Friday, January 20, 2012

Natural elements nativity.....



Two craft posts in a row....I promise this is not normal in my life.

And further more, this craft post has nothing to do with me making anything.

This post is so last Christmas, but my Christmas tree still happens to be up. So there. I have a competition with myself to see who can leave their tree up the longest and I always win.

For one of our Christmas Advent activities, we set out to make a Nativity scene out of mostly natural elements from around the farm and around the house.

Our girls were still struggling to grasp the characters of the very first Christmas. We had asked the littles one too many times "Who was Jesus' mother?" and got the answer "EVE!" one too many times.

I was all gung-ho until about 15 minutes into this and realized,"This is going to be way too tedious! We'll be here all night long!" And the girls were not feeling the nativity love.

Example:


But, you CAN easily see who was feeling the love. Busted!

Jason is a pro at anything tedious. He thrives at doing things that are meticulous. There have been so many times in our 11 years of marriage that I take on something detail oriented and about 15 minutes into the project and me throwing in the towel and giving up, he comes in and totally takes over to finish- this is one of his sweet gifts to me.

This was definitely not the family activity that we had in mind. What I got out of this deal was a bonafide nativity heirloom made by my man. There were several times that he said,"I'm having so much fun doing this!!" This made it even better.



I think he did an amazing job. I love that I have an acorn Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. I have pecan wise men. My shepherds have cute little almond feet. The sheep are made of cotton.  We used twine, jute, burlap, wood, moss, and pine cones. He exceeded and blew my expectations out of the water when he started building an actual stable. I was just hoping for some nativity peeps. It's just perfect!

I plan on leaving it out year around to enjoy....my tree on the other hand has got to go in due time. We'll see if it makes it until Valentine's Day!



7 comments:

Megan said...

Lyns- If I would have known there was a competition going on I would have left mine up!! I did take it down approximately 1 hour before life group started on Wednesday. Ha. So, now that I'm aware of this competition... Next year- it's on! :)

Oh! And super beautiful nativity!! Way to go Farmer J!!

Anonymous said...

What a nice and fun project!

Amy

Practically Ava said...

I have seen this precious Nativity in person and it is ADORABLE!!! ....I didn't know Jason was the mastermind behind it. So maybe the farmer needs a weekly arts and crafts activity since he had " so much fun" doing this! Ha! ....We will just pass all of our "tedious" craft projects on to our husbands. David usually ends up finishing things for me too, that have proven to be to time consuming!
love ya!
Kayla

christi said...

That nativity is precious! An heirloom for sure.

I love the changes you made to your blog.

mandi said...

I love it! I want to see it up close!

You cracked me up about having a competition with yourself and you always win! hahaha! Maybe you should just decorate it for valentine's day.

Penny Sampler said...

That nativity is darling and beats the socks of anything from the store! VERY impressed :)

BTW...I am a customer, so you don't think I am a stalker!

Unknown said...

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