Away in a Manger

The amount of Nativity Scenes that Pat has accumulated was growing so much,that people thought she was collecting them. Therefore, that encouraged them to help the collection to grow more. And it grew. I know real collectors can have hundreds of sets in their collection, but Pat's "collection" never got that far out of hand.

We think that our first nativity scene was an outdoor scene. It was given to us by our neighbors just across the street from us at our Webster Groves home on Marshall Avenue. I think our neighbors, Joe & June Payeur, were afraid it would get stolen and offered it to us. I guess if it would have been stolen from our yard, they would not feel so guilty. This was sometime around the mid 1970's. Its was a white plastic model with interior light bulbs for lighting. It was four pieces, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and a manger. At the Webster Groves address, I had built a big stable out of plywood (stored under the deck when not in use). When we moved to Rosenberg, TX we did away with the stable, but the plastic pieces survived the move. I think it survived that move because we had followed the advise of a daughter of one our best friends who made the same St. Louis to Texas corporate move. When her dad was doing jobs around the house that seemed to go wrong, she always had the same advise - Dad it's time you call a professional to do this job. Our 1997 Missouri to Texas move was paid for by my employer so it was done by professionals in all stages of the move.. In our move back to Missouri in January 2007, we were paying. We had a professional do the transporting, but we did the packing to save on the cost. Mary & Joseph did not survive the move, Jesus became an orphan. Maybe we should have marked the box - put this box on the top of the load. Since it was marked Christmas decorations, we didn't open it until December 2007, finding the contents of the box crushed beyond use. Early this month Jesus was adopted out through our local FREE CYCLE . The picture below is this outdoor nativity on our lawn in Rosenberg, TX. That year, 2004, we spent Christmas with family here in St. Charles, MO. While we were away from Texas, they had the 1st recorded Christmas Eve snow and white Christmas. Our good friends (the ones who were always advised by the daughter to get professional help) lived about 55 miles north of us. They did not get as much snow as we got in Rosenberg. So being the good friends that they are, they drove the 55 miles to our house on Christmas day, set Mary & Joseph back up from being blown over by the wind, an got a photo record of our Christmas snow at the Allwright address in Rosenberg, TX. Only about 1-2" on roof, maybe less on the grass. But there was as much as 10" about 15 miles south of us and 20" about 50 miles to the southwest.

Turn up your sound and enjoy this orchestral arrangement of "Away in a Manger" by Michael E. Ekbladh as you scroll down through this posting.

We have no idea what nativity that we added next, but one had to be this one created from a Pringels Chip container. We are confident that we got this one at a First United Methodist Church of Webster Groves Lord's Acre sale.

Soon to follow had to be this one from a Washington Park Assembly of God Church Christmas Bazaar, in the 1980's.

One we are quite proud of is one made by our nephew, Billy Outlaw. Billy is a skilled woodworker and carpenter and he made this nativity "puzzle" for his parents and all his uncles and aunts. I'm almost sure he made this some time in the 1980's. While we were living in Texas, a good friend of ours, Jill Williams, visiting from St. Louis decided that this bare wood puzzle needed to be painted. Another friend of ours, Pat Stout, from our Sugar Land, TX church helped her with this task and I must say it looked great after they finished. The first photo is of this nativity in the puzzle form. The next photo shows where it is placed on the ledge along the stairs to the basement of our St. Peters, TX home.

The next one is a wood laser cutout. It hangs on the wall that leads to our hall to the bedrooms.

A similar piece is hanging on the bay window wall of our kitchen-breakfast room.

The next two are Popsicle stick craft nativities that the grandkids made. Both are hanging on the wall in the hall.

Several are nativity scenes cut out from Christmas cards and framed.

This one is in the guest bathroom.

This one is hanging over the door at the bottom of the stairs leading to the basement.

The background for this Christmas Card nativity that is hanging in our bedroom was painted by our Grandaughter, Alex.

Pat's sister Bunny Brown has given her several nativities.

One is in the living room book case.

Another on the mantle.

Another in the Foyer.

Several are gifts from our daughter, Jennifer.

On the "Green Room", guest room dresser.

On the dining room wall (a 2008 Christmas Gift, thus this is the first time it has been displayed).

On the table behind the living room couch, assembled by the Grandkids.

On the living room lamp table. (Arranged by grandaughter, Jessica)

A stuffed nativity on the table just inside the basement living room door.

Another one from Jennifer is in a bookcase in the basement living room.
A beautiful ceramic nativity which was a gift to us from a dear friend, Zing Allsopp, of Sugar Land, TX, sits on the top of our entertainment center.

On the foyer table there is a small Christmas tree decorated with lights and "Chrismon" ornaments that Pat made. Our Grandson, Jacob, did all the decorating of the tree this year. Several photos show this "Christmon" tree. One of the the full tree, one of a section of the tree showing several of the "Chrismon" ornaments, and the "Chrismon" ornament depicting the manger.

Several Christmas Tree ornaments are nativities. First I show the the full tree (as they do every year, the grandkids placed all the decorations on the tree). A red box shows the location of three of the nativity ornaments on the tree.

