When my girls were babies, my Grandmother sent me a small amount of cash to buy each of my girls a Christmas gift. They had plenty of toys, books and clothes so I decided to buy them some type of keepsake. After looking at what collectibles were available for very little money, I decided to start each of them a Fontanini Nativity Set. That first year I bought each of them Mary, Joseph and Jesus and the following year I bought them each the manager.
Each year I bought a new piece to add to their Nativity.
My grandmother passed away about six years after I started the set but I continued to add new pieces each year. Animals and Angels, Shepherds and Wisemen all joined the scene.
Children playing instruments....
And women bearing gifts for the newborn babe.
The Nativity grew and grew and today they each have well over forty pieces.
The Baby Jesus never appears in the manger until Christmas Morning and the Wisemen are set aside and slowly make their way, finally ending up in front of the Manger on January 6th, the Epiphany. Because every piece is unbreakable, my girls have always been allowed to "play" with their set, reenacting the Holy Birth and talking about the real importance of Christmas. I also have another Nativity. When my Grandmother passed away the only thing I wanted was the Nativity set that belonged to my Grandparents. I never actually thought I would get it because there were other children and grandchildren whom I thought would surely end up with it. But I did end up with it. I have no clue how old it is but my Grandparents always displayed this as far back as I can remember, so I know it was manufactured in the early sixties at the very least.
The Baby Jesus has suffered serious abuse and is unrecognizable, it looks as if a dog chewed on it but my Grandparents never owned a pet.
I also thought there were more pieces, Angels etc. but I don't know whatever happened to them. I would like to see if I can find more pieces on ebay to add to my set because eventually, my girls will leave home and take their Nativities with them. I'm linking this post to Alphabe Thursday for the Letter N at Jenny Matlocks.
Hi everyone, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I took the last week off from work, blogging and the internet to spend time with my girls. Today is their last day home and I can already feel the sadness creeping in on me. I LOVE having my girls home and spending time with them. I probably won't see them again till May, so my heart is heavy. I hope you don't mind, since I took this time off, I have a few more pictures of Christmas to show you. This is my heirloom Christmas Tree. She has the place of honor in the Living Room and stands nine foot tall. Every year I try to re-create the Christmas tree of my childhood, that means colored lights, lots of ornaments and lots of tinsel.
Can you believe I forgot to take picture Christmas morning with all the presents underneath?! The train is usually not under this tree. It is usually under my white tree in the sunroom but I moved it here for my little Nephew Monday night. My parents gave each of us an ornament for Christmas long before it was popular and so I have been collecting ornaments for over 45 years. They also gave each of my girls an ornament from the time they were born. A few years before they passed away, my parents blessed me with a number of the vintage ornaments that were on their first trees, some of them are over 60 years old. Here are a few of my favorite vintage ornaments from my parents.
I've also given each of my girls an ornament every year, usually representing a special event in their life that has happened over the past year. To commemorate Rachel's first year at college,
A new ornament this year to commemorate Emily's trip to china,
Tiny Wooden shoes to commemorate our trip to Holland in 2001,
I have three large plastic storage boxes filled with nothing but ornaments and every nook and cranny of this tree has an ornament. I have a few Christopher Radkos which are very special to me, here are two. I had to get this Border Collie because it reminded me so much of my sweet Chipper when he was a puppy. He always had one ear up, one ear down,
And this elf was a gift from my sister,
Every year the last ornament to be placed on the tree is this small framed picture of my Mom and Dad.
The first Christmas after they passed away, we put the tree up and everyone went to bed except me. I turned off all the lights and turned on the tree, held a picture of my mom and dad and sat there in the dark and cried my eyes out remembering how they made every Christmas so, so special and I wished they could be there to see this tree, decorated with all of the ornaments they gave us. Something came over me and I walked over to the tree and nestled the frame among the branches, to me, it was as if they were a part of our Christmas. A few years later I decided to make a real ornament to replace the framed picture and this is what I came up with.Thanks for reading about my special tree today. I'll be linking this post to REDnesday at It's a Very Cherry World and Vintage Thingie Thursday at Colorado Lady
Merry Christmas Everyone! Today I want to show you my RED, VintageMantle, fireplace and Banister all dressed up for Christmas. Actually, I'm kinda cheating on the vintage part because the only thing that is really vintage is the oil painting hanging above the fireplace. I painted it in 1971 at the ripe old age of 15 and it is probably my most favorite painting.
Anywho, back to the Christmas part. I know the fireplace is a little over the top and kind of a mish mash but I love it just the same. My Daddy bought my girls the Nutcrackers when they were babies, so they are probably about 20 years old now.
They were very inexpensive, I think he bought them at Big Lots. I bought the fireplace screen at Costco about 10 years ago and I adore it!
The pine garland on the Mantle is decorated with small nutcrackers and lots of RED, Gold and Green ribbon. Our stockings are HUGE because we do stocking stuffers big time at our house, a tradition my parents started.
