My Christmas Treasure

Wow, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and it seems like I just got all of the Christmas decorations put up. I only finished shopping, and wrapping gifts yesterday, and so there are only a few fleeting moments I can actually enjoy the holiday season.

When I get to sit for a moment and enjoy how cozy our home is at this time of year, certain things take me back in time and remind me of Christmas' past. One of the things I treasure most is something a stranger might look and question why it's there or why it looks the way it does.

This is my nativity. It sits in front of my kitchen sink, where I can enjoy them most often. As you can see, there are some pieces that are glazed and some that are antiqued. The glazed pieces are my mothers and the antiqued pieces are my grandmothers. I inherited both incomplete sets at some point in my life, so I decided to put them together as one. They are a mesh of the two women that made each and every Christmas I had as a child special. The nativity reminds me of candy making, caroling, decorating, big family meals, homemade pajamas, painting ornaments, holiday baking, surprise visits from Santa, and secret whispers my mother and grandmother shared I knew were about my gifts that I tried so intently to decipher.

Some brought gold, frankincense, myrrh, and some played the drum. If I brought a treasure to the Lord I think this would be my gift.