Putting Up the Nativity Scene

When I was a kid, one of my favorite parts of decorating was helping mom put up the nativity scene. My mom has the coolest nativity scene, in my opinion, for two reasons: It's enormous (in scale and amount of pieces), and she made it herself.

Back when ceramics were more popular, my mom painted and glazed her ceramic nativity set. I don't even know how many pieces it has to it, but this is the best picture I've found online of the figurines and she has even more pieces than the 20 shown here.

But putting up the nativity scene was a bit like Christmas itself. All of the pieces are in a box filled with shredded newspaper, each figurine wrapped in tissue paper. So you'd have to dig through the shredded newspaper pieces to find all of the pieces, and then I always enjoyed unwrapping each piece, trying to guess which one it would be. Back at our old house, we would place the manger on the fireplace ledge, hang the angel somewhere near the mantle (with fishing line too, so it looks like it's floating), and place the kings over on the bookshelf since they were 'traveling and not quite there yet'.

Two Christmases ago, Wanda gave me a basic nativity set so I could start my own. The figurines are made by a company called Fontanini, an Italian family who have been making them for a long time as I understand it. And the best part about it? They make numerous figurines, just like my mom's has, so I can add to my set over the years.

As I unwrapped the pieces and put it up this year, I felt the same excitement and anticipation as I did when I was a child. Right now I just have the holy family, a cow, and an angel, but I'm excited to expand it, put it all in one box, and continue the same joy of unwrapping every piece year after year.

Das Schnitzelbank

Yesterday we went to a wedding. At the reception, we got the wonderful opportunity to join in a tradition the bride's family (an strong German family as you might guess) does at least once a year and always at weddings. One of the old men in the family, I can't remember if it was her grandpa or a great uncle, puts on his little German hat with the feather in the side and grabs a stick for the singing of the Schnitzelbank.

Thanks to my favorite childhood cartoon Animaniacs, I actually knew how this was going to go. You point at things and say "Ist das nicht ein _______?" and everyone responds "Ja, das ist ein ______" To translate, that would be "Is this not a pair of pants?" "Yes, that is a pair of pants!" And you build and build on your items until the last one, where you rename every single one of them.

So last night, the Schnitzelbankmeister was given the microphone and he hung up his old cloth banner of items that he points to with the stick. It looks something like the photo I've placed on here. The items were all the same.

The pace was a lot slower than the Animaniacs spoof, but it was fun and funny no less. Having a group of people trying to say long German words is always funny.