Our Stint as THE (Not So) Holy Family

Whew! This was a tiring but good weekend here for the Crooks. We - me (Rebecca), Keith and Lily - played the holy family this year in our big Christmas production at church. We did the 3:00 performances on Saturday and Sunday. Lily did great as Jesus (we called her "Jesette") and did not cry a bit. I was impressed by her performance! :) We really enjoy being in the production, as it is a great time to hang out with some neat folks. Lily was her baby diva self (my little fashionista in her legwarmers) and survived all the attention and what I call the "grandmother gauntlet" - a pack of grandmothers not shy about wanting to hold that baby!

Getting into those costumes was a little challenging, but we made it. I had the hardest time getting the headpiece on, and Keith's Joseph costume was made for a 7-foot Joseph. After using what seemed like 30 safety pins to get that headpiece to stay on and tucking Keith's robe into his shorts, we were ready to tackle Lily's "costume", which consisted of a little triangle of fabric and a big piece of cloth to swaddle her in. Enter 30 more safety pins... I don't know how they did it in "the day", but I bet it wasn't the way I did it. Poor Lily laid there wiggling and looking at me funny (I probably looked like a big, blue blob with eyes!) as I struggled to make that thing look like a diaper. By that time I started to feel a bit of panic rise up in my chest as we had to high-tail it upstairs to get in the manger, but I didn't want her costume to fall off (Keith held her up at the end of the medley) and reveal her lovely Kirkland brand diapers! I just added a few more safety pins for good measure, and we sprinted to our place. During our jog I noticed that I had not taken off my red and green toenail polish (Merry Christmas! How festive...) Oh, well. I just tucked my feet under the robe. :)

It was a great view of the action from where we stood, as we tried to look "holy". The added bonus was that the camels and especially the elephant did not "relieve" themselves on the stage this year! Wahoo! I must confess that I prayed every time that elephant lifted her tail... :)