Thursday, November 30, 2006

Nativity Set, My First Stencil, and Stockings Hung up by the Banister with Care

When Noah and I got married, one gift we received that I've loved was this Fontanini Holy Family with a note to add a new piece to our nativity set each year. I took them up on it. I love this set for 2 reasons: 1) they're plastic and therefore child friendly (what kid can resist playing with figurines?) and 2) for being plastic, they're quite classy. I tend to buy my new piece after Christmas when they're 40-60% off because at full price, the figurines are a bit much for me.

This year, I'm going to leave the baby Jesus out of the nativity scene until Christmas morning. I've heard of a few people dong that and I like that idea, plus it's a nice segue into the real meaning of Christmas.

I purchased this last year at one of my favorite stores, Downeast Home, that carries scratch-and-dent Pottery Barn, Red Envelope and Restoration Hardware goods. Originally, it had someone else's name painted on it, so I matched the paint, made my very own stencil (I'm getting practice before I tackle Gabby's room) and personalized it. Starting December first, we'll put little treats behind each door. On Christmas morning, I'll have the baby Jesus from our nativity set behind the 25th door so we can put him in his manger and talk about his birth--my only fear is that the kids will get disappointed that there wasn't any candy behind the biggest door of our advent calendar.

Another thing I bought at Downeast Home last year were these Pottery Barn stockings (I actually found two with the right names embroidered on them, while the other two have the wrong names--I'll pick the stitching out and re-embroider the correct names--although I do think it's funny when people ask me who Tom and Austin are).

We don't have a fireplace in our new house so I came up with this alternative of hanging them on the banister, which I find to be quite charming, especially with the garland. I just used ribbon to tie up the stockings so I didn't have to nail into the wood.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow - you did that pretty quick - very impressed. You may in fact be a superhero!

Kaila said...

I'm pretty sure that I am infact a superhero.

Older Singer: your stockings are perfectly fine--nothing says Christmas like a Ninja Turle stocking!

I'm of the oppinion that Adrea has always been stunning, however I noticed the same thing and told her she looked an aweful lot like her mom.

Anonymous said...

Aw, shucks - thanks ladies, it's nice to hear about one's own stunningness. Especially from such stunners as yourselves!