"This is the season beloved of the year
Sing a rhyme; Christmas time soon will be here.
Tell the true story of Jesus' birth,
When as a baby, he came to the earth."

Read the true story of Jesus' birth in Luke 2 and Matthew 2
. . . sing lots of Christmas songs like this one . . .
and have a very, merry Christmas Eve.

Love, Grandma

P. S. And thank you very much for making me
such a cute nativity scene this year! 

"See the dear baby of Bethlehem,
Little Lord Jesus, the Savior of men." 

This little baby Jesus was brought to you
 by an equally cute baby boy named Parker
who probably took a nice long nap so that his
 Mom could make this figure for my nativity set.

You might like to read "One Baby Jesus"
board book that you either own or
can find at my house . . . and you
might like to listen to a baby Jesus
song here called "Picture a Christmas".

Merry Christmas Countdown!
Love, Grandma

And this is "Joseph, guiding the donkey with care."

                                                    

Eddy was not only a Joseph for a

nativity play a couple years ago, but

he also sang the song you can listen to here called
"When Joseph Went to Bethlehem."

Enjoy this cute Joseph
Eddy and his Mom made, too

Joseph was a carpenter, so I thought a

good book to read today would be this one about

a wood carver who makes a nativity set.

"The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey"

by Susan Wojciechowski is one of

my favorite Christmas books!

Merry Christmas Countdown!

Love, Grandma

 "See the sweet mother, Mary so fair, . . ."

 
This is little Lindsay Lu dressed up as Mary for
a nativity play a couple years ago.

She is just as sweet and cute as the
Mary she and her Mom made for my nativity scene.

Read a book starring Mary

and other nativity people, places and things

called "B is for Bethlehem" by Isabel Wilmer

. . . or sing along with the song here called

"Mary's Lullaby".

Merry Christmas Countdown!

Love, Grandma

"These are the wisemen who followed the star,
Frankincense, gold and myrrh brought from afar."

These wisemen were created by the
three wiseguys: Zach, Brody and Luke!

Wisemen are also mentioned in
"A Child Was Born--A First Nativity Book"
by Grace Maccarone

Merry Christmas Countdown!
Love, Grandma

"These are the shepherds, humble and mild,
Hast'ning to worship the heavenly child."

These shepherds (or soldiers as Ryan calls them)
were created by Jack and Ryan.

There is primary song here called
"The Shepherd's Carol" that you
might like to listen to or sing.


And you can see some shepherds among
 other Christmasy things in the book:
"C is for Christmas"
by Tonya Skousen Arenaz.

Merry Christmas Countdown!
Love, Grandma

"This is the manger, sweet hay for a bed
Waiting for Jesus to cradle his head."

Coltin also made the manger!

An easy-to-read manger book is
"The Manger Where Jesus Lay"
by Martha Larcher

Another manger book is called
"Mortimer's Christmas Manger"
by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

And of course, you must sing
"Away in a Manger" today!

Merry Christmas Countdown!
Love, Grandma

These are the animals who welcomed
baby Jesus to the stable . . .

Wade and Owen (with a little help from Hayley)
made these cute animals.

There are lots of good books about animals like:

"Room for a Little--A Christmas Tale"

by Martin Waddell

"Song of the Stars--a Christmas Story"

by Sally Lloyd-Jones

"Who is Coming to our House?"

by Joseph Slate

And the best ever Christmas song about animals

is "The Friendly Beasts" sung by Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Ask Grandpa to play that CD for you the next time you visit!

Happy Merry Christmas Countdown!

Love, Grandma

"This is the stable, shelter so bare . . . "

When Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem,
there was no room in an inn for them to stay
the night Jesus was born, so they had to stay in a stable.

This is the stable Coltin built!
 

This is a stable book you might like to read:
"Stable in Bethlehem--a Countdown to Christmas"
by Joy N. Hulme

"This is the Stable" by Cynthia Cotton
is another good stable book to read.

And you can listen or sing along here to
"Once Within a Lowly Stable"

Merry Christmas Countdown!
Love, Grandma

"This is the angel proclaiming the birth

Singing "Hosanna!" and "Peace to the Earth"

Look at the library for this wordless picture book

by Peter Collington called "A Small Miracle" or

listen to an angel song here called

 "Hark! The Angels Sing".

Merry Christmas Countdown!

Love, Grandma

"This is the new star shining so bright,

Lighting the world on that first Christmas Night." 

Read about a star in the sparkly star book by

M. Christina Butler called "A Star So Bright"

or listen to a star song here called

"Stars Were Gleaming"

Merry Christmas Countdown!
Love, Grandma

Nn is for Nativity

Nativity is the story of the very first

Christmas when baby Jesus was born.
Many people like to set up nativity scenes in December
to help them remember why we celebrate Christmas.  

 Once upon a time, long, long ago Grandpa and
 I bought our very first nativity scene. It is so
"precious" to us that we have been getting it out

  to display every December for at least 30 years!

Now we have a few more nativity scenes

we also display in December.

This is Mary . . .
one of the felt puppets Betsy and Hayley helped me
make one year when our family had decided they
were too grown up to act out the Nativity play anymore.

This is Joseph . . .
from one of our cute little nativity sets.

This is the stable . . .
from a wooden nativity set we own.

These are the animals . . .
from our fanciest nativity set.
 

These are the shepherds . . .
from our "Country Bumpkins" nativity set.

This is the angel . . .
from our Fisher Price nativity set.
My (and many of your) favorite part is when you
push down on the angel, and the star lights up and
plays "Away in a Manger"

This is the brand new star . . .
also from our fancy nativity set.

These are the wise men . . .
from a nativity set full of cute, chubby people!

I will tell you all about my newest nativity set
 during the days before Christmas. In the meantime
you can listen (and maybe even learn)
"The Nativity Song" here!

Merry Christmas Countdown!
Love, Grandma