19 December

  I have been a little bit naughty with my journal page today. Two years ago I did the letters to Santa and it was so much fun. I wrote letters from me and all three fur babies and even got a real genuine Santa letter back.  It was so good I knew I couldn't better it.

Plus I wanted to find a way to include one of my most special things of Christmas, my nativity set. So I just did my own thing for today.

The nativity set was given to me on my first Christmas by a next door neighbour when i was just 6 months old. It was second hand then - we figure about 19 years old as it had been the neighbour's son's. It is made of cheap plastic (meant to simulate ivory I think LOL) and was in a cardboard stable.

The cardboard stable eventually fell apart and daddy made a rough wooden staple with pampas grass for the roof (Mom wasn't happy about that as he pulled it off a floral display she had)

The angel has lost a wing and Fiki did some fairly serious damage to one of the lambs a couple of years ago. To me it is one of the most precious things I own.

My Mom gave it to me the first Christmas I was married and said it had to be up in my home. It is a constant feature and you can see it in almost every photo of Christmas from my childhood.

It is the centre of our Christmas and reminds us daily that Jesus is the reason for the season.

The two 'stable doors' open and there is a photo of the nativity inside. The small circular cameo is also a photo of the set.

I am lucky to be on Dawn Inskip's CT and it means I get to have her new lush stuff to work with.

She has two brand new kits out today

One is called Woodland doodles and is so cute.

The other is wild thing papers. there are stacks of papers int here and they are so lush and versatile.

Both of the new kits are available on sale at PickleberryPop and at NDISB

I had a play with them both and came up with these two pages.

The fact that one of the kits was called Wild Thinng meant i straight away thought of the cats and in particular thought of Kira. We call her our little wild cat as she looks every bit wild, especially when prowling in the garden. 

Perhaps not so wild when she is curled up on our knee or asleep int he bed with us. Yes I did say IN the bed.

The papers and elements worked so well for her.

The second page is using a photo of Nigel when he was with his family - and me - at Hillier Arboretum. It was great to visit it in the Autumn when the colours were just fabulous.

I used the woodland doodles but also a load of other pieces by Dawn from Clearly Creative, Silent Night, Colour Me Beautiful  and Make a Date.

Comments

[Robin L]

First off Id like to say thanks for stopping by my blog. I love those new products and your layouts are wonderful! How luck to have thise memories with the nativity set and I enjoyed reading them. Have a wonderful Christmas!!

[evitangel]

thanks for sharing the history of your nativity. such a wonderful christmas story!
and as always: love your pages!
happy holidays karen,
gabs

[Janelle]

I love your nativity set and how wonderful to devote a page to it! (I go off topic in my journal sometimes, too.)

Your other pages are great, too--love the kitty cat one, especially!

[JanMary, N Ireland]

I LOVE all nativities - thanks for sharing about yours. I have posted about a number of mine recently on my blog.

Amazing new kits, especially the doodly one.

[Karen Huntoon]

love your nativity and how you went your own way today. it's all good

[flora]

gorgeous nativity set...i just had a chance to use dawns new kits today too...i posted it on my blog also...they are wonderful kits to play with :0)

[HeatherC]

Love the nativity page Karen! Such a memorable belinging to journal about. I am hoping to get a nativity set on our trip to the Holy Land.