November 24, 2007

• Here are some photos that show some of the things that have made me smile in the past few days:

  
  My sweetheart with our giant puppy (Hagrid is almost 6 months old now) in his lap:

  
  

  
  

  My "new" Santa collection (my old one was stolen out of our storage building two years ago) on top of the antique pie safe we bought this summer. Most of these Santas were my Mama's. The old type tray was a gift from from sister Cissy. If you look closely,  you can see my old initials (CTS) in wooden type from the Macon Beacon, and my first name in wooden type from the Harrison Daily Times! I treasure that old wooden type from the two newspapers I've worked at.
  

  
  

  
  

  
  I've also put out Mama's little white angel choir, and the little boy angel turning a somersault that I gave her for her birthday when my Jamie was a baby, to remind her of her then-littlest grandbaby:

  
  

  
  

  And the Santa and elves group that Mama bought as bare resin figurines and painted herself while I was living with her in Sarasota. I'd walk by and say, "Mama, those are just the cutest things I've ever seen!" and she'd grin and say, "You can have them one day!" Every time I look at them, they remind me of my sweet Mama who LOVED Christmas, and make me smile.

  
  

  
  

  I don't think I've ever started decorating for Christmas this early....
  it's fun!

  And here's something very precious to me, and it also has a story. When I was a young bride of 19, about to spend my first Christmas away from my parents, (who were living in Alexandria, Va.) with my new husband in Mississippi, my Mama sent me a "starter set" of a Fontanini nativity scene. Every year after that, I would add to the set, buying pieces at the B&O Drugstore in Macon. Sometimes a friend would give me a piece. Jamie loved that nativity scene, and every year it was his job to get it out of the box and arrange it. Over the years we gathered quite a collection, with lots of different shepherds, old and young, wise men, camels, sheep, donkeys, chickens...
  Then one year, Jamie went up the rickety pull-down ladder to the attic of our 100+-year old house in Mississippi to get down the nativity scene, and we couldn't find it. We looked everywhere - it had just disappeared. All we could figure was that we had accidentally thrown it away somehow in cleaning up after Christmas. Jamie and I particularly mourned for it, because it had been a happy bit of continuity in our family Christmas, even through his dad's and my divorce.
  I moved to Sarasota, and lived  with my mother for several years. After Doyle and I married, we decorated our little condo, but had no nativity scene.
  In early 2006, Doyle and I moved to the Ozarks, and Jamie soon joined us. Last year, a month or so before Christmas, he brought me a big box and said, "Mom, this is your Christmas present, early."
  It was a Fontanini nativity scene.

  

  
  It's sitting on top of Mama's little antique lady's writing desk.
  I'm looking on EBay for some shepherds to add this year, and maybe some Wise Men.
  As you can imagine, this little nativity scene is now one of my treasures.

  Are you starting to decorate yet? What are some of your most treasured Christmas decorations?
  

  • 12:36 pm
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