Every Christmas I get the kiddos an ornament. I have been doing that since they were born. Usually one or both of their grandmothers do the same. So they have quite a collection for a good start with their own tree someday. I have all of my ornaments from my childhood as well, since my mom did the same thing with my sister and I, and she still gives us an ornament for our tree every year. I love this tradition. Our Christmas tree is full of memories of Christmases past. If we travel somewhere new, I usually get an ornament on our trip as well, to remember all the places we've been. Back when Dr. G was in residency, he had a two month rotation in Baltimore one year, far away from where we lived in Texas, and he brought me home a little, tall-masted, old fashioned ship ornament that said Baltimore and the year. Although I had never been to Baltimore at that time, it still reminds me every year that I survived two months alone with four kids under the age of 6 while he was there receiving training. :) This year I added a handmade, metallic pineapple ornament from our trip to Maui in October when Dr. G and I went to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. It's one of my favorites. In the past, I've put all the ornaments together when I take down the tree, but this year I think I will separate them into boxes for each child. The younger girls each have a little tree in their room that they like to decorate every year with paper ornaments and small, sparkly red balls, so maybe they can add of few of their own ornaments next year.
So this year, after noticing how full the tree is getting, I decided I would do something different for the kids' ornaments from now on. I bought them each a small nativity (pictured above). (Hopefully they don't read this before Christmas...pretty sure I'm safe on that one.) From now on, I will add a nativity to their collection every year and they can use them to decorate their own homes someday. I ordered them online and bought seven. I was thinking of YP in China and it's the first gift I have bought for him (if you don't count the Nerf guns that Little Bro asked for for his birthday so he and YP can play together.) ;) I hope he likes it. We will save it for when he comes and he can have two for next Christmas. I love decorating with nativities at Christmas time. I had a friend whom we knew in Texas and she had an entire house full. They were everywhere in her home, in every room at Christmas, and she had collected them from all corners of the world. Each one had a story. It was a special feeling to go into her home during the holiday season.
The account of the birth of the Savior is still an amazing thing to me, and every Christmas I get the same feeling I had when I learned about His birth for the first time. I love sharing the scriptural account with our children and it's so wonderful to watch them as they understand it for the first time. It was always so fun watching their faces when they were little and they loved to rearrange, over and over, the several nativities we have had over the years. I finally learned to buy less expensive, plastic ones after the first few years. Miss M was pretty careful when she was little, but when the boys came along, we seemed to lose an arm or a halo or an animal's head every year. I am excited to share the nativity story with YP when he comes. I'm not sure how much exposure he has had to the first Christmas story, but I am hoping that he will love hearing about the Savior's birth as much as each of our other kids have.
My first remembrance of knowing about "Baby Jesus" was when I was about 4 1/2. I can still remember the reverence and awe I felt that entire Christmas season. Our family lived in Italy near Rome and were there for two years. We had only been there since August of that year (1973) and by December my Italian was still emerging. I went to an Italian preschool during the week that was near our apartment, and I credit my parents for being brave enough to send me to school like that, being so young and new in a foreign country. It took about six months or so for me to become fluent in Italian and I became somewhat of a little celebrity in the small town later that year being the only little American girl around who could speak to and hang out with all the locals on the beach in our little city. My school was a little Catholic preschool run by nuns who were Yugoslavian.
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| My sister and I (I'm in red) with some of the nuns who taught at my Catholic preschool in Italy. (circa 1973) |
I know they spoke Italian too, but it didn't much matter because I didn't understand anyone anyway at first. I remember being quite "lost" and frustrated at school for the first several months.(At least that gives me a bit of perspective for how YP will feel at first, so I can be more mindful of his certain frustration with the language and culture.) I know the kids at school tried to help me along, but I remember thinking I WAS understanding things right, only to realize I really wasn't after watching what the other kids were doing. Case in point was the little Christmas program that we did for our parents. We practiced Christmas songs in Italian and prayers and they told us when to stand and when to sit and when to fold our hands in prayer etc. I was pretty sure I got it. When the evening came and we all showed up dressed in our nice clothes for the program, I did my best to sing and watched all the other kids to follow them. I was pretty sure the nuns had said we were supposed to keep our hands folded in prayer any time we were seated. I just KNEW I was right and all the other Italian speaking (and understanding) kids must be wrong. My mom snapped a photo of me sitting during the pageant, and she said I sat that way for the ENTIRE evening any time we were sitting.
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| Me (second from left...praying) |
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| Me (left) and my little sister (right) at my preschool Christmas Program. Dec. 21st, 1973 |
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| My little Italian friend and I eating LOTS of sweets. (Italian treats are THE BEST!) |
In preparation for the program, we had worked on many little crafts to display for our parents. All of them centered around the birth of the Savior. I don't remember hearing too much about Santa Claus that year although I know on Christmas morning, there were gifts from him under the tree and my parents said he must have found us in Italy since we had moved from America. The Italians didn't have a Santa Claus figure nor Christmas trees then. My mother had shipped our 6 foot tall, fake 1970's Christmas tree and a bunch of colored lights and ornaments over from the US in a shipping crate along with our other stuff, so our Italian friends in the apartment building were completely enamored with the decorated tree. I think she gave it to someone in Italy when we moved back to the US two years later. Anyway, my focus that Christmas was on my new found love for "Baby Jesus". The nuns had sparkly cards and decorations and manger scenes for us to make for our parents and all of them had to do with the nativity. I was in awe of this little baby who seemed so important. My understanding would grow from year to year, but the feeling of reverence remains the same as it was that first Christmas in Italy. I am so grateful that forty-one (Wow, that's a lot.) years later, my understanding of the Savior's mission has grown to what it is today and it will continue to grow. HE is the true gift of Christmas. Nothing else about the season can bring that feeling of reverence and awe that pondering on His birth and life can bring. I love that the seed was planted early in my life by some Yugoslavian nuns at an Italian preschool half way across the world. I am grateful that seed grew to a sure knowledge that He is MY Savior, and that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I love that I can plant that same seed in the hearts of my own children. I am so excited to share the wonder and beauty of the Gift that is the Savior with YP next year when he is here.
Below is a link for one of my favorite recent videos called "He is the Gift" about how we can focus on that first Gift of Christmas which was the Christ child. I LOVE this video! #sharethegift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzjFEMmM0Xs
