Tag Archives: Christmas

My Olive Wood Nativity

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I had the marvelous and blessed opportunity to Jerusalem at the end of my first year at college (2000). The only thing I really really wanted for myself as a “souvenir” was an olive wood nativity. Supposedly, this was hand carved; the more I look at it, each year, the more I suspect it’s more of the generic variety. There are flaws in it and in some respects it’s rather cheaply made.  (I also didn’t know much about bargaining and so forth, so I can’t say it was cheap to buy). I was young and naive. If I had to choose again, I’d probably select a different, more “polished” model.

But those facts are irrelevant when I unpack this each year. I am reminded of my time in Jerusalem: the spirit I felt, the testimony I grew. I knew Heavenly Father answered my prayers. I knew He loved me. And every Christmas as I unpack this nativity set, I remember signing Christmas carols on the front lawn of the Jerusalem Center, as we talked of Shepherd’s Field. I am reminded of what Christmas truly means: our Savior was born! He Lived! And then He sacrificed His precious life and took it up again for each of us. Because of that, there is hope for each of us to return to Heavenly Father. That is truly the meaning of Christmas.

This olive wood set was the only nativity set I took with me to Australia, so it was our main means of celebration last year. I’m glad we had it. This year, it’s on the mantle over the fireplace.

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My Olive Wood Nativity

My First Nativity Scene

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I don’t know where I got this, but it was my first and only nativity scene when I was in high school. It was mine, in my room. I took it to college and it sat in a corner of my dorm room. Now, when I unpack it with my Christmas decorations, it reminds me of the joy of simplicity: while it’s cheap, it’s a Christmas reminder of the humility of Christ’s stable. This year it’s sitting on my desk.

When I take it out next year and the next, I’ll remember that a 14-month-old should never be left within reach of anything even remotely sentimental (he threw this down the stairs within 3 minutes). It is breakable. Surprise!

Thank goodness for elmer’s glue.

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Why We Teach Our Children of Santa Claus

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“Oh, and you must not forget the Kris Kringle. The child must believe in him until she reaches the age of six.”

“Mother, I know there are no ghosts or fairies. I would be teaching my child foolish lies.”

Mary spoke sharply. “You do not know whether there are not ghosts on earth or angels in heaven.”

“I know there is no Santa Claus.”

“Yet you must teach the child that these things are so.”

“Why? When I, myself, do not believe?”

“Because,” explained Mary Rommely simply, “the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which things live that never were. It is necessary that she believe. She must start out by believing in things not of this world. Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination. …”

“The child will grow up and find out things for herself. She will know that I lied. She will be disappointed.”

“That is what is called learning the truth. It is a good thing to learn the truth one’s self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them stretch. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. …”

The night that Francie Nolan was born; conversation between her mother and grandmother. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, page 84-85.

Reid Family Picture

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At Christmas time, we decided to have a family portrait taken. Our son was just two months old. I found a morning session (10:30, when he’s usually happy!) at a photograph studio at the mall. That morning, I agonized over what to wear and what he should wear. He looked nice and he was happy. Even my husband, who hates having his picture taken, was happy to have his picture taken that day. We left at 9:50 or so. The mall was only about 10 minutes away, so that left plenty of time.

An hour later, we were still circling the parking lot. Every isle in the parking lot at the mall was full of dozens of cars: we were all driving down each isle, looking for an empty spot. I was pulling out my hair. My husband was clenching his teeth. Only Paul was oblivious to the situation: he was asleep.

We went home.

After Christmas, I called the same photography studio and scheduled another session a few weeks away. Paul would be three months old. It would be a nice picture.

It turned out I had surgery the day before. I wasn’t feeling very smiley, so we canceled that session.

Still no family picture.

You could say, “why don’t you set up the tripod and just take it yourself?” We’ve tried that. It takes a minute per shot and you have to take dozens and dozens of shots to get a good one. They just never look right. Besides, the lighting is off in a room; a studio would look better.

We were planning on coming to the States. In my research, I found that it is half as much for a photography session at a similar mall photography studio in the US. I started making calls. But we ended up running errands just about every day in Chicago. We didn’t have time to go to a studio. We went on to Utah: we couldn’t find a recommended studio and again we didn’t have time.

What did we do? We asked my husband’s brother, Alex, to take our family portrait. And they turned out great. Thank you so much!

Without further ado, here’s the final product (with a 4-month-old Paul), courtesy Alex.

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Australia Christmas 2007: Mt. Buller Area

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Note: This post was originally posted April 12, 2008. I have posted dated it to be closer to the Christmas holiday when the photos were taken.

