Sunday, December 21, 2008

Christmas

I've seen several Christmas trees this year... but I still love mine. It has some glass ornaments but mostly memories. Here are a few of my favorites...

This is an old watch that reminds me of old times...


This little cotton snowman with toothpick arms and construction paper carrot-nose has an inscription on the back that says "Bit 1987". Bit is my daughter Misti. When she was born in '85 her big sister, Sharah was just 16 months old. She had trouble saying her new baby's name and could just say "Bitty"... which was shortened to 'Bit'. I still think of her as "Bit" sometimes and have to catch myself. Misti made the snowman in Sunday School when she was 2... and it has survived to save those memories and live on our Christmas tree. I love my girls.


This little wreath has a plastic set of the nativity in it. It reminds me of the nativity sets we had when the kids were little. There was a cloth one that I made so they could play with the pieces. There was a little Precious Moments rubber set with Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus they played with; I think it came with a cassette tape. This set in the wreath was played with for awhile; I believe we found it in a plastic bag in a dollar store. Finally there is the 'glass' set. This was given to us by my mom I think when Jeremy was born.

The tradition with the glass set was to begin a week or so before Christmas and hide one piece of the Nativity set somewhere in the house for the kids to find. Consequently each piece has limbs, heads, and other parts glued and re-glued back on from their treacherous journey from behind furniture to the stable. The kids all looked for the pieces, but took turns finding the pieces... I remember Jeremy seeing the hidden piece and dancing around rolling his eyes, trying not to point, waiting for one of the girls to find it.

I remember tender little hearts and voices talking about the Baby Jesus and how he came to bring love and peace and hope for the future... and save us from our sins, including the guilt of things we've really done wrong, misplaced guilt pressured on us by others, and unfortunate misunderstandings that steer our lives into tragic places that are hard to dig out of...

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