Christmas Island Style

Maybe that title is misleading. It might make you conjure up images of sipping tropical drinks under a palm tree. While we could do that (it would just be a little chilly with intermittent rain), I meant something different by "island style"...like scaled-down...cramped...condensed.

We had to leave half of our Christmas goods behind in storage due to the moving weight limit for Okinawa (and our cramped living spaces)...but I still brought my favorites:


LOVE these "baby's first Christmas" pics for each of the kids. They make me smile so big every year when I bring them out.



LOVE Christmas books. Children's books...but also the Richard Paul Evan's type...you know the heart-warming, holiday-tear-jerkers you can get through in an afternoon?



Christmas stuffed (and real) animals.



And here's my favorite "Polar Express" stocking holders. They are VERY heavy so they actually hold the stuffed stocking. Troy said we're "ghetto" because I still haven't replaced the stock photos with our individual pics. It's been about...4 years now? Oh well...there's worse things than ghetto, I imagine.



Had to bring the "sea services" nutcrackers...and I just added Marine Santa since we've been here.



And a new centerpiece arrangement I added here with some old, but mostly new stuff. Coree doesn't like it. She says I've confused Christmas with the 4th of July. I believe it's appropriate to put a patriotic twist on anything. In fact, next St. Patrick's Day...if you come to my house and you aren't wearing green AND red, white & blue...I'm pinching you!




This is my new favorite, I think.



And there's the tree...in the only place we could fit it in the entire house. Doesn't make for very easy TV viewing...but luckily we don't watch much (except, we do really like to watch Christmas videos...so actually, this may be a problem).



Remember my little tree from last year? It reminds us of those who are serving in harms way at Christmas...far from their country and family...so that we can spend Christmas in safety with ours. I haven't been able to find a new ornament for it this year...but I'm still looking.



I left more than half of my nativity collection in storage, but I did bring my favorites. This leaves room for adding more to my collection, though. =^)

Like this lovely Kokeshi set. It is the most expensive one I own now...because it's made by an artist who is considered a "national treasure" in Japan...so he can charge more. At any rate, when tempted by other nativities on several occasions this year, I was reminded of the sticker shock of this one...and behaved myself.

As much as I will treasure the Japanese nativity...some of my favorite sets are of the toy variety. Fisher Price makes one, so does Playmobil. I have a Veggie Tales nativity and other various cloth and wooden sets that are kid friendly. Now if only Lego would make one!