Our nativity scene

I made this nativity scene for our family when Ryan and Sara were very young. My friend Beth, from church, and I each made one together and it was so much fun. It has had a lot of love over the years. All the characters are stuffed and weighted down on the bottom so they stand up easily. Little kids, and big ones too, love to arrange and rearrange the people and animals. (They are not all in the picture.) This won a blue ribbon at the Marathon County Fair when we lived in Wausau. An interesting story about this was how we got the hay for the manger the first year. We were riding along the streets of Wausau looking at Christmas lights one evening, when the kids said that we should have real hay for Baby Jesus in his manger. I said,"Let's pray about it', and we said the prayer out loud right then and there. Ken turned the corner on our street and there in the middle of the city street was a pile of hay. I am still awed by this event. Talk about a quick and complete answer to a child's simple and expectant prayer. It was unforgetable.