.jpg)
This is the first Christmas since we moved to this house, about 4 years ago, that I've put up my nativity scene and my Santas. Their boxes were stored in the storage shed until this fall when Joe cleaned it out and found them for me. I'm so happy to be able to use them to decorate the house again. The nativity figures originally belonged to Joe's Mom; they are plastic but were made in Italy and I like their design. This year I bought a little stable to house them in. I now want to find a star and some sheep to add to the scene. It is important to me to keep in mind that we are celebrating the birth date of Jesus Christ at Christmas. It is so easy to get overwhelmed with all the shopping and preparations instead of sitting at the feet of Jesus and accepting the peace that he came to bring us.We've just finished studying the sisters Martha and Mary of Bethany in our Women of the Bible group and I tend to be a natural Martha, except that I'm not that great at keeping house and cooking anymore. I am good at driving myself and becoming resentful about making myself so tired and guilty about what I don't get done. So it is good for me to have the nativity scene around to gently remind me to relax and enjoy. I also have an old King James version of the Bible, opened to the birth of Jesus in Luke, on the shelf next to the nativity scene.
The small collection of Santas have just attached themselves to me over the years, starting with the little celluloid Santa Christmas tree lightbulb, from when I was a child. The big celluloid Santa belonged to my Granny. I get a big kick out of the 2 Santa's elves that were made in Occupied Japan and have faces straight out of a Japanese folktale. These and the similar Santas as well as the tiny house and brush trees came in a box purchased at auction when we had our antique store about 18 years ago. Some things were just too good to sell to someone else.I'm also making some Christmas quards with the family photo my son took at Thanksgiving
printed onto fabric. I'm simply fusing these onto stiff stabilizer, backing them with some lovely new metallic polka dotted fabric and satin stitching around the edges.In addition to the small nativity scene, above, I have needlepointed all the figures for another nativity. They've been hidden away in a drawer in my studio-bedroom for several years, which is a shame, because they are fantastic. Every year I forget about them until too late in the season to get them done. Finishing them is one of the goals I'm adding to my 2007 list.
Monday was Joe's birthday so I made a pot roast and biscuits dinner topped off with German chocolate brownies and ice cream; Joe's had a candle on top. I gave him a couple of Theodore Roosevelt's autobiographical books because he recently told me about the big old Roosevelt autobiography that he used to read from at a relatives house years ago but never managed to read the entire thing. I couldn't find an old copy like the one he read, but I found the recent reprint of the autobiography and another book he wrote about his experience on the ranch. Now he can read the rest of the story.
2 comments:
Isn't it wonderful when you find a treasure you haven't seen for a while~ it's like having it be all new all over again, but still it has the fondness that grows over time.
Thanks for sharing the figurines from your childhood.
My husband's birthday was Saturday. When he was a lad his birthday would always get passed over and combined with Christmas because his parents and relatives were too busy with Christmas preparations. I think that's so sad.
Funny how the holidays bring out the memories.
Just think---last year would you have been making Christmas quards for your relatives?? You continue to bloom! It's great to be a part of that!
Post a Comment