{"id":1256,"date":"2005-11-28T21:05:15","date_gmt":"2005-11-29T05:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2005\/11\/28\/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:46:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:46:06","slug":"its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2005\/11\/28\/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, I know it’s not December 1 yet. But I wanted to get into the spirit of the season so as to enjoy it fully. Below is the collection of nativity scenes I’ve had for years. On the far left is a plastic toy version that I received, I think, from my Great Aunt Jess. At least, that’s the story I remember but I don’t recall more context. I was eight; I drew inside the box they’re stored in — a fence, a star — to create the stable. The middle manger was originally my maternal grandfather’s; I think the essential pieces were once what my family used, and the tiny sheep and two shepherds were gifts to me when I was very young. On the right are some handmade nativities my mother collected and gave to me sometime in adulthood.<\/p>\n

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This next view is from my couch. On the right next to the candles are more ornaments my mother had for years. (Actually the candleholders were hers too — black iron leaves with red berries.) One of them, a cast iron wheelbarrow with tiny ball ornaments inside, used to be displayed on a marble-top table in my childhood living room. And the small tree my mother gave me in 1990 or so; it was the only tree I used for many years. Each year she gives me one or two tiny ornaments for it. Below our stockings hang by the chimney (sort of) with care. Mine is on the right; my mother made it. (Do you have any idea where I inherited my love of Christmas?) My husband’s stocking was knitted by his grandmother. Behind his is a guest stocking and one for the cats.<\/p>\n

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And lastly, this is what I see straight ahead from the couch. Because of allergies, we are faux tree folk. Christmas trees are my favorite part of Christmas. I don’t know how that happened; I guess as I left the religion of my youth and outgrew Santa, the tree remained. Many of the ornaments were gifts. The star at the top I made 22 years ago out of cardboard and foil, when I was too poor to afford a tree topper. It has never seemed important to replace it. And the snowflakes you see in the window? I cut those out of ordinary paper 22 years ago as well; in fact, I made 22 of them, and they hang in all the downstairs windows.<\/p>\n

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The kitchen holds fewer items… an advent wreath, the wooden plaques I made<\/a>, and small glass ornaments hanging on the windows over the sink. I also have a wood ornament hanging by the sink, given by one of my sisters, that says, “Some of my best friends are flakes.” Heh. Oh, and there’s a small Advent calendar, again given to me by my mother. It’s old. You can tell because it tells the location of where it was printed: West<\/em> Germany.<\/p>\n

I decorated with lights in front outside, but it’s raining, and I take horrible pictures in the dark. I love how it looks when I return from a walk. The house is cozy, festive, and inviting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, I know it’s not December 1 yet. But I wanted to get into the spirit of the season so as to enjoy it fully. Below is the collection of nativity scenes I’ve had for years. On the far left is a plastic toy version that I received, I think, from my Great Aunt Jess. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10967,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256\/revisions\/10967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}