Nativities

So I noticed the other day that this nativity has sticky stuff on the glass, so today I cleaned it. Then I thought I really like this little picture (about 3 by 5), I'll take a picture for my blog. Then I thought...I should take a picture of all my nativities, and the rest is history!:) Almost all of my nativities live in my little hallway half bath! Wierd, I know..but I love it! I also have random nativities throughout the house, so there are pictures of those too!

This is my new favorite shelf. It was perfect to set all my little nativities on.

The wall hanging on the top is hung with pins...shh don't tell! They are all of the Shepherd Bush's Christmas ornaments for the JCS Ornament issues from 2000. Except the first square, I made that up. And they are in order of the Biblical story, not the order they came out in the magazines.

Below that is a hand quilted little piece done by an old internet friends, it was a complete surprise and remains one of my favorites!

These hang on the wall beside the toilet! :)

The real obsession becomes obvious! Under the steps are all these shelves, which turned out perfect for all my nativities! :)

Here is a close up of the bottom shelf. On the floor are some figures from an old magazine pattern. This shelf are the ones that kids can get into!:) Veggie Tales, Playmobile, and the nativity Luke made for a class presention. The one is from Uganda and is made of banana leaves, it shouldn't be on that shelf! :)

The next shelf up: The little one in the front left is from Columbia (an army soldier brought it back for me!), the silver is from Honduras, next is handmade in Brazil, and the last is my lastest from my sister.

On the top shelf: the redish one is from Uganda, next is a handpainted one from Russia..it is a stacking doll with all Nativity themed pieces inside. (skip one) The solid figure is from Egypt! My cousin lived there for a year and got it for me. Next is from Peru, a church member had her mom get it for me as a surprise! It's hand painted inside a gourd, the lid is open.

This is for the pictur above: In the basket are little bells, from Cancun Mexico. That black are thimbles from Vietnam. (I cheated on that one and got it at a local US store!), the little bell is from Amsterdam, the wooden in the back is a handcarved Russian stacking doll, the gold one is real gold from Spain! It was my only present from my parents, they went to Spain last year. That big one is my favorite! :) My MIL picked it out all by herself. It is little children dressed up like in a play, you can see their tennis shoes sticking out of the outfits, and the camel has two kids in it!
If for some reason you need to actually use the bathroom, this is the view you'll see! Nothing really special about them. The largest on the left was my present from the choir I played piano for when we left our last church. It is by Willow Tree.


A few little pillows, aren't the snowman funny?

And these sit on my little nativity stool in the corner.

You are now free to leave the bathroom! :) Right arond the corner is my grandma's old hutch. It is home to the rest of my nativities. You can see the Precious Moments one, my mom gave me that on my first Christmas as a married lady! It started the whole thing! I think you can see the bear nativity that was my second one, from my brother the next Christmas. Then I thought, hmm I should collect these! And look what happened! You can't really see it, but behind the doors is an Alaska themed nativity that sits inside an igloo! And a few snowglobes across the bottom and a bunch more!

Above my couch hangs my real pride and joy! :) The Marbek Nativity!

And on the way upstairs, in the worse location ever sits the very expensive Willow Tree nativity. My mom gave it to me a few Christmases ago. The poor thing is lucky to have survived! My dad broke Joseph and smashed his staff to pieces, my FIL broke the shepherd head off, a little boy I was babysitting dropped the large shepherd and he broke into tons of pieces (the shepherd, not the little boy) The boy looked at me and said, "Mrs. Sara you didn't put that in a very good location!" Well, no duh!! And just today, compliments of ME the wiseman's head fell off! I hand my hands full of laundry and figured I'll grab the dust shirt with my toes and toss it down the stairs. Simple right? Except it landing on the tallest wiseman, knocked him off the shelf, down the stairs, onto the hard wood floor where the poor thing was decapitated! Long live Mary, so far so good with her!!!

So there you have it! The mostly complete collection! I have a few xstitches in the works! :) Hope you enjoyed the tour!