I have taken quite a long time to go through my photos from Christmas. It is very interesting to revisit these photos long after taking them. I find that, while my husband enjoys the landscape photos, I prefer the more abstract close-ups of things: tree stumps, flowers, posts, fences, windows, etc. I don’t feel like the landscapes are my favorites. I don’t know what one does with a photograph of a post (one probably won’t put it on a wall in a frame) but I like that photo the best.

We spent Christmas Eve near Mt. Buller (pronounced Bull-er; we kept saying Bueller and getting weird looks) in the High Country.

The idea was that we’d get to the summit of Mt. Buller in time for sunrise Christmas Eve morning. Well, we got there in time; however, it was completely foggy. We could barely sense the clouds lightening as the sun came up. We drove back down the mountain. It was beautiful coming down out of the fog. By 8 a.m. or so, we were driving by a lovely spot in the road so we stopped for photographs.

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After a while there, we headed to Pickerings Hut. This is a cattleman’s hut, much like Wallaces Hut. It is on the side of a river. I thought the hut was quite ugly. That’s one reason I kept it in black and white. I kept finding other things to take pictures of there. I don’t know why, but there was a random clothesline with clothes pins on it right behind the hut.

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As we drove back to Mansfield (where we were staying), we saw a beautiful field, called Sheepyard Flat. I didn’t take many pictures (because Paul required attention) but I did see kangaroos hopping down the hill to the right. I took my favorite picture–the post.

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That night we visited Craigs Hut for sunset.

The next morning, Christmas, we were too tired to get up for sunrise. We had a great day relaxing at the apartment. That night, we headed back to Mt. Buller for sunset pictures. This time it was clear and beautiful. I’ve included our family picture, too, even though I know you’ve seen it before.

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We had a wonderful Christmas. I’m glad Paul was such a great sport with all of our photographing. He got along really well in the carrier, and he slept a lot.

I suspect he won’t sleep quite so much next vacation!

Australia Christmas 2007: Wallace Hut

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Wallace Hut is the oldest of the cattleman’s huts still standing in the High Country. It was built in 1889 by the Wallace brothers from slabs of snowgum trees. The roof has been replaced, but otherwise, it’s still the original building.

I think this is a beautiful hut, out in the middle of the snowgums in the High Country. We visited Wallace Hut on Boxing Day. (I know, I’ve been holding them for a long time! And I still have more pictures from our Christmas road trip.)

As I processed the pictures, I couldn’t decide which I liked better: the color versions or the monochrome versions. I am not a very experienced photographer. My understanding is that monochrome is preferred when there is contrast in the frame: when the photograph is left in black and white, the textures are better revealed. I think there is delightful contrast on the building and reflecting in the windows. However, as I look at these pictures, I also like the contrast of the green grass with the reddish-brown building.

Here are four pictures in both color and monochrome.

Which do you prefer for each shot: color or monochrome?

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Australia Christmas 2007: High Country, Victoria

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On Boxing Day 2007, we drove up the mountain and entered the high country, which essentially is the plateau on top of the mountain. There, the trees were naked. At first glance, I thought it was still too cold for leaves; it was the beginning of summer, but maybe at such a “high” altitude, it was still early spring. The trees still had to bud.

But the further we drove in the high country, the more I realized that these naked-looking white-barked trees were the famous snow gums I had heard so much about. They were supposed to be undressed.

In August, we visited the Dandenong Ranges, and I mentioned how much I liked the naked trees. I liked these even more.

When I first moved to Australia, I asked some Relief Society sisters what it is that Victoria, Australia is famous for:

“What do you have a lot of? When you think ‘Victoria,’ what do you think of?” I asked.

“Well, we have a lot of gum trees,” one sister said.

“And we have koalas,” another answered.

I mentioned kangaroos, surprised no one had mentioned them.

“Well, yes, those too.”

I guess Victoria is to kangaroo the way Illinois is to deer: there are lots of them, but that’s not what they want to be “known” for.

Gum trees are another name for eucalyptus trees.

While I really don’t know anything more about these plants, I found them incredibly fascinating.

I like viewing my pictures in black and white because that is the general mood I had looking at these trees: since the trees themselves were only black and white, color didn’t seem to add anything to the composition. Rather, the contrast between the black and the white provided most of the interest.

The one color exception in this batch is the moment, during the sunset, when the light rested on a tree across a small valley. I didn’t have an appropriate zoom lens (so it’s probably out of focus), but I took the shot anyway.

