feliz navidad

growing up, our across-the-street neighbors put up a life-size nativity scene in their yard every year. and slightly to the left of the scene, in quiet observation, was a hard plastic Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus. if this juxtaposition wasn't bad enough, the whole conglomeration was usually up until valentine's day.

that memory was conjured up this morning as i watched susanna play with her creche. after she had carefully situated everyone around the stable, she stepped back to survey her work, and was obviously not quite satisfied with the presentation. she trotted off, and soon returned with her box of dora the explorer edition candyland. she opened the box, extracted the four plastic figurines, and inserted them into the group.

luke wrote in 1:17-18, "when the shepherds had seen Him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them." so i have no doubt that had they existed at the time, dora, backpack, boots, and diego would have joined the rest of the world in its amazement. but by the looks of it, they would've probably skipped the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and brought balloons and party hats instead.