The wooden pieces for the manger, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus,
a cow, a donkey, a camel and a shepherd and three sheep came out of our building.
It was a cold blustery day.
Charley scratched his head while he tried to remember how it went together.
After a few false starts, we finally figured it out.
We brought down the figurines from the rafters of our building. We will remember this year to put them in trash bags before they go up in the rafters again. There was quite an accumulation of dirt and saw dust on them.
But, everything came out in the wash. Charley did most of the work. He washed all of them. Even though he is in short sleeves, it was very cold outside. He said he didn't want to get the sleeves of his coat wet.
Baby Jesus' cradle had broken, so my son made a new and sturdier one. The one that came with the figures was a flimsy plastic one. Andrew made this one out of some cedar he had in the building (another name for his workshop).
Our neighbor gave us some hay. We finished putting it together just before the rains came. I think it looks real nice. We hadn't put it up in quite a few years. We bought Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in 1991. In 1992 we bought the donkey and cow. In 1993 we got a lamb. In 1994 we bought the shepherd and two sheep and a camel. So you see, we have accumulated our Nativity piece by piece over the years. I guess we now need to get the wise men. I haven't seen these in the stores lately, though, I don't know if they still sell them or not.
The rains turned to a dusting of snow.
