Journey to Bethlehem

When I heard that our church was putting on a family Christmas program called Journey to Bethlehem I knew they would need a Baby Jesus. Well, I just happen to have an adorable, agreeable, appropriately heavenly baby boy, who (in my opinion) would fill that role quite well. So I did what any aspiring stage-mother (just kidding) would do- I volunteered him. Little did I know, they didn't just need a Baby Jesus...they needed an entire Holy Family. Any guesses what that meant? Yup. We were a package deal. Here's what it sounded like when I broke the news to "Joseph":

Mrs. Smith: "So...Isaac is going to play baby Jesus in the Christmas program."

Mr. Smith: "Cool."

Mrs. Smith: "And it just makes sense for me to play Mary. You know, it's not like he's going to sit with someone else all that time."

Mr. Smith: "Uh-huh."

Mrs. Smith: "And I really don't want some strange Joseph..."

Mr. Smith: (silence)

Mr. Smith: (glare)

Mr. Smith: (smirk)

Mrs. Smith: "I think it will be fun!"

Mr. Smith: (Mr. Smith is gone, he has left the room)

And when I told him we were to be in full character, costumed, with lines? Well, let's just say he was less than thrilled.

Then, the big day came and something miraculous happened.

They put us in a small, dimly lit room. They had set up a stable scene, complete with (wooden) donkey, (ceramic) sheep, (live) angel, and a rustic wooden manger with straw and soft white fleece for our little baby Jesus. It was showtime. Time for him to act like the Heaven-sent One he was representing.
That he did. He smiled, he cooed, he stuck his tongue out (ok, it was cute to us), and after one brief nursing session (during which no children were traumatized, I promise), he went to sleep. It looked a little something like this:

As we packed up our things to head home, Mr. Smith said, "That was fun."