nativity

One of my favorite childhood memories of Christmas was setting up the nativity every year.  We had one with lots of pieces: shepherds, wise men, lots of animals, and a stable that my dad made (I think) probably before I was born.  I loved arranging the figures in the stable.

Until this year, the only nativity we had was a little one my mom gave us when we lived in our trailer in Alabama.

It's so cute, but I'd been thinking that we needed something a little larger, and maybe something with more pieces.

My Aunt Sue and Uncle David (Big D) came over for dinner last week and brought us a wonderful, wonderful Christmas gift!  A new nativity set!

I'd had my eye on this nativity from Willow Tree and Aunt Sue read my mind.  I love it! 

The little sheep are so cute.

And the donkey with his floppy looking ears:

And this is my favorite part:

In so many nativity scenes, the baby Jesus is shown in the manger, but in this scene, Mary is holding him.  I love that!  You mamas out there know Mary probably spent a great deal of time in those first few days just holding, feeding and loving on her little baby.  It just makes this nativity all the more sweet to me.

Do you have a special nativity scene in your house? 

then and now

Daddy Bird was out checking on our weanling calves last week and snapped a few pictures.  It was really interesting to see how much these calves have grown since they were born!

I'm going to do a little comparison for y'all with the pictures taken when they were born in March.  Keep in mind these calves were raised on their mothers' milk and grass.

Here's a little Angus Charolais cross steer wading in the creek at about a week old.

Here's the same steer at approximately 9 months and 600 lbs!

Here's a little black and white faced cutie.

Here's the same steer now!  Not quite as cute.

This photo was taken the day this little lady was born.

This is her today.  Her Mama is always the first cow to greet us when we come out to move them to a new pasture.  We're thinking about keeping her to breed next year.

This is my favorite calf of the whole bunch.  The red calf in the front.

Here she is today.  I'm keeping this one whether Daddy Bird wants to or not.

It's amazing to me how much these calves have grown in almost 9 months.  We'll do another comparison at a year.

Next year's calf crop should start arriving in 3 months or so!