Baby Jesus, the Potato

   It began with an errant ball, flung by an errant five year old, which tore through my childhood nativity set with a vengeance. (This happened during a piano lesson, of course.)
  Bits of Precious Moments porcelain scattered over the carpet, and Joseph was declared dead at the scene.   One wise man was rushed to the crazy glue, and is expected to make a full recovery.
  My mother heard the news, and said, "Oh! I know exactly which nativity scene you need!"

   That's how a collection of plastic vegetables in bathrobes came to be in our home. Veggie Tales has made a nativity set, featuring Larry as wise man, Jerry Gourd as a cow, Laura Carrot as Mary - you get the idea. I would cry blasphemy, but my children have been very pleased with it. They move the french peas dressed as sheep all around the little stable, and are happy to talk about the Christmas story.

   Which is how I found myself, at the end of a long day, being faced with the following:
   "Mommy! Look!" my son cried, pointing to the scene he had carefully created. "Look! Everyone is standing around Baby Jesus, the potato!"

   Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Idaho Russet.

   Oh, Glory.