Nativity & Lithophanes

Greeting, dear readers.  I've been plugging along with my decorations.  To be honest it gives me a good opportunity to clear the decks of our furniture, do some waxing of antique cabinets and tables and to lovingly lay out my Christmas treasures.  The Nativity I have is by Jim Shore, who decorates his characters in the most colorful way, with quilt designs and scenic paintings.

We inherited a treasured Kasner family antique china cabinet. It has some neat carvings and curved glass. This nativity takes pride of place atop it.  

Dayle hung up one more section of icicle lights so they go all the way across and some colored lights too.  I have to say it's very difficult to photograph them.  This was near dusk but it looks quite light in the sky, but it wasn't.

And at night the colors wash out.. but trust me, it's pretty.  Now truth be told, I would have 8 kajillion lights over all the buildings but this is all Dayle will put up.  :-)

My seasoned (I didn't want to use the term "old") readers may recognize my little collection of "lithophanes", they are bisque porcelain candle lanterns that have scenes molded into the clay so when you light a tealight candle inside, a beautiful image glows.  This one has Santa on both sides.  

This one has 4 different scenes which is fun, want to see them?  You do?  Well... okay, if you insist.  This is Santa in his sleigh and a reindeer.

Then a pair of snowmen.

This must be the boy and girl who made the snowmen.

And finally a log cottage.  :-)  These are on the tv cabinet.

Here is my little marshmallow roasting baby animals.  A little polar bear, reindeer and a bunny.

Here is my beloved sleeping Santa.  When we were first married, I lent a woman an Aztec calendar to make a mold of for her plaster item hobby/business - it blew up - so in return she made this sleeping Santa and painted it for me.  And then I found these two sleeping mice to go with him.  :-)

We're watching Outlander, we love this series.  I enjoy the low decorations on this cabinet.  Dayle's giant tv dwarfs the decorations.. lol.

The tree is almost done, I need to find a taller person to put some on the very top.  :-)

Kristi (our DIL) is going through boxes as they get settled into their new home and she found a set of spice jars that were her father's.  They are Hummel children.  On the back of each jar is a story about the spice.  They came in a custom made spice rack, unfortunately it got lost.  Aren't they neat?

Now that we're in charge of cooking, Dayle has been cleaning the kitchen thoroughly and we're clearing the counters and other spaces.  It was time to upgrade our coffee grinder, so this is the new one.  The old one we had to grind and then empty into a jar, I thought that this one with the beans on top and receptacle on the bottom would mean we could get rid of one extra thing on the counter.  

Today I will be working on finishing the decorating in the living room, which means putting the Dept 56 North Pole Village on the piano top.  I have been suffering from a cold and bronchitis for a few weeks now so I haven't been able to do my lap swimming, but hope to be able to start back up either wed or fri.  But for now I'll burn calories cleaning and decorating.  :-)

Have a super week!  Thanks to those who take the time to leave a comment.. hugs to you.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)