Tiny

 [Mary] saw the circles of velvet-covered wood diminishing in height and held together by a central upright, making shelves for the display of a host of miniature treasures, fairy things of silver and gold, jade, pinchbeck, glass, ebony and ivory, all so small that only the eyes of a child could fully perceive their glory... 

"An ivory coach, you see, Mary," whispered her cousin. "It's no bigger than a hazelnut but it's all there, the horses and the coachman and Queen Mab herself inside."                                                                   The Scent of Glory, Elizabeth Goudge

 One of the reasons, but by no means the only reason, that I love Elizabeth Goudge's Scent of Water is because of the little things. I have always loved miniature things. When I was little, I wanted so badly to be able to shrink down to their size--well, I'd still like to do that. I don't have any perfect little minatures like the one pictured above from the Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls, and Toys, but I do have a bunch of tiny Nativity sets.

Unlike the small things in the museum, they are not at all valuable in anyone's eyes but my own. I bought some of them for a dollar or two on sale after Christmas in Hobby Lobby long ago, but I love them anyway. So, I thought that as the Christmas season is drawing to a close, I would post pictures of them.

This one is kind of a joke, but it's the oldest one and has something to do with one of the children, which is why I keep it, although I don't even remember which child. Poor St. Joseph and the shepherd can't even stand up. I don't usually even get it out but one of the grandchildren found it and put the pieces in the with the big crêche along with some animals from the toy basket. This was before Christmas, so the only authentic piece in the crêche is the ox in the back left corner.

As you can see, they all have different pieces. While they all have Mary and Joseph and Jesus and some others, the others are different. They all have angels too, but since I sometimes put the angels on top of the books, they didn't make the picture.

I think this one is kind of odd, but fun. The sheep look drunk.

Some of the animals seem to have disappeared this year. This one is missing a camel and a donkey and some sheep.

This is my favorite. It has twelve pieces and I've got them all along the length of the garland on our mantle.

This pewter set came from a craft fair at the museum where Bill worked for 28 years. I had been tempted to buy it for several years and I honestly can't remember if Bill bought them for a surprise or I just said, "Okay, this year we're buying it." The little plaster angels were a gift from my niece Sarah. One year when she was little, she had $11.00 and she took it to the dollar store and bought a 

gift for everyone.

Some of them are just little one or two pieces. The church goes on top of the Holy Family.

And that's that. I hope you all have a Blessed Epiphany.

AMDG