Merry Christmas

 My mother made this Nativity as a Relief Society Project.  It has gold and lots of jewels on it.  I made a small one and kept it all white  - in fact it never went in for the second firing - it looks like bisque.  I thought Mom's was gaudy.  Now I miss it.

For those of you keeping track, this is the last night of Advent.  The Advent Krantz pictured above is the one that got our family started.  The Voigt family in Germany gave us our very first Advent Krantz made of evergreens and red candles.  That was the year we went to the Mission home and learned the story of the lighting of the candles.  I have since heard another variation - the 4 candles represent the 4 Gospels of the New Testament.  I thought that was an interesting twist.  If there are 5 candles then it signifies the 5,000 years from the escape from Egypt to the birth of Christ.  Both are interesting interpretations.  I will stick with what I heard as a child.  


The thing that is special about this Advent Krantz is that it is from East Germany in a time when things were very hard to come by from East Germany.  Kaethe Voigt got special permission to visit her family in Eastern Germany and came back with a few heirlooms and this Krantz for us.  It has been very precious ever since.