Those babies will be overflowing Christmas morning and opening the stockings has it's own ritual. After all the gifts under the tree are opened, we have breakfast then return to the Living Room where everyone then gets to peek in their stockings. The Banister matches the Mantle, small nutcrackers, gold beads and lots of ribbon!
I thought I was pretty clever when we built our house because I knew I would want to put lights on the Mantle and banister at Christmas so I had the electrician install wall sockets at each location, he thought I was nuts!
I want to take this opportunity to wish each of you a Blessed Christmas, filled with Peace, Love and JOY! xxoo Nan I will be linking this post to: REDnesday at It's aVery Cherry World Vintage Thingie Thursday at Colorado Lady Alphabe Thursday for the Letter M at Jenny Matlocks
Hi everyone, hope you had a great weekend! Well Friday night was Mr Bubble's (giggle) big company party. We had a great time but it was a little sad too as two thirds of the employees will not have a job after the first of the year. We are so thankful that dh is not one of them. I showed you a picture of my dress HERE, but I didn't show you my shoes or jewelry. This is the bracelet and earrings I wore, I thought they were a pretty good match.
And here are the shoes I bought. I always have a hard time with shoes because I have always had really fat wide feet. I usually go in a store and ask if they have the box in a size 9, LOL!
Oh, and I decided to let my hair go curly. I had my hairdresser show me how to do a simple up-do and here is a shot of the back, I'm usually all thumbs when it comes to things like this so I'm pretty happy with the results!
And here's a shot of Mr Bubble and I enjoying the night.
Now one more random thought for today. My poor white tree! You are probably asking WHAT is going on with that tree skirt?!
Well.... Little Hippy is having a false pregnancy and she has decided to make a nest under the tree and snuggle her babies under the tree skirts!
UGH, gotta love her! Have a great week everyone, xxoo Nan
Wow, I'm really late posting my PINK Saturday post but I have a really good reason! My youngest chickie flew in today and we've been spending the day catching up on her trip to China, school, boyfriends etc. My oldest chickie flies in tomorrow so we'll all be together for the Holidays, the best gift of all! For my PINK Saturday post I wanted to share the little PINK tree and Snow Angel display that sits on an antique dressing table in my foyer.
I need to add something a little taller behind the Snow Angels but not quite sure what I have that will work.
I've kept the ornaments on this tree really simple, white snowflakes and icicles, gold balls and tiny gold snowflakes and tiny pearl strands.
The Snow Angels were manufactured by Dept. 56.
I bought them at my favorite collectible store when they went out of business. I've never seen them at any store since, so I don't know if they are still manufactured.
They have a real vintage feel to them and I just love their sweet little faces!
That's it for this week's PINK bubbly post, please stop by How Sweet The Sound for more inspiring PINK posts! xxoo Nan
I know you all have been biting your nails, waiting on the edge of your seat to see this, bawhaha! I have a bump out garden window in my kitchen that I have never decorated before but when I found the Little RED truck and the vintage toy ornaments, the whole idea of creating a vintage store window just fell into place. Everything in the window with the exception of the truck and the tin ornaments on the tree I already had. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and I hope you will like it too! So without further ado .... my vintage store window with the Little RED truck! Here's a shot of the entire window, I wish that bar wasn't in the middle but I guess I have to sacrifice beauty for structure.
Here's a close up of the right side with the Little RED truck!
And here's a close up of the left side. I love the Little flying airplane!
The Little boy belonged to my Dad. He bought it at an auction in the 70's just because it made him smile. I have no idea how old it is or any details about the manufacturer.
A little close up of the tree.
I love the Little cowboy and the Little metal horse below him.
Happy PINK Saturday everyone! Today I want to share some of my Holiday Decorations in my Sunroom. I blogged about my Sunroom a few months ago, you can read about it HERE. Since my Sunroom is decorated in Pink, Lime Green and Yellow, traditional Christmas colors just wouldn't do. I chose a white tree with hot Pink lights. The ornaments are all bright colored with a retro 1960ish feel.
At night the Pink lights illuminate the whole tree with a fuzzy, Pink glow. The pictures don't do it justice, it's really hard to capture the glow with a camera.
This is the display on top of the computer cabinet. First I laid down a blanket of fluffy snow and edged the shelf with a white feather boa just for fun. The sparkly trees and reindeer came from the Home Goods store. The big 3-d snowflakes came from Target and were dirt cheap! I gave the deer some BLING of her own. I haven't decided yet what I want to do with the shelf underneath. I'm thinking some glass jars filled with snow and snowflakes.
We also have a theme today of our Favorite Christmas movies. I love all the classics from It's a Wonderful life to Miracle on 34th Street, to The Christmas Story and Home Alone but today I thought I would share a little film you may not have heard of. It's a short animated Disney film titled "The Small One".
It tells the story of a small donkey who is headed for the tanner when fortune smiles on him. My girls loved this little cartoon so much when they were little. Here's a little video of part one, you will need to disable my playlist by clicking on the the large circle with the two vertical lines, there are also more parts to watch HERE.
Have a wonderful, sparkly PINK Saturday everyone! Please stop by How Sweet the Sound and say HI to Beverly, our host every week for PINK Saturday!
