Tacky but entertaining...

Tonight was much better than last night. I came home and made sure to get my chores for the day done right away. I got very little accomplished last night and didn't want a repeat of that. After the housekeeping duties were done, I finally got the creche taken out and set up.

The Nativity gets set up in this awesome creche that my Dad built for me the year I first lived away from home. It's simple and beautiful and I love it.

I don't have a lot of pieces yet, but my Nativity set is Fontanini. Once I moved away from home I inherited some pieces that were used in the creche of my childhood. Over the years since then I have received more pieces as Christmas gifts and look forward to seeing if my collection will grow this year. I have some of the "main dudes" and they and the rest of my pieces are currently kept in this box:

I keep a print out on top of an e-mail between my Mom and I that tells about the traditional order of our family for putting out the Nativity:

On the first day of Advent, or today because I'm a bit late, come the angels and any extra animals. I've also included a woman, her name is Ruth, that does not fit the "categories" for future stages. The deer are not Fontanini, but as our family history has shown, items that don't necessarily fit sometimes end up in the nativity scene.

This year I have a second Nativity scene in my home as well. The beautiful piece below was given to Hubby and I as a wedding gift. I know it may seem silly, but I've placed it between the sinks in our bathroom... right next to the toothpaste. It will be a nice reminder each morning and night of why this season is so special.

In addition to the little Christmas decorating I did at home tonight, I also did some decorating at work. There are a hodge-podge of decorations that are left over after the administrative offices and lobby are decorated, so I did what I could with what I had. My desk got a bit more festive, but it isn't overwhelming.

And then there is the tacky, but entertaining, part of my day. I'm sitting at my desk with the box of decorations opened up and items strewn about. I know I want to make a tree on the wall out of some fake-pine garland, but I'm not sure I can pull it off. One of the detectives decided we should make it CID relevant and suggested crime scene tape as part of the decorations. This is what we ended up with:

It makes me laugh looking at it. We are so foolish, but it is so nice to be able to be so. The star at the top is a photo of the detective who provided the crime scene tape. He gets picked on about being very important to CID, so it was only right that he be the star.

I was very tempted to pull out all my decorations and work on them tonight, but I decided it would be best to do it in stages- especially because I wanted to make sure dinner was ready when Hubs got home. So I'll do a bit more tomorrow night... or maybe I won't be able to control myself and will do a lot, if not all of it... especially because Hubby has class and won't be home until late so I wont need to worry about having dinner ready for him!