One of my most precious treasures is a nativity set given to me by my Minima- my paternal grandmother. I feel so close to her in particular because so far it's just her and I in this family who have had twins. Sadly, she had passed away years before I became pregnant with the girls. However during that pregnancy, I thought of my Min every day.
The things I remember about visits with Minima make me smile. Minima loved miniatures, she had a glass display full of tiny little trinkets and ceramics that I was mesmerized by as a child. I knew those treasures were not for touching, even though I longed to hold them in my hands, who wouldn't love a tiny giraffe? Min loved tiny things so much, she made the most beautiful dollhouse I'd ever seen out of every day items and scraps of fabric. Dreaming of being in the same room as her dollhouse was magical.
Minima's house was always full of fun, especially when she requested we perform plays on her patio. My brother and I were most likely the worst playwrites/improvisational actors on the planet. It didn't matter to Minima. She was enthralled with our primitive, and oftentimes silly, little shows. I relished the vacations we took up to Min's house.
Minima gifted me this handmade nativity one year for Christmas, shortly after The Husband and I were married. Removing each little figure from it's bubble wrap cocoon, I became increasingly enamored with the set.
The details are stunningly beautiful, in a very simple and understated way. I positively love it.
The gold accents smattered on some of the figures are just so darned classy.
Just to remind me how much love went into each piece...
I miss my Min.
I long for the day when I can trust my three young terrors enough to display this beautiful set handcrafted for me with love and care by my Minima in my house at Christmastime. Just the sight of it brings back such warm memories of my Min, wrapping me like a cozy blanket on a winter's night.
beautiful!!! keep out of reach of kiddos- until they are like 16...no joke...:)
ReplyDeleteAs Min would say "Oh, gad..." I have the same nativity and wait for the day when it will be safe on my sofa table. But I do pull it out and look on the bottom just to see the "Min' written underneath. I bet she loves to see us celebrating our holidays with all her wonderful ceramics and other things she made. I say we all go to ceramics every Thursday when we get older...what do you think?
ReplyDeleteTuesday ceramics class in matching velour tracksuits- IT'S ON, WHIT.
ReplyDelete... or Thursday... whatever, my memory will probably be shot anyway.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your blog today Ashley...I have the same nativity with "min" on each piece too. I love it so much, but realized I am always in such a hurry to get it up each year that I never bothered to look on the bottom to see her name til tonight. I have been thinking of her so much lately, and it was like she was saying "hi" to me with each piece I picked up to check for her name.
ReplyDeleteI have been crying my eyes out thinking of her and the special gift she left us. I miss her so much! She loved making ceramic gifts for the family. I wonder how many sets she made. I remember her saying the gold paint was expensive and had real gold in it...she was so proud of her work.
Thank you for making me stop and cherish this special gift.
Terri