A Technological Nativity

On Christmas Eve, while waiting for the children’s Mass to begin and during the choir’s caroling I took the 4 yr old and 1 yr old out of Church to walk around the property. The 4yr old girl had received a toy stuffed horse and was carrying it around with her. I asked the 4 yr old to pretend she was Mary and that her horse was a donkey. She insisted it was a horse and I encouraged her to just pretend it was the donkey. She agreed reluctantly. I hid around the corner with the younger child and tried to get “Mary” to put herself in the Blessed Mother’s position wanting her to recall the star that led the shepherds to Bethlehem. I called out, “But Mary, how will we find you?” After a moment of silence “Mary” said, “Pretend I sent you an email and told you there was going to be a star in the sky to follow.”

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Later I took the one year old to the side altar to show her that the baby was now in the manger. Being so tiny her head barely reached high enough to see the hay strewn along the floor of the stable. She did reach to pet the sheep nearest to her saying, “ah ah, nice baby.” I tried to direct her sights towards the Infant but she had to stretch around the sheep to see Him. Her first response was to hide back by the sheep, reach out to see the Baby Jesus and say, “ Peek A Boo!”