Here’s the Picture of the Day.
I walked out into the backyard this slightly chilly, wet Christmas morning and gazed about. The temperature was a comfy 56 degrees. That’s pretty warm even for Savannah at this time of the year.
It was hard to believe that Christmas had already arrived, I thought as I looked down at the nativity set I had on my backyard table. Suddenly, inspiration hit and I thought, ‘it would be so cool to set up all of my Star Wars toys around the nativity scene.’ So, I ran inside the house and hunted down what little is left of my childhood star wars toys collection. In the closet of my office I located the Darth Vader case that holds my Star Wars peeps. I opened the Darth Vader case and stared at my childhood Star Wars figurines and suddenly, I was filled with joy. Momentarily, I was transported to the mindset of a ten year old looking wide-eyed at a treasured collection of toys from some of my favorite movies of all time. I remembered how my younger brother and I would play with these figurines for hours upon hours, building elaborate kingdoms from our blankets on our beds. We would also incorporate toys from Transformers and GI Joe and Adventure People and Micronauts into huge intergalactic scenarios in our shared bedroom. David’s bed would be one planet. My bed would be another planet. The dressers would be other planets as well. And, the space in between was just that – space! The climax of our play time was the huge War between the planets! David and I would come up with a story and would modify that story continually as we obliterated each other’s kingdoms and planets. Who would win was varied. Some times David would win. Most times, though, I would win simply because I was the older brother and that alone gave me enough power to win most of the time.
Those were good times.
I went to the closet in my living room and found another box containing Jabba da Hut and two speeder bikes. There were also toys other than Star Wars in the box. I took the toys outside and arranged R2D2, Obi Wan, Bubba Fet, Luke Skywalker, Jabba da Hut and others around the Uruguayan made clay nativity set, all looking toward baby Jesus.
It’s hard to believe that most of these Star Wars toys are from my childhood! Some of these toys are 30-plus years old!
Anyway, it was fun digging up these toys and memories, – setting up an elaborate scene just as my younger brother and I used to do as kids. This time, though, my brother wasn’t with me – David was busy with his own kids on Christmas day. And, there was of course, no War to be fought. It was just me reminiscing my childhood on this lonely Christmas morning.
I added some newer toys – “Aliens” toys I had acquired as a young adult to the mix along with a Wolverine toy and Voila! The Nativity set came to life!
I took some pictures and uploaded the one I liked most to google+ where I added some “seasonal effects” from their “creativity kit”. I also added some gift-wrapped presents, some pine cones, a santa hat on wolverine, a snowman hat on jabba da hut, some holly here and there and a rudolph red nose on darth vader and old jabba and finished off the picture with some snow effects.
Looking at this picture I feel the joy of Christmas over and over. This is what it’s all about, my friends…giving praise to the king of kings and Lord of Lords. And, what better way of doing this than with the friends I grew up with…Darth Vader, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Wolverine, Aliens, Sand People, Jabba da Hut, Jawa, Storm Troopers and so on. The whole gang is here. Well, almost. I’ll have to call my brother tomorrow to see how Christmas was with his family.
Many thanks for stopping by.
All the very best to you and yours.
Happy Christmas!
peace,
dh
12/25/2011