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Australia Christmas 2007: Craigs Hut

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“The Man from Snowy River” is a well-known Australian poem. In the 1980s, the story from the poem was made into a movie. I admit, the movie is cheesy and the special effects say “low budget,” but it is definitively Australian.

When we first decided to come to Australia, my husband and I watched the movie. As I watched it, I awed at the beautiful landscapes. The main character, Jim Craig, has a house that overlooks a beautiful range of mountains. Part of the story is that the other mountainmen won’t let Jim, who is still a teenager, stay in his mountain house after his father died: only men who have earned it can live in the mountains. (Spoiler alert! By the end, he’s earned the right to live there.)

As I watched the first time, I felt sad that we would be so far south in Australia: if only we were going to Brisbane, we’d be near to where this movie was filmed and we’d be able to see the beautiful mountainscapes.

To my surprise, at the end of the movie, a note told us that this was filmed in Merrijig, Victoria. I told my husband we were going to see the mountains.

The house that Jim Craig lived in was built as a prop on the side of Mt. Stirling. Many people visited it to see the same view that is seen in the movie. Unfortunately, it burnt down a few years ago (there are often brush fires in the area, especially during droughts). But because so many people wanted to visit the place, the hut was rebuilt. Last January, it burnt down again in a more serious brush fire.

I was sad that we wouldn’t be able to visit it — until my husband found out that they are rebuilding it once again! The hut that we visited December 24 is still under construction; in fact, standing right in front of it is a huge dumpster. Because one side of the house has been completed, we could still take some nice pictures. I could avoid the dumpster, but I was unable to get an extra wide view.

To get to Craigs Hut, we drove on a washboard road winding up and down the mountains for about 1½ hours. Our Toyota Corolla did not like it! Then we walked 2 km up and down a very rutted path (we could have driven if we had 4-wheel drive). Finally, we arrived at the scenic overlook where Craigs Hut has been built.

It was a chilly night. Paul was fussy in the carrier until we put the snow suit on him. I carried him and finally he fell asleep just as we arrived. (My husband was the trooper that carried both of our cameras and both tripods.) The wind on the top of the mountain was horrendous.

It was so windy and I was so chilled that I only really took pictures for about 10 minutes. I was afraid that none of them would turn out, but with a little bit of adjustment to the exposures, I think I got some good shots.

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Paul’s First Christmas and New Year’s Eve

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For Christmas this year, Paul and family took a trip to the High Country in rural Victoria. The whole family enjoyed the time we spent together. I think Paul especially enjoyed playing with Daddy all week.

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We stayed in Mansfield and Bright, which are down in the valley, and we went up the mountains for photography during the early morning and evening hours. Paul was a good sport with all the driving. When we went on the short 1-2 km hikes, he rode along in Mom’s front carrier. He tended to fall asleep!

Christmas Eve morning we went to Mt. Buller for the sunrise. Paul fell asleep, but it was all foggy, so he didn’t miss anything. That evening, we drove to Craigs Hut, which is a representation of the hut that was used in the movie The Man from Snowy River. It was a long and bumpy drive and Paul was tired of being in the car! He was fussy in the carrier. But by the end of the 2 km hike, he was asleep. It was very cold (nearly freezing) and windy on top of the mountain, but he was wearing a (borrowed) snowsuit, so he didn’t feel the breeze!

On Christmas day, the whole family was too tired to get up for sunrise again. We stayed in the apartment and had a low key morning. Then in the afternoon we headed back up to the top of Mt. Buller for the sunset. It was a perfectly clear evening and we got some great pictures! We took a family picture with a sleepy Paul while on the mountain top.

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The family hiked to the top of Mt. Buller for Christmas Day’s sunset.

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By the time the sun had set on his first Christmas, Paul was sound asleep in the carrier.

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On Boxing Day, we headed to Bright and Falls Creek. There, we got some pictures of the high country. It was a lot warmer that evening and Paul didn’t even need to wear the snowsuit to keep warm.

We began the drive home the next day. It was at least five hours of driving, plus we stopped for brunch. By 1:30, Paul had had enough. He wouldn’t stop whining. I didn’t blame him. It was a lot of time in the car! Thankfully, there was only another hour and a half of driving at that point.

All in all, Mom and Dad had a great Christmas this year. We think Paul had a great first Christmas too, but he slept through most of it so I don’t think he will remember much.

(I am working on processing my pictures and will post them on my page when they’re ready.)

Paul’s New Year’s Eve was not very exciting. He went to bed at 9:15 p.m.! This morning, he welcomed the 2008 with a “bang.”

He’s a very good, happy boy!