No Room at the Inn

My mom let me borrow one of her nativity scenes last year and I didn't give it back.  (I will, I will, get off my back!)

This scene was given to her and my dad when they got married.  My grandparents had one identical to it, as well as my aunt and uncle, maybe? (I think they were all purchased at the same time and then gpa or my uncle made everyone a barn...? The story is close to that if I'm not right.)

The nativity is ceramic and glazed in clear so it is bright white.  As a kid, I thought it was SOOOO boring (grandma's set had real clothes that she and a friend or sister or someone apparently stayed up all night one year dressing their nativity people like dolls from their old scraps of fabric.)  But now, I'm digging the simplicity of the white set.  I get it... Mary and Joseph were pretty simple people anyway.

Here's the happy couple

The angel on the top of the barn

The three wise guys (isn't that funny...'the wise guys'? ha ha!) (and yes, the wall really is neon green.... very festive for this time of year!)

One of the shepherds

All the shepherds...

...including one playing a tune...

...and one carrying a lamb (I always wondered if that little lamb wasn't moving fast enough for this shepherd and that's why it got carried)

A look into the barn

This little donkey must be the one that carried Mary (he has a chipped ear, but I don't hold that against him)

I figured this camel belonged to the wise guys.  It looks a bit too ornate to be a shepherd's and not a king's.

And the bull shared his pen with the sheep that came along with the shepherds

Except for this one... it wanted to get closer to Mary

There was no room in the inn (and apparently no lights on in the barn this year!)

Another one with some flash so you can actually see in the barn

But does it seem like there's something missing?  Or, rather, someONE?

In our family, Baby Jesus is the first gift of Christmas and doesn't enter the nativity scene until Christmas morning after we read the Christmas story in the Bible.  So, until then, he waits in the tree, all wrapped up with care. 

This is our tree this year.  It's a bit wild for me -- I am very much a "white light" kind of person, but this year, we opted to use the little tree that typically only has monster trucks on it as our main tree.  (and yes, that's a cardboard wall in the background!  Just keepin' it real here!)

From my family to yours, we hope you all have a very merry Christmas and remember that Jesus is the first and true gift of Christmas!