A new scene

There is a new scene on my mantle.  Among the plants are a couple sheep, shepherds, musicians, an angel, and Mary & Joseph.  I received my first nativity set years ago, but for some reason never brought it to Denver.  So I pulled it out of the closet in September and forgot it.  But it arrived today in a package from my dad with a book he wants me to read.    The Advent wreath being the first tradition I mentioned, today it is the Nativity scene.  Usually when we began pulling Christmas decor out of the storage room, there was a special collection of boxes marked "fragile".  Inside was an old set of figurines that were chipped and glued back together: Mary, Joseph, a donkey and cow, sheep and shepherd, and an angel.  The three wise men and camel came out later.  There was also a mouse that sat in the manger scene, just like in the children's book.    By the time I was in high school, our old nativity pieces had been relegated to the Sunday School prayer service.  We started collecting a new Fontanini set.  Mary, Joesph, and the animals have been joined year after year with a few more pieces.  It went from sitting on two coffee tables to filling the top of the piano.  We would usually collect mosses and greens when we collected greens for the Advent wreath.  We would lay garbage bags and then cover them with the mosses, greens, and pine cones, you know - just in case Bethlehem looked like the Cascade Mountains or Pacific Northwest.  "/   Of course, Baby Jesus doesn't arrive until after we Ford kids went to bed on Christmas Eve.  And the three wise men and their camels and guide don't show up on the scene until January 6th, Epiphany.   peace and blessings...