This ornament was part of the tree decorations of Pat's mother .

This one is Jennifer's, but the Grandkids insisted it belongs on our tree since it is a nativity scene

This one was also from the tree decorations of Pat's mother. Look just to the right of this ornament and you can see a picture of our son Jeff, when he was much younger.

A ceramic ornament which was another gift from Pat's sister, Bunny.

Another Popsicle stick ornament: "John 3:16"

This small tree which is on a table just inside the door to basement living room was made by, Jon Lutjens, the son our pastor at Old Orchard Presbyterian Church in Webster Groves. We purchased it from him in the Old Orchard Christmas "store" where kids sold anything from craft items to bakery goods (cookies & fudge). As you can see. it had holders for small candles. Jessica decorated this tree this year, and placed a small nativity on it. Pat has not been able to find the small candles that she used on this tree.

Several nativities were craft projects that Pat has made over the years.

This cross stitch nativity hangs just inside the living room entrance from the foyer.

This sugar mold church is on the china cabinet table. Many years after Pat made this church, she added the nativity.

Pat made a Christmas Village from plastic canvas many years ago. It has been the job for the Grandkids to arrange this village every year. Since we moved to our St. Peters, MO house in 2007, the home for this village has been the window seat in the "Green Room". They used small tree decoration nativity pieces for the village church "outdoor" nativity scene.

This little fold up nativity is also part of the Christmas Village scene on the window seat.

This metal nativity with hooks for pot holders hangs in the foyer.

Texts of the Christmas message form the the shape of this nativity which hangs on the living room wall.

To see this text more clearly, click on the photo and it will be enlarged. To return to the original size, click on your browser reverse arrow.

This glass nativity is on the table in the foyer. It can be seen in the photo of the Christmon tree.

Jacob designed a nativity to go on the bulletin board in Pat's sewing room.

This wood nativity set is on a shelf of the guest bathroom cabinet. From the photo it appears that the donkey is sleeping. I did not notice that it was laying on its side until I had uploaded the photos to the computer. Pat says that this nativity was her mother's and the she got it from her church, Webster Groves Presbyterian.

This wood nativity is on a table just inside the door to the basement.

The final nativity is one that is part the decorations of a printers type box that is on the wall in the basement living room..
By my count this makes thirty eight nativity scenes that Pat's has in our home for decorations. But as I said from the beginning she is not into collecting them. It just happened.

These decorations help to remind us of the real reason we celebrate Christmas. The birth of the Christ Child, whose sole purpose in the end was to suffer and die on the cross. When you think about Christmas this year, try to keep things in perspective. Christmas must not be allowed to continue its slide into paganism, commercialism and the world of fantasy. You and I who have been exposed to the truth of God's Word need to remember that Christmas is about that special day when God sent His Son into the world to be the sacrifice for our sins. Christmas is about you coming to know God. After all, that is why God sent His Son into the world!

Turn up your sound and take time to listen to Maureen Hegarty sing that beautiful Christmas carol - "Away in a Manger"

Christmas with Daniel Boone

One of the major Christmas events in our county (St. Charles County) is the annual Candlelight Tour at the Daniel Boone Home and Boonesfield Village.

The Historic Daniel Boone Home in Defiance, Missouri is a registered National Historic Site.

Though the home is named after Boone, it was actually the home of Boone’s youngest son, Nathan Boone. Boone enjoyed spending most of his life at his son's home rather than his own property which was on about 850 acres of land about 4 miles from his son's home. Daniel Boone and his wife, Rebecca moved to Missouri in 1799 when he was 65 years old. The house is four stories tall and has 2 1/2 feet thick limestone walls.

The first time that we visited the Boone home was probably over 30 years ago and only the Boone Home was on the site. Since that time Boonesfield Village has been added. Boonesfield Village consists of over a dozen buildings dating back to the 19th century. These buildings were moved to Boonesfield Village from other sites or villages in the area. The buildings include the Old Peace Chapel, grist mill, schoolhouse, and carpenter’s shop. Touring this village gives visitors an idea of what frontier life was like in the 1800's and observe how hard life was during that era.

Lindenwood University purchased the Boone Home in 1998. The Daniel Boone Home and Boonesfield Village is open for daily tours except for New Years Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

The Candlelight Tour at the Daniel Boone Home and Boonesfield Village is an annual event that is on Friday and Saturday evenings for two weekends in December. The only light in the village is either candle light or lanterns. Over a thousand luminaries light both sides of the over half mile circle of the village. We have been told that several scout groups volunteer to light the luminaries along the path (in canning jars) before opening time. All of the buildings are illuminated by candles or lanterns. Each building is decorated as they might have been done in the 19 century era. Volunteer re-enactors are dressed in 19 century costume and portray activities as one would have encountered during that period. Several areas along the route had activities around huge bonfires. One such activity portrays life of an army encampment with discussions as may have been heard around the campfire during the Christmas Season. It included the sounds of the fife and drum corps that would have been prevalent in a military camp of that time period.

