This morning, it finally came down! Usually, this is done in our house on the 6th, the feast of the Epiphany, but Father happened to remind us that the Christmas season goes on until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which was yesterday.
When I explained to Sue, who HELPS us with the cleaning (I stress 'helps' as I wouldn't want anyone to think that we sit here doing nothing and it IS a very big house), that the poor old kings had only arrived IN the crib itself last Wednesday so I had decided to give them a longer stint in the stable, she laughed at the idea of the 'poor old kings'. (Until the Wednesday, they'd been gradually approaching along the shelf as the days went by.)
So the annual effort began. The crib itself was purchased by my mother from our church when son no1 was born, so quite some time ago!! It was hand-made in Austria and has to be fitted together each year and IT'S a NIGHTMARE! Each year I have to work out again which of the eight wooden pieces goes where, as I erect it on the base, put the straw (courtesy of our green-grocer) in the stable, place the (very unstable) figures inside and gingerly transport it to the shelf where it resides throughout the Christmas period. It falls down repeatedly and requires me to start all over again, generally driving me mad.
So guess what, after all these years, I finally decided to number each piece as I dismantled it and mark left and right fences etc. Why on earth did it take me so long to come up with such a simple and OBVIOUS device!? It either shows I'm completely daft or a slow learner - or- it gives hope that it's never too late to come up with a good idea.
