2 days till Christmas

I have four beautiful nativities on my buffet in our dinning room. The large one was bought by us at hobby lobby. The have nice sales on nativities before Christmas and my husband thought we needed a larger one for the house. The tiny glass one was given to me about 11 years ago by my sister. I have a nativity Advent wreath (on the left). It was given to my by my Mother, she is very good at catching my little hints that I toss around. I do not have any blue candles in it because I have looked at three stores for them and could not find them. This item will now be on my list every time I go to town so that I will have them for next year. We do have a white Jesus candle in the center that we will light after our Christmas Day Divine Service. And finally, I was just given the Nativity snow globe by my husbands Grandmother. I have a few other snow globes but have not posted the pictures of them yet.

On our piano in the dinning room I have two German Christmas pyramids. The one on the left was bought in Germany by my Mother. We lived in Germany from 1989 till 1992. My Father was in the Air Force and was stationed over there while I was in high school. I miss those lovely Christmas markets that they had there.
And here is the infamous "large red candle". I do not like, let me say it again. I Do Not Like The Red Candle! My husband teaches Sunday school at our church and he got this two years ago from one of his students. I was making fun of the thing even before it was unwrapped. I really believe that it will be a part of my Christmas decorations forever. It is the thorn in my flesh.

Now folks you really must understand that I am kidding. (A little) Now I may not be able to post again before Christmas because I am having a house full of people over for Christmas Eve day. I wish everyone a most Blessed Christmas. And to my Mother and Father who will read this, I Love You!

six stockings

These are my children's Christmas stockings. I finished little Wyatt's yesterday. I had lost my pattern to them so I had to free hand Wyatt's and I think that it turned out just fine. Each of the kids have a snowman on theirs because the kids always make everything fun. I also made the boys stocking green and the girls red to help keep track of them. The girls also have stars on them because girls like to make everything pretty.

Here are the grown up stockings. Mine is red and with a star and my husbands is green. I put two trees on ours because the two of us together keep all of our "little snowmen" in line.

Muddy Mess

What fun for a young puppy. Rain, and a flower pot full of potting soil can make a big muddy mess. This was what I found outside my back door yesterday afternoon. Toby had so much fun digging in my flower pot. Needless to say he became a huge muddy mess.

And here is little Toby. His nose is usually pink with brown spots but I guess the mud took care of that. My husband took the dog straight to the tub upstairs and gave him a bath. I have mud splattered on the walls around the bath tub so after I am done posting this blog I will washing the tub.

A week before Christmas

The Crismon I made for church turned out OK and at least it is finished. It took a lot of work, time, and patients on my part. Maybe I will be able to two next year. It was fun but just hard to try to find time to sit down and make it.

This is my little snowman collection. The one in the center is a music box the plays Frosty The Snowman. The kids love it when we play the music and sing along. We got three of the little snowmen for free when we bought our dinning room set. The candles are very homey looking when they are lit.

My husband bought me this willow tree nativity last Christmas. I love the simple lines it has and the humble look of it. It helps to remember the humble beginnings of our Savior.

I also love snow babies and this in the only free standing figure that I have. I have many little snow babies hanging on our Christmas tree. My Mother started to give them to me when I was 18. My husband bought me this little figure.

We also had a 4-H Christmas party this past weekend. The kids wrapped the gift that we bought for some area angle trees. We were able to buy six gifts and they had fun wrapping them. After we did a craft we all ate to much food and then caroled for a little while. It was a beautiful night for walking around town.

A Christmas stocking

This stocking crocheted for me by my Grandma. My sister has a matching one and we used them every Christmas when we were at home. I have only one like this so I decorate with it in my little downstairs bathroom. My parents were not planning on having stocking for us when we were children. I do not think that it was a tradition that they celebrated. As a little girl, I had another idea. The idea probably came to me while I was watching a Christmas special on TV. I was two or three and on Christmas eve, right before my sister and I went to bed, I ran to my Father's dresser and got two of his socks. I used magnets and hung them on the fridge in the kitchen. My Mother asked me what I was doing and I told her that Santa would put toys in the stockings. She looked at my Father and they both thought oh oh. I believe my father ran out the nearest gas station after we were tucked in bed and bought a few little things for our stockings. One item was a tiny stuffed bear that we had for some time. I am sure my grandmother thought it would be better to have a Christmas stocking them my father's socks.

Christmas 4

Each of my children have a Christmas bear. This all happened by accident and was never really planned on my part. When my first daughter was born, she was given the first two bears for Christmas. It turned out that a son was born to us 16 months after my daughter. I then went a bought a bear for Constence when she was one years old. Each of my children also receive a rocking chair from my parents for their first birthdays. So the bears of each child then sits in the appropriate rocking chair. The kids and I just bought Wyatt's bear this past week. They help make the house very festive this season.

The lace that is on the mantle was given to me by my Mother. My husband and I put it away so well the first year we had it, that we could not even find it in our house. This is only the second year that it has been in place for advent and Christmas.

Hen Christmas 3

We use the same advent calendar year after year. I like it because everyday one of the doors is then opened and we hang part of the nativity scene onto the background. The children take turns hanging the little ornaments onto the back ground.
The Merry Christmas wood decoration was given to me by my husbands grandmother. My kids are always hiding the snowman and Christmas tree from me. They usually are not to far away from the base.
Finally, this is a little cartoon nativity that the kids like to play with. I have had to glue the star back on top, but otherwise it is holding up well. I arrange the little figures as you see them here. But my kids like to have everyone crowded around the little manger or else they are all in a big circle. Every now and then I find that a few of them have wondered over to Advent calendar.

Hen Christmas 2

This is a Nativity that my Grandmother gave to me after I was married. It was the first Nativity we had and now it is placed on our mantle every year. It reminds of one that we had when I was a child.
Here is one of our family's favorite Christmas tree ornaments. It was given to me from my Mother after I had told her about it. We keep the little doors closed until after our Christmas Eve service. Then before the children go to sleep, we let one of them open up the little doors so that everyone can see baby Jesus.

On another note, I just figured out how to post all of the comments. I apologize to everyone that posted, I just found them today. I guess beta blogger is just a little different.

Scenes of a Hen Christmas

During the Advent and Christmas seasons I will be sharing scenes from Christmas within our home. I bought this cute little figurine when my third child was a baby. At that time I had a girl who was 4 and boy who was 3 and a little baby girl. The kids just loved that it fit our family. When you pull or push on the little blue stick it moves the older kids so that they are rolling a snow ball. The older ones would laugh about Constence being in the snow ball. Now every year when I get this little figurine out all of the kids have to take their turn "rolling" the snow ball. I am sure that this will be one of the things that they will always remember from Christmas time.