It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

From this..........................

to this. In a week..................

Last Saturday my daughter came to the house and asked her Dad to go get her Christmas tree, as this was the only time in her busy schedule she could go. (She started a new job on Monday) At that time I had to decide if I was going faux or real this season. Each year for the past few years, I have been toying with the idea of buying an artificial tree. The mess that a real tree creates can get overwhelming. But again I gave in and went for the REAL tree.

Here are the results.

Not bad, is it?

Ah....but the real pleasure of getting things decorated was when I opened the tub I keep my Mothers nativity scene in. It brings back such memories of Christmases past.

My Mother toiled for many hours for months painting and glazing each piece of this set. (I like she, was a craftier. This was during her ceramic period.) Each Saturday or Sunday afternoon that I would take the kids to visit, she would ask me to help pick out the color combinations for each character. Slowly over that summer and fall this beautiful set was born. That first Christmas she set up all the pieces into her Christmas scene was very fulling for both she and I.

By the first Christmas after my father died, Mother was not living at home, but at Brighten Gardens in Greensboro. I had her at the house a few weeks before Christmas, when she had me go to the storage building behind my childhood home and get the box she stored it in. Upon bringing it into the house she told me to take it home and set it up at my house, as it was now mine. Since that cold winters day it has found a special spot in my home at Christmas.