Nativities!

I love Nativities!

I love that they show the true meaning of Christmas! It's fun for me to see all different kinds. I am collecting them and am at about 20! Not a lot, I know, but it is fun. I thought I would show you the new ones I got this year, as I just got all my Christmas stuff put away today! (The pictures don't really do them justice, just take my word for it, they are neat!)

This Nativity was given to me by my handsome hubby prior to Christmas. He actually got it in November when he went to Wilmore! He wanted me to have it to display this year! It is so neat, I love it!

This one was a gift from our Farmer Church. It has so much detail that it's hard to see it in this picture. It is very neat! I love that it is in a cross too! I'm not sure you can see it, but in the top, below the star are the wise men coming!

This one is from a parishioner! She got me one last year too. I like this because the boys and I studied the Christmas Tree this year in our Advent book. We talked about how its shape is a triangle to represent the Trinity. And how all the branches point to Heaven. We have talked about this story before, but it seems to have stuck this year with Eli who has repeated it several times. This Nativity is a fun reminder of that story!

This one is only partially new! We had the Stable, star and Mary, Joseph and Jesus before, but this year my mom added some pieces. She made all of it. It is cross stitched. Her intent was so that the kids could play with it, and they are honestly beginning to wear it out. It sits on our windowsill that leads up our stairs, so it has a lot of activity throughout the Christmas Season!

A funny story with it, Maddie opened the bag that the new pieces were in, along with her brothers, but she was very upset and even began to get whiny and weepy. She wanted to know why we didn't get Baby Jesus! I had to explain to her that the Baby Jesus was at home (not AL, where we opened it) and that we would take the other pieces home to be with the Baby Jesus!

This one below is another new Nativity in our home, but it is not mine. Maddie got her first Nativity or "tivity" this year! Granny gave her this glass one. She was so excited that it was her own and I can't wait to see her use it to decorate her own home one day and share it with her children! Until then, I'll display it for her! Maddie has really grown to love the Baby Jesus' figurines around our house and it has been a good opportunity to talk to her about Jesus and who he was. I new she was a little confused one day when she said, "Baby Jesus died on the cross". Not exactly, we'll still work on the whole story!

So we are sad to put away our Christmas decorations today and our Nativities, but excited to see them all again in just about 11 months :)