De-railed!!

Oh, boy.  The train is off the tracks here!  Thursday the little houses were to be put up and there is nary a one to be found anywhere in the house.  They are all still in the garage!  No garlands are up outside.  Terry really wants Ava and Kai to enjoy the houses so he decided to go into think mode and ended up building a shelf, just their height, so they can peek in the houses with ease.  He took an old shelf from the garage, cut it to the length he wanted it and then proceeded to design some sort of apparatus to hold it on the wood burning stove top.  In his intense concentration of manhandling the shelf, for placement, he banged the tree a couple of times, it shook and some gold beads slipped.

Also the new heater purchased Wednesday, our gift to ourselves, was what caused the power outage and not the tree.  The choice for Thursday was...enjoy new heater or enjoy all our lights.  We had a blackout of all lights and chose the heater.  Has infrared and we really enjoyed it.

My mechanic channeling his inner carpenter.  See the heater?

all things banged around can be picked up and put back on!

He is one kind & thoughtful Gramps!

Correct heighth.  house-less shelf.

Our handmade halibut ornament

Not looking on schedule.

And so the day went.  busy with no tangible results on the houses and etc. but the most important thing of all was put out-- the Nativities.  I'm not one that wants statues.  I wasn't raised with it but I do admit to growing in love and appreciation of Nativities, over time.

When our children were growing up we had one Nativity with all the pieces.  I have no idea what ever happened to it.  IF I was raising my children again....I'd buy a nativity every year. (much like people collect ornaments or nutcrackers  or other Christmasy items)  It wouldn't have to be big or spendy.  I'd let them play with it and tell the story over and over.  I wish I'd done that.  Maybe you will think about doing that yourself!

With the world working harder and harder to eliminate Christmas and the mention of Christ, I find myself wanting to take a stronger stand in my own home, that all of these decorations are in celebration of the fact that I/we believe that Christ was born and it's a day, a time, a season to celebrate that fact.

We have a simple white 3 piece Nativity also but it's in the garage, somewhere, with the houses.  It will turn up.  Tomorrow.  Terry will be surprised when a couple of new ones show up this year.  I love them grouped together in pure simplicity.  a peaceful setting.

This one is on an antique doily done by one of our grandmothers.
I love the detail and feeling of this one.  A friend had one and I had to have one also.

This is new and fascinating.  It's called a pillar nativity.  The 9 pillars can be separated and different arrangements can be made to tell the story of the Nativity.  It is some sort of resin.  Just gorgeous.  I look forward to having others see it and enjoy it.  It's a work of art.  Has sort of an antique script on each one, on 2 sides, with a corresponding scripture for that pillar.

 This is an ornament reminding us that two of our children lived in Jerusalem at the BYU Study Abroad for 6 months.  The baby Jesus is olive wood from Jerusalem.  Jeanee sent us an olive wood Nativity set but it was stolen at the post office over there, replaced with dirty clothes and some sort of husks.  The baby Jesus is all that is left.  (Lots of lessons there for sure.)  The animals are reminders of that night.  All of these Nativities can be handled by a 2 and 4 year old.  I look forward to seeing them enjoy them.  

Peace.  Simplicity.  The reason for the season.