to date. For the most part I add pictures in existing categories. In reviewing this blog I see that there are new categories to be added as well as lots of pictures to be added to existing one. I hope you will enjoy looking at my blog. It is by no means complete.
      I began the blog when we were living in Costa Rica for three months working as Mission Nannys. In the past few years we have been taking some of our nativities off of display and putting out some new ones. In 2017 we displayed 924 and this year's display (2018) we have 870 (more than 200 are on the tree).
     We begin putting up our display the beginning of November and have had it completed by Thanksgiving. We leave it up until the end of January hoping that many people will come to see it.
     I enter the Anne Arundel County Fair each year with at least three ceramic nativities (two in "Ceramics" and one in "Christmas") and one plastic canvas needlepoint nativity. Jack once entered a silk flower floral arrangement in "Christmas"). I have not paid too much attention to the "Christmas" categories and have always had to enter in "Table decoration below 12"). My entry this year got disqualified because the judge thought the imprinted  mold marking of 1999 meant it was not made in the 2018 entry year. This was actually a blessing because the lady in charge of Christmas is adding Nativity as a category. (The past two years haven't had any other nativities in the entire fair.). My goal in entering the fair is to remind people of the real meaning of Christmas.
   

Traditional one piece nativities

The nativities in this post have the traditional figures all in one piece. These are nativities that have not been documented because of special characteristics. I have included music boxes  because you wouldn't know it was a music box without turning it over.

I think we bought this at an after Christmas sale

Not sure how we acquired this one

Very large and very heavy nativity. While I was buying the five piece nativity cookie jar set (shown under "Nativities with a purpose" at the Christian Book Ship in Annapolis, I was talking about our nativity collection. This was sometime in the 90s. The owner gave this one to me because it had come in broken (one figure had broken off the base). He said it had come in broken and he had gotten his money back for it. I glued the broken figure back on and I cannot remember which one it was.

A gift from Kathy. I especially love the color of Joseph's clothes.

Short and squatty heavy resin nativity

Nativity fountan. The fountain no longer works.

A pair of nativities that came from Walgreens

Music box nativity

This music box nativity responds to motion, including changes in light. A light comes on behind the window in the back and the music comes on. We usually don't turn it on because it is so sensitive..

Very heavy music box nativity

A gift from Holly