And: I'm going to try and keep it simple. A picture, a few words (or many, depending on my mood), and boom! Done. (Because you know how good I am at keeping things simple, right?)
This is my first favorite thing:
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It doesn't look like much, and honestly, it's tiny and easily overlooked. I bought it for our very first Christmas. That year, we borrowed a 3 foot fake tree from my sister and I covered it in 500 Christmas lights. It was the year I bought the garland that used to go on my railing at my old house and now goes on the mantle in my new house. We had about 20 ornaments (mostly bought from Harmon's while grocery shopping.) I loved our decorations and was proud of our efforts.
But, I was troubled that nothing represented the true meaning of Christmas. One of my favorite memories of Christmas was getting out my mom's porcelain nativity every year - her baby Jesus was not attached to his manger, and I always loved holding the tiny baby and then fitting him into his bed. In our newly married poverty, I didn't have the means or the confidence to buy a nativity of my own. So, one day I was in the Deseret Book in the ZCMI mall and I found this little one piece nativity. I was happy that I had in a tiny way invited the baby Jesus into our Christmas celebrations. i added him to our decorations and it's been with us ever since.
It's funny how the tiny things, the unplanned simple events end up meaning the most. I have another more traditional nativity with the animals and the angels and shepherds that I set up each year. And for all the memories that nativity has, I still feel partial to this first one, the one that came out of a true desire in my heart. Most people would overlook it, but it brought me joy that first Christmas.
1 comment:
I love Nativity sets. My Mom collected them and probably had at least a dozen in the living room every year at Christmas time. I have one, but I love it so much. It's a simple hard carved set of rosewood from Zimbabwe that consists of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and two hippo's. Yes, that's right, according to this artist there was not only one, but TWO hippopotami at the birth of the Savior.
"You mean to tell me there was more than one lobster at the birth of Jesus?" -Love, Actually.
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