Mr. Twisted and the Disco Ball

Jerry [Mr. Twisted, whose December post has gone missing on Blogger, so I'm not linking to it], that disco ball that you showed? There was one just like it at the place we visited on Saturday. I kept expecting John Travolta to boogie on down through the line of folks waiting to pay for their gold-plated Christmas trees.

You asked if I like the traditional Nativity sets. I do. I painted a two- or three-piece set years and years ago in Relief Society, when we did more crafting at what we then called Homemaking Meeting. This is when cold-fired pottery[?] was all the rage. I think that’s what we called it, when you took white [plaster?] pieces and painted them without setting the color in a kiln.

Anyhoo, mine was painted to resemble terra cotta, and it got lost or left behind in one of our many moves. When my mother passed and I came into a modest sum but still more money than I had ever seen in one place in my entire life, I bought the set that I have. I thought at first that they were carved wood, but they’re resin, and they’re showing their age a little. One of the camels is missing an ear. Mary has a small hole in her head, “temporarily” patched with cellophane tape for about seven years now.

I’m not the only person in my stake who has this set, because I’ve seen two of them displayed at the yearly Nativity thing, and one or both of them has a *sheep* as part of their set. I don’t know why my set never had one; maybe they were all sold out when I sprang for mine, which came in three parts, with each piece marked “one of three” or “one of five”, etc.



Here’s a closeup of Ms. Angel, with her neo-Victorian bun and star-on-a-wire. Mary and the Baby have pretty much the same goofy grin; Joseph and the wise men all have beards, the camels would be good poker players, and the donkey looks a little worried to me.

It was so great to sit with my best friend in her ward yesterday and to have her clear, true soprano in my right ear, and LittleBit’s in my left, and BestFriend’sBaby’s lovely alto on her left. It was good to see people that I don’t see much anymore, and to sing the Christmas hymns. And it was a little funny to see the looks on our friends’ faces as they walked into the building and we walked *out*.

Because the Nativity was still going on in our building, and because we have three congregations that ordinarily would meet there, yesterday *five* wards met in the old building for Sacrament Meeting only. There is an expression in parts of the West where the church has been long-established, “Busier than a four-ward chapel.” That is what you get when you have four congregations sharing the building for a regular slate of meetings. We got just the smallest taste of that yesterday.

LittleBit ended up working doubles yesterday. Her regular shift, and then filling in for a friend who was sick. It made for a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, as I dropped her off at work, came by our place to pick up the laundry, drove down to Firstborn’s, started a load, put it in the dryer just after LittleBit called me to come pick her up, ran by the stake center so she could take a peek at the Nativity and see the pictures she had modeled for. [We didn’t find them]. And then back to Firstborn’s for more laundry, and LittleBit took a nap while I surfed Ravelry, and I took her back to work and came back to Firstborn’s and finished up the laundry and brought it home, just in time to go get her for good.

Does it make you tired to read all that? Me, too. Yesterday was just a Sunday. It most emphatically was not a Sabbath, except for the interlude where we were singing and worshipping. Guess who slept like a rock last night?