After singing some Christmas carols and hearing a reciting of the bible story of Jesus' birth from my neices, we opened some gifts. This particualr gift is a ceramic bell from the Slovak town of Modra. I brought many such gifts home because they are an authentic peice of Slovak culture. Modra is a village about one hour from Bratislava which is famous for the production and creation of all things ceramic. The main street is lined with ceramic shops and there is more than one foundry there where the ceramics are actually manufactured. Each peice is beautifully hand painted which gives them a unique quality.