For this Candlelight Tour event, choirs from local churches are asked to volunteer to sing Christmas carols in the Old Peace Chapel.

The Old Peace Chapel was built in New Melle in the 1800’s and was originally a general store and dance hall. At the turn of the century, the building was bought by a German Evangelical congregation and remodeled into a church (I think it was 1804). The church was moved to the Daniel Boone Site in 1983. An interesting story that I heard is that during the remodeling of the church in the late 1900's they removed a dropped ceiling and found a beautiful blue ceiling above. A large beautiful chandelier was found laying above this lowered ceiling. It was of the type that could be lowered by cable and pulley in order to light its candles. That chandelier plus several 3 candle sconces on both sides of the chapel provided light for the visit of the chapel during the Candlelight Tour event. The church, which can seat up to 100 guests comfortably, is now a popular place for Weddings, Vow Renewals, and Baptisms. Go to this link for more about the chapel and some good photos. (Sorry, this is a departure from my normal blog routine with lots of photos. We were there at night, plus serving as actors. No opportunity for any photos. What I have posted are a couple from another source.)

The volunteer choirs for the Candlelight Tour are acting as if it is regular choir practice at the church. On Saturday evening, December 5 our church choir (Grace Presbyterian Church of St. Charles County) volunteered for the first shift that night from 6:30-8:00 PM. We were dressed in black (pants or dress) and white (shirts or blouse, no jackets) and the men were provided black string type bow ties as would have been popular for the era. As a group of tour visitors (about 25) were directed into the chapel pews by the tour director for the chapel, we would sing two verses of either "Joy to the World" or "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" followed by the first verse of "Silent Night". Then our choir director, Jason Polk, would direct us to hum "Silent Night" as he turned to the crowd and thanked them for attending choir practice and put out a plea for volunteers to join the choir, "be you soprano, alto, tenor, or bass". He added that it is cold this time of the year and someone needed to come the church around 5:00 AM to light a fire in the stove in the basement, so the church would be warm for the Sunday Service. He could use a volunteer to do this, but of course if no one was interested, he would be doing it himself. Then he would turn back us and we would close singing the last two measures of the verse "Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace." At this time the chapel director read a letter written in September 1819 by Daniel Boone to his sister-in-law (last know letter by Daniel Boone, he died September 26, 1820). Daniel Boone was raised as a Quaker. This letter, which mentions some of his views on religion, is quoted in the book "Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness" by John Mason Brown on page 152. I think this link will take you to that page in an Online Overview of the book . The chapel director closed the tour by inviting the group to get up from their pews and come stand at the front of the chapel and look up to the Organ loft over the back of the chapel and observe as a guest organist played a Christmas carol on the organ (original to the church). Such a grand close to the tour by the loud rendition from this organ in such a small chapel. As that group left at the end of the organist's performance, another would be directed in and we would repeat the process (about 6-7 minutes of time for each group) for our 1 1/2 hours. An enjoyable evening but tiring after 1 1/2 hours on my feet after putting in about 5 hours of a workday at our church getting the ground floor of the barn by our worship center ready for an occupancy permit for use as classroom space. The pictorial history of our church and more about the barn will be covered in a future blog that I am working on.

After our tour shift we all went to the nearby home (beautifully located in the hills of St. Charles County) of one our choir members for hot "wassail"( a spicy apple cider), snacks and fellowship. On of our members (new to the church) said he thought it must be a Missouri law that any road outside of the cities was not allowed to be straight. I can concur with that. The drive, at night, on the twisting roads to the Daniel Boone Home then from the Boone Home (as the crow flies about 3 miles, by road through valley and dale about 8.5 miles) to our friends home , was not my kind of fun. Maybe I am getting to old for this kind of driving.

Last year after our tour shift, Pat & I joined in with one of the tour groups as they left the chapel and completed the tour from that point on. Notable stops that I remember were: the army encampment campfire; a candle shop making candles in preparation for Christmas; the school house as a teacher was working with her students on a Christmas Pageant; an African American women decorating a Christmas Tree with cranberries and popcorn in the basement of one of the buildings portraying the life of a slave during the holiday times of that era; young girls in a neighboring house to the Daniel Boone house practicing a dance routine that they would be doing for a Christmas party they had been invited to by the Boone’s; finishing the tour with a visit to the parlor of the Boone Home to listen in on a fireside chat as Daniel Boone was being interviewed by his historian.

To read an interesting story about the controversy over the location of Daniel Boone's grave, see the Wikipedia article about Daniel Bonne. The discussion of the grave site controversy is under the Missouri section of the article. Both the Frankfort Cemetery in Kentucky and the Old Bryan Farm graveyard in Missouri claim to have Boone's remains

An interesting observation by one of the women in our choir was that she thought she recognized a local talk radio station host in one of the groups coming through the chapel. So today we listened to hear if he would mention the Candlelight Tour of the Daniel Boone Home and Boonesfield Village. And yes, he did talk about it during his air time today.