Christmas | one_local

These long winter nights leave my Main Squeeze and myself with a couple hours of “What to do now?” after dinner.

We do not have television which rules out watching it the remainder of the evening. We have movies, but they are all downstairs and leaving the warm, crackling fire all alone seems out of the question. So what does one do with the last couple dark hours of a winter evening?

Often we listen to books on tape, or take turns reading a book out-loud. A good story is even better by firelight.

But this night Christmas crafts were on the agenda, for fun. Now my main squeeze is not big on doing ‘crafty things’, but timing and preparation is everything. When I set the box of paints, brushes and paper on the table with a cheerful invitation to do a Christmas craft, he said, “Sure!”

It was fun and easy. I found it on Instagram account @kidscraftbarn.

How do you spend your long winter nights? BTW—Winter Solstice is only a few days away!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours.

*Merry Christmas from our house to yours.*🎄

We have a small Fontanini Nativity set that is put out every Christmas. Are you familiar with these beautifully made Italian nativity, figures and town scenes? They have been in production for one hundred years. We purchased ours at a local Christmas shop well over a decade ago.

Handcrafted and painted in the most lovely of colors. Colors that remind me of those used by Michelangelo. Warm, soft, gentle colors. Colors and feelings that speak of The center figure of all their work, Jesus. But the final selling point for me was the fact they were (and still are) made of polymer. I wanted Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus figures to be safe in the hands of our little children. It seemed easier for us to convey the love of Christ to our children when they could touch the figures, hold them in their hands, and pretend they were right there in the stable with them. Even re-arrange them, if they chose to.

Jesus is the reason for Christmas. Everything else is secondary. So here is a question for you, dear reader, to ponder. What are you going to do with Jesus? For the claims He alone has made to, for, and about Himself and mankind? Accept or reject? These questions demand an answer from each one of us alone because of the prophesies full-filled and claims He made.

As you think on these questions of Jesus, I hope you enjoy this photographic journey through the Nativity and the most important Birth in the history of all humanity.

Merry Christmas.