The Nacimiento is DONE!

I figured I could just write a separate post for my host-grandparent's Nativity scene.  It is beyond what I imagined it could ever be!  We started work at least a week ago, but it started slowly.  And I still don't really understand who the man is who helped us, but he was there almost every night building.  I'm pretty sure we bought the wood, moss, and palm from him.  We built the manger/barn part from wood, draped moss all over it, surrounded it with potted plants and draped moss on the plots to appear more realistic.  Then we dumped dirt all over the floor in front of the manger and set up a little town.  Haha you will notice in the picture that we have all the climates of the world in this Nativity scene.  There is a big snow-covered mountain leading down to a lagoon with flamingos, There is a bridge crossing over a few ponds with giant frogs, and all kinds of cars and army men crossing the bridge.  There are paper houses along the town road, with a whole little jungle animal section, including a massive tiger that towers over the houses.  There is also a Honduras section which has a classic Honduras church with Honduran dancers and marimba players outside.  Of course the people are as big as the church...  As crazy and funny as it looks, it was fun to put together (and really difficult) and it looks beautiful!

The beginning stages of the nacimiento.

Adding moss and plants.

Adding lights.

Adding dirt and people....

Construction of the lagoon.

The really nice, helpful man who I don't know... hard at work.

Building trees that will support the bridge.

Trying to capture the entire room, but the nacimiento is too big for one photo.

Building the pueblo and adding sheep.

The manger

La caja de casas.  (The box of houses.. quite ridiculous how many paper houses they have made over the years.)

Adding lights to the pueblo

So pretty!

Completed.  Manger, chickens, sheep, houses, road, and all.

The center of the nacimiento.  Baby Jesus is covered with tissue paper until December 24 when they uncover him at midnight, when he is born.

Close-up of the lagoon with flamingos and the bridge and the jungle animals.  Notice the cardinals and snakes on the trees by the bridge.

The snow covered mountain.

You can probably tell, but this all took a really, really long time to construct.

The airport that Manuel made.  :)

The lights on my upstairs porch.

Our neighbors across the street also built a nacimiento in their pulperia (little store) and it is outrageous!  The lights on that thing are beyond crazy, and when my host-grandmother saw it, she said "Que barbaridad!"  Haha which I'm sure you can all guess the meaning of that... it isn't a compliment.  I have a few pictures of it, and after Christmas the whole family is going into Santa Barbara to look at the nacimientos, so more pictures to come!

The nacimiento at Pulperia Olivia's.  It takes up the entire empty floor space and has more lights than I knew could exist in one room.

Insane.

Pretty in its own busy, interesting, light-filled way.