Christmas searching

As I recall these traditions that I tortured established for my daughters, I clearly see how lovely my girls are. They put up with a lot of shenanigans from their mother :)

When they were little, I bought a plastic nativity at the pharmacy to place on top of a low table for them to see. I wanted it to be approachable and not a "DO NOT TOUCH" experience and the one I found was perfect for this, sturdy and colorful, basically indestructible. I decided to make it a bit of a "watch this space" activity so I placed Mary and Joseph, the animals and the shepherd in a chummy grouping but decided that Jesus would arrive Christmas morning and the Wise Men would appear Christmas Eve. Upon reflection, as I write this, I am fairly sure this is not correct. I think Jesus arrived prior to the Wise Men but that isn't how it played at our house, no disrespect intended.

So...since Jesus wasn't busy until the end of the month, He often figured in other play scenarios and sometimes became misplaced. You have not known guilt until you have hopelessly misplaced Jesus. Off I would run down to the pharmacy and purchase another set to fulfill the prophecy, which would leave me with 6 Wise Men, 2 Mary's and so on.

Since the Wise Men were on a journey, I started them at the farthest end of our house for my children to find and had them 'travel' towards the party on the table in time for Christmas Eve. They 'traveled' at night when the children were asleep it was cooler but would always begin in the laundry room. They then would move to the back of the toilet, the edge of the tub, a chair in the hallway, on the floor by the front door, their shoes; wherever they would surprise with delight and laughter the two small girls of my heart.

As my children grew, the Wise Men split up and went into backpacks, the car the girls shared, in the mailbox, under their pillows, in the refrigerator (not in the vegetable bin as they would never have been discovered there) and more participants were mislaid.

I obtained quite a few of these sets over the years always needing to replace a cast member that had escaped the madness. This photo shows the remaining crew; 4 Wise Men, Mary, a Joseph that Mary could arm wrestle into submission, 2 baby Jesus', a shepherd and 1 cow, all waiting dreading the next generation of celebrants to begin the tradition anew.

Happy holidays to you all!