NATIVITIED

My great grandmother, for whom I was named, used to make ceramics. I have dolls and other special keepsakes that she made for me. She taught the craft to my grandmother, who made an entire Nativity set for my family in 1983.

My sister inherited the Nativity that Nanny made for my grandmother, and over the weekend, I inherited the Nativity that my grandmother made for us.

I have so many memories of this Nativity. I mentioned before that growing up, we used to each get a piece at dinnertime and tell how it was a part of Jesus's birth. I love that she made it in 1983, the year I was born.

I unpacked it as soon as I got home today. I already have my tree up, why not a Nativity too? A few of the pieces have been cracked and glued back over the years, but it's still the most beautiful Nativity there ever was.


Before the pieces fully dried, MawMaw etched 1983 on the bottom of each one. She also wrote Love, Mawmaw or I love you all! or something close to it. She also picked four pieces and wrote each of our names on the bottom. I, naturally, was the angel:


My mom was Mary, my dad was the shepherd standing on the far left, and my sister was the kneeling wiseman:


I wish I could have been there when she told my grandmother that being a wiseman wasn't good enough for her. I can just hear Mawmaw trying to tell her how the wiseman brought gifts! And came from afar! And were really, really important! Oh, no. Not MY sister. She insisted my grandmother write her name on the bottom of something REALLY important, like the Christ child himself:


I guess MawMaw caved, and while she was at it, also wrote my sister's name on the bottom of the camel and the ox. I guess the ass would have been too easy!


I can't wait to tell my nephew stories like this one day... and to display this heirloom in my home year after year!