Festival of the Nativities

Today Eric and I drove to Vancouver, WA--the nearest bigger city, and had a fun, adventurous day. We ate at our favorite sushi place, found some great deals at Macy's (shirts for him, 2 Lanz nightgowns for me, 2 for my mom,) and got a few essentials at Trader Joe's.

After that we headed over to a nearby stake center to view the local display called Festival of the Nativities. The flyer we had said there were 600 nativities to see there and we knew we were in for a treat.

The inside of the gym was set up like a Christmas boutique with low lighting and lots of twinkle lights and mini fountains. Whoever was in charge of this did a beautiful job. And there, on several tables were tons and tons of nativity sets, just as the flyer said. They were all shapes, sizes, colors, and textures.

Here are a few of my favorites:




I think you'll agree that the one made of abstract rock designs is the most unique!

Here are a few photos of the tables. Click on any to see a larger version.



It was a fun day, capped off by seeing this beautiful display that, obviously, took a lot of work to do, all for the pure enjoyment of the public.

And what is so special about these last 3 nativities? If you guessed that they are special because they are the ones at our house, you're right!

This last one is most special to me because it belonged to my grandparents, who would display it in their house every year. It is a Mexican nativity set. My grandpa built the frame around it and my grandma painted it. I love it, and I always think of them when I see it. It is one of my treasures now that they are gone.