Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph on Donkey

Matthew 2:13-15 NKJV - The Flight into Egypt -

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”

Today's photos were taken with my Samsung A14e Phone, I wanted you to see how each one i different, all take at the same time, all different in lighting and tones, taken before daybreak and with no lights but the nook, no edits done.  

Christmas Nook 2024

 

Yesterday I showed you I removed Charlie Brown tree and added the stature to the new. On the top shelf lives this Nativity.

Because of the glitter from the lights it is very hard to how the detail. I took a dozen photos and today we go light on the words and heavy on photos. you can see why I spend a lot of time staring at the nook, also known as My Florida Fireplace..

I had to take it off the shelf, it's too high for my cell to reach it

I tried both Cell phones and then decided to try the iPad Camera. Bingo, I had no idea how good the iPad takes photos.  All the square photos are iPad. It takes them in 3 sizes. the square is great for the blog

The small angel stands of the shelf, the larger one stands on the next shelf up, both play the same song.

Hark The Herald Angels Sing, or O come oh come, Emmanuel.

Above shows the nativity lights up, it is also a music box that sings Silent Night and Oh Come All Ye Faithful

Nook Changes

Thursday, 4 AM,Dec 12th, while doing my early am exercises in front of the Nook, I suddenly got a 'bee in my bonnet' and decided to change some things in the Nook.

  I moved the Charlie Brown Tree to the other side of the room and move the statue, that lives on the shelf under the TV, year round. It was a gift from my son and his wife, about 20 years ago and I consider it a work of art and that it deserves to live in plain sight.

I thought, I need to show my friends, the nativity that lives in the nook on a shelf at Christmas and I held the cell up with my quivery, old wrinkled unsteady hands and snapped this photo. Thinking the photo did not do justice to it, and I kind of blanked out into MadSnapper Mode and when I told Bob I now had 60 photos of the things in the nook and it took me 40 minutes to do that, he said, believe me I KNOW!

Of course he did, since the TV/news is on the same wall as the nook.

Should I show the one with shadows on the wall or with

the glass balls above. Oh well, show them both.

Nope, too dark. Oh well, show it anyway.

But wait, there is MORE... you will be shocked! or maybe not!

and as Yam says, you will have more peek than speak,

to be continued 

The reason for the less is more, and leaving 4 boxes of Christmas in the closet is, I may have to have surgery soon, I see the surgeon on the 19th at 9 am, and will find out if it is the bad or the ugly, there are two choices. My primary sent me and he will decide. I may or may not post what type of surgery, but you can still pray for me because God knows now which one it will be. I want the Nook to be good for a month or two if needed, and the way it is, and if needed can stay all year.

I could be out of SORTS for a while.  You can't pray away from the surgery but you can pray for strength in mind and soul and for me to remain able to take care of my tow boys, Bob and Beau.

I know the Baby in Mary's Arms riding on a donkey, has my back.

He said so!

Isaiah 41:10. :

 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.". 

Selfie Sunday with Beau

This is me Saturday morning waiting for a cracker, most of you know I hate the camera, butt a cracker did. 

This is how we sit 3 on a sofa, and she tricked me and took the photo while I stared at the neighbor to see what they were up to.

She says, pay attention to the double Sandra Claus, the photo was an oops, can you find the oops and in the other it is missing. 

Playing with the 17 inch tree, trying for something for our Christmas Card. she was playing in the mirror and taking pieces of the tree

 

Five Santasville

I decided to put out my Santa collection which is now down from 30 to only five. Can you find five?

the fifth Santa is in the painting, waving from the Christmas Train. 

About the blue tree, I do not like it. I can and will live with it until New Year day.

White lights are bright and cheerful and make me feel like I am in front of a fireplace.

Dreary days are brighter, cool days are warmer. I can't look at Five Santasville and feel blue.

the tree makes me feel blue.  (more about the lights in future)

Saint Nicolas is 2 feet tall and my most favorite of all my Santas. He is more than 30 years old, given to me by my son Dan's wife. 

Santa 3 and 4 are Salt/Pepper shakers I bought in the Antique store in 1985. Possbily 100 years old or make those thousands of year old. Just How Old IS Santa?

Playing with macro on cell phone Just Because

Santa #5 is a candle climber, and after years of climbing candles has for the past few years worked as a tree topper and this year is busy hanging fairy lights in the pinecones.

Wordless Wed Blue Christmas

 I'll have a blue Christmas without you.

I'll be so blue just thinking looking at about you.

Decorations of red blue on a green Christmas tree

Won't be the same for me, without fairy lights to see!

If you look closely enough, MadSnapper Macro Practice will reveal ME!

It may not be what i wanted to see, 

but iPhone 7 practice, it gave to me...  PS: yes, my phone has a blue case, and my gown is blue. 

Part 2 of More about the dog bone tree

The Dog Bone tree is now Blue, Above is Mid Day, below late afternoon

 

I am not fond of it, but I don't hate it. I can live with it; I still don't like blue lights. I added shiny blue balls and shiny pink, they all look the same. I am thinking it will end up on a table at the curb, with a Free sign. With a lot of other things that never come out of the closet. Getting it this far was exhausting.

Night time, what we see while watching TV in the evenings.

To be continued 

More about the dog bone tree part 1

 

Sitting on the sofa, Chromebook in lap, the view of the above chair was bleak. I had decided not to put anything there. Suddenly, I sprang slowly jacked myself up, walked 10 steps to the closet, lifted down the trash bag, removed the used to be dog bone tree, and sat it on the table and plugged it in. Done... NOPE! 

Above is fresh out of the closet this year. I just could not stand it. I fussed and ranted about how much I did not like it. I said, I am just going to sit it on the curb, and someone will take it. It's been in the closet for 3 years because I don't like it.

The tree went from Dog Bones gift in 2005 to Rose garland and changed every year until 2011 when I had a bright idea of using only ornaments that cost no more than a dollar. For five dollars I had a Dollar Tree, Dollar Tree from the Dollar Tree Store.

below is how it looked when I first did it.

Years passed; the PRE-wired lights Died.

One hour of wire cutters removed the wires and lights.

the tree was stripped and really pretty.

I added bright white fairy lights and five dollars spent at Dollar Tree Store and i loved it.

The lights died quickly because i left it on almost every waking hour. Plus I left it out until the end of Feb for a couple of years.

I ordered the same lights, the kind that are USB plug in charger, but accidently got warm white not bright white.

I was aggravated and just wrapped the lights on top of the ornaments instead of stripping the tree and starting over

You can see by the tree at the top, it was not a winner.  I simply put in in a bag and put in the closet and there it has sat

Until a few days ago. 

After an hour of whining about the ugly tree, I grabbed it and sat down in that chair with it between my knees and ripped everything on it off.  

The search for lights, began and I took all the junk out of the closet, looking for the set of bright white fairy lights that I remembered placing in the closet.

I found a whole stash of lights everything but what i wanted.

Amazon let me down, they had no bright white except battery.

I had mini warm lights, 20 to the strand and put them on, it needed 20 more,

to many dark spots.

I loved it. but it had dark spots. I scoured Amazon for a string of 100 fairy lights like the ones on the middle tree, not battery powered.

 I drove to Publix, CVS and Dollar General, NO! Lights!

Saturday at Walmart the app said they had them, on 3 different aisles, I spent 30 minutes searching for them with help from 2 different employees

The app said they had them. I thought, I will just get a second strand of what is on the tree, the only one they had was 50. I bought that

Bob had said, before I left, why don't you get blue lights. I said I don't like blue lights, of course they had a 20 light BLUE and I felt bad because I always pick what i want so I bought them

to be continuted