More Christmas Trivia and a winter reminder

The crib, representing the manger in which the baby Jesus Christ was laid after his birth in a stable in Bethlehem, has become a favorite Christmas decoration. It has been used for centuries to bring to life the story of Christmas.

Francis of Assisi, who was renowned for his love of animals, instituted the custom of the nativity scene. After receiving permission from the Pope, he erected the first one during the Christmas of 1224 in a cave outside the town of Greccio in Italy. It was not a hand crafted or modren type of crib but a live scene. When people gathered to watch the spectacle. Francis stood in front of the manger and would recite the Gospel relating to the scene; then he would deliver a sermon.

Nowadays, nativity scenes with all the figures such as Joseph, Mary and the three wise men along with an ox and an ass, have become popular throughout the Christian world.

The snow globe nativity scene above is the only one we'll have this year, normally we have a little white china one, but last year I found that somewhere, somtime, somehow, the little baby Jesus that usually lays in the crib has gone missing.  Can't blame him really can we, 2,000 years of laying round in a crib every Christmas must get pretty boring, I guess he flew the coop.  Seriously, it was my Grandmothers and I ended up with it  a'few years back now, I will have to search for him this year, but right now the snow globe is the best we have, I feel rather slack after realising that, oh well.

 

This time last year Adrian & I were getting quite excited about our first trip to the UK.  We were heading over on the 23rd December to spend Christmas with Ashleigh and Danielle.  Talk about excited, we were besides ourselves.  And now truly I just long for another cold Christmas.  We've had the air con on full tilt for the last week or so, it is soooooo hot here right now and after experiencing the cold, frosty Christmas we had last year, it just doesn't seem to fit now.

We went to Bath one day just after Christmas day and it was sooo cold, gorgeous.  Pussy Willows, I remember my mum telling me about pussy willows when she was a little girl and we found some at a florist and well I had to get a shot didn't I.

 

 

 

Here we are in Bath it's about 3.30pm in the afternoon and the lights are all on already, that was probably the thing I liked least, the days were just too short and there was so much to see.  So here is Ash in the front, then Ade and you can see Danielle in her Amsterdaam beanie in the background. 

 

 

 

When we arrived in London we went straight to the big MK Centre that the girls had been telling us about for months.  We were jet lagged, so tired but so excited to be in London and with the girls after not seeing them in person (thank heavens for SKYPE) for such a long time.  The centre had a huge tree in the middle and a Christmas village set up, pretty cool.  We also arrived on the same day as the family of the girls mate Dean.  He is from Darwin in the Northern Territory quite a long way from us, but Australia just the same.  Carmel, Merv and Kristie were and are great.  We've become friends and have emailed, talked on the phone and they have visited us on the way to Brisbane.  We will take a trip to see them hopefully in the new year.  So Christmas is almost upon us and it will be different in many ways this year.  Hopefully you are all getting ready, wrapping presents, making dates to get together with friends and family, planning menus, decorating trees and houses.  It is a nice time of year, but for some a lonely time too.  Look out for someone who might be going to be on their own this year, maybe they can join you....that would be nice wouldn't it.