Monday, December 22, 2008

Oh, Come Let Us Adore Him



A few years ago, my brother gave each of us (my 4 sisters and I) a little nativity (the wooden one below), and said he wanted to start a tradition where each year we get a new nativity set. We take turns, so when it is our year to buy, we find a nativity to buy for each of our siblings as part of the giving for that year. I now have 8 from this tradition, so it's turned into a little collection.

Here are 6 of them:
And 2 more - a cookie cutter set, and one with pieces the kids can take off and put back on.

And I have a few other nativities, too, though I don't know where I would put them all without our big mantel. Here's our living room, with some of my small nativities, and my Willow Tree set that I love.


(No nativies, but here's our living room before I rearranged the whole room to make a less-direct-crawling-path-to-the-tree).*


Some of my small one's on the mantel (and just out of my boy's reach).



This one is from my Nana. I love it because it reminds me of her house at Christmas time. So fun to see her decorations and one of my favorite places to be at Christmas (or anytime)!


I also really like this one Great-Grandma Wilson sent me last year.


And below, one Grandma Knippers got for the kids to play with. It has been well played with, and only a few wiseman hands and a donkey ear couldn't take the roughness.


Last but not least, a moose nativity ornament John got me one year.

This is not all - Olivia has one on her dresser that I was going to give to Goodwill before she found it, and a few other small ones not pictured. And I haven't even bought any, besides the one I got for everyone on my turn.

*I took some pictures of our house a while ago (October, as you can see) that I was going to post for some of you far away (like my sisters who claim they'll make it up here sometime) so you can see all the grandeur of our little rental (including the ugliest kitchen in America). So maybe I'll still get around to that sometime.

But for now, Merry Christmas!

We're pretty much snowed-in here (about 8 inches on our lawn, and in Seattle, "what's a snowplow?"), so maybe I'll post more soon. Or maybe I'll wrap presents, watch the snow fall, and make more cookies instead!

5 comments:

Cailean said...

That's an amazing tradition. What a great idea! Nativities are the best part of the season. We only really have one that we put out and it has many missing ears and tails and shepherd's canes (or whatever). :) You do have an awesome mantel and SO not the ugliest kitchen!

Laura and crew said...

We have a similar nativity collection and each year we add another one. I love having them spread around so we think of the true meaning of Christmas...and its cool to see all the different styles and the interpretations of that special event. I love your cookie cutter set and the one from your Nana.

Merry Christmas!

Michelle Price said...

Those all look familiar! I know what you mean about finding a place for them all--I have two that didn't make it out this year. But at least they were not any of these cute ones. I hope you guys are having a merry Christmas eve. We miss you! We'll talk to you tomorrow.

Nancy Mc said...

I love all the Nativities. What a great treadition to take turns buying new ones for each other. I'm sure great memories surround each one.

Colette and The Chickenwings said...

I love this. What a great tradition!