Advent Plans: Nativity Scene

We have a family tradition of putting up our Nativity scene on the first Sunday of Advent.  Before we had kids the scene took up two walls of our dining room and included rivers, lakes, and mountains.  We would spend HOURS getting things just how we wanted with painstaking care....

Those days are gone.  We have neither the space or the time for such endeavors.  But we are still quite pleased with the outcome....In the smaller space Bethlehem is a bustling town!

Our set has been accumulating since before my inlaws came to this country.  Some of the pieces are old Italian pieces.  But the bulk of our set is Fontanini.  They are made of a strong resin, so not too breakable, but still are beautifully made. 

The stable is always our center piece of course.  And right now it is basically bare except for a cow and donkey.  I always imagine that the large building next to the stable is inn where there was no room for Mary and Joseph.

All of the people are doing their jobs, fulfilling their vocations, but still in hopeful expectation or the coming of their messiah.

At the end of the table are the Roman soldiers giving their decree for the census and Mary and Joseph heading out on their journey.  Each week until Christmas they will move closer to the stable where Jesus Christ will be born.