Looking for Nativities

... letting the lamb have a look at the creche ...

The fun of a nativity set for me, is watching who goes to rearrange where the characters can stand.

Do the shepherds come out in front and hide the baby from view?

Are the backs of the wise men to me, since they are presenting presents to the baby.

I usually want to see their faces and their gifts?

... letting the donkey and the cow have a look ...

Is Mary tending the baby or has she been moved and to the periphery of the scene only Joseph is there to look after the wee one.

Has the four year old who is moving these figures around, just noticed that one of the shepherds is carrying a lamb on his back, as well as having one at his feet and is overwhelmed with delight at his job.

Why is it that the angel is right next to the baby, I think?

Don’t the angels usually sit on top of the crèche and sing their hallelujahs from there? What about this gold, frankincense and myrrh?

... I think this shepherd has 2 lambs ...

Does it really make sense to a four year old that something used to embalm a body is a gift for a baby?

Wyona was sure that she had seen an acrylic nativity set this year as she has been out looking for decorations?

So together we went to Canadian Tire and then to London Drugs trying to track it down, but not to find one.

Can they already be sold out, Wyona says out loud.

Some really good decorations go that fast from stores, but buying nativity sets is not that popular anymore, and in fact, few stores carry them.

We go to a second London Drugs, not finding what she had seen at the Nolan Heights London Drugs.

... the baby fell bit it didn't break ...

And yes, we found it at the Brentwood London Drugs, but then on examining it, the figures are stuck to its base, since it lights up and the fact that it works with a battery means that the figures can’t move – which is the whole point to me – to arrange it first myself, and then to see the counter arrangements go on.

5In the past, Steve would take the baby out and put it on top of one of the camels or out with the animals at the side of the crèche.

Betty is not old enough to tell counter narratives about this story.

She is just busy learning about the star of the east, about the names of the mom and the dad in this story, and she wants to pick up the porcelain figures, turn them over, look at the colours of the costumes and be thrilled that she is part of my decorating team.

Betty stands on a three-legged stool, not that stable.

And I wonder if she will fall into the scene, or if some will slip and everything come crashing to the floor.

The chances are small, since she is being so careful.

So respectful, as though she has just met these characters for the first time and she seems to want a more complicated story about them than the simple one she knows.

I sing a few lines of "We Three Kings of Orient Are" to Betty.

I think about explaining to her how the kings have followed a star for a long way, riding their camels over field and fountain, mountain moor and mountain, and I cannot escape the memory of how long I used to sing, "We three kings of Orient-tar".

... I wonder where this baby should go
in the grand scheme of things ...

We sing the song at supper again.

Grandmother Joan Turnbull is at the table.

The parents have done on a date and the two grandmothers are enjoying the children together.

Joan is a good singer.

And she knows the song and sings it as do I.

 Both of us get stumped on the third verse: “frankincense to offer have I …."

... looks pretty good to me ...

And that is where both of our voices fade out.

She is quick with her phone and has already googled the words so that we can finish that verse before the children loose interest.

Ah Christmas.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Arta