The Twelth Day of Christmas,

The Christ is Born. 5X7 Watercolor

The Wise Men traditional arrive on January 6th. I remember living on the southern border of the USA as a child and half the kids opened their presents on December 25th and the other half on January 6th. For some the family Christmas Creche was where the presents collected, for others the Tree. All the parents knew better than to let kids open presents on the night of December 24th. How do you ever get kids to go to bed and to sleep when they have just been given new toys to play with? Besides, as a kid my rationale was that if Santa came during the night, how could you possibly open them before he got there? The presents were wrapped and out under the tree during the days before Christmas, and we still spoke and giggled about Santa. For this I am eternally grateful to my loving parents. They never wanted to lie to us, somehow they managed from the first to let us know that Santa wasn't a real man who came down a chimney (we never had one anyway) but a loving and fanciful tradition of "pretend" that was a joyful part of Christmas, which was really about the coming of the Christ to all of us to lead us back to the Truth. The Truth was very important in our family. Not a cold or hurtful truth, if it's like that, you're not looking high enough for the Truth.
As for the picture above, why is it that as soon as I scan them and see them on the blog, I can see what it still needs? This was from my imagination, it came out rather static. I would have done better to re-arrange my creche and paint from it. Next time!