Sunday, December 04, 2011

It's the Christmas Season

I love Christmas time and this season just got a great kick start. I've mentioned before how much Lisa loves unique nativities and that she has a fantastic collection of them. Obviously the kids all know that as well so when Ben and Sharley went to their Stakes Nativity display yesterday and saw how wonderful it was of course his first thought was about how much his mother would enjoy that. He told her that the display would be over today (Sunday) at 9:00pm and so we decided to go up and visit them and see this wonderful display. We made some spaghetti sauce and took it up with us and Sharley made spaghetti, a wonderful salad and the most delicious peanut butter cookies you'll ever taste. After eating way too much we headed over to the church to see the display. It really was wonderful. I guess they've been doing this for twenty years and the place was packed. We could barely get parking. 


They had nativities from all over the world and amazingly four of Lisa's nativities were there. Obviously I couldn't take pictures of them all so here are just a few of my favorites. You'll have to forgive the poor quality, I didn't bother taking my good camera and Martha doesn't do too well in love light conditions. 


This Nativity was perhaps the coolest one there. It is from Mexico and consists of dozens of little figurines that the collector has gathered over the last thirty years. It is more like a nativity village.

 I don't know if this was my favorite one or not but it really drew me in. It is made from a rare clay that is only found in a narrow three foot thick seam in Alabama. The wise men are American Indian warriors and the baby Jesus is a papoose. The animals consist of a buffalo, wolf, horse and bear. The color of the figurines was very unique and I assume it was the native color of the clay. 
Lisa loved this nativity from Australia.  

I'm not so sure I liked this one all that much but it is certainly unique and it is from New Zealand so I had to take a picture of it. 

This nativity is similar to the Alabama one in that it consists of American Indian traditions and it is made from native materials. This one is made from volcanic ash from Mount St Helens. How cool is that? The teepee also adds a nice touch. Sharley liked the cactus.


--------------------trivia--------------------
A wolf is born deaf but an adult wolf can hear another wolf howl from ten miles away.
----------------------------------------------

6 comments:

Lisa said...

I'm surprised you didn't put the one from the bullet casings and I'm surprised you didn't put one from Chile in honor of Alex :)

Lisa said...

P.S. Some of my favorites were the beaded ones from South Africa and the one with beaded clothing from Mexico from around some of the areas where Ben served.

Alycia Grayce (Crowley Party) said...

If Trevor and I ever go to South Africa to visit his mission we will have to get the beaded one mom liked so much. I personally like the New Zealand one, it suits the country perfectly.
that is crazy... why are wolfs born deaf? nuts.

Lynn said...

I too love nativity sets. Wish I had more room in the house to collect and display. My favorites are the ones that reflect the style of country they came from. Like Alycia said..I like the New Zealand one. Totally suited the country perfectly. Thanks for sharing. Hope you will post more pictures. Lisa sounded like you had more and can share more. Please??

Peter and Mandy said...

Looks like fun. I had to tell my mother-in-law to not buy us a nativity this year. We just don't have room. We already have three of them, and our place is just too small. Though we do have one nativity that is a set of nesting dolls. I think that one is my favorite.

Sutherland Family said...

The nativities were beautiful, but I wanted to hear more about the spaghetti and peanut butter cookies :). After the crazy holidays, we need to get together with you guys!