~ Live Nativity (aka, "Animal Wrangler")

I need new business cards. Ones that say:

"Animal Wrangler, Donkey Chauffeur & Camel Travel Agent"

I helped out last year with getting a pony to play the part of the donkey for our stake's live nativity. He was adorable, but not the real deal. This year when they asked if I would be in charge of

{ all the animals }

I sort of freaked.

And balked.

And said that responsibility scares me. 

I like the buck to stop with OTHER people, not me.
And then I said, "Wait, is this like... like... a CALLING?"
(Mormon guilt = never say no to a "calling")
There was a moment of silence on the line, then Ileana said,
"Yes."
Perfidy? Prevarication? Desperation?
I have my suspicions since no one ever set me apart. But the bottom line is that I adore our {miracle worker} Stake Relief Society President Debbi Morrison (the genie responsible for the whole nativity event), and I will do anything to make her life easier. 

Even if it gives me a bleeding ulcer.
{ clutching my stomach }

What a cool missionary opportunity for our community, right? And such a great way for our families to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

So, I put on my best

"Hi! I don't know you and you don't know me but I am gonna charm your socks off and beg you to bring your barnyard animals to our nativity!" hat and started with the phone calls.

We got:
4 sheep,
(complete with an adorable little shepherdess girl named Mary and her little lamb Soda Pop... who literally followed her everywhere she went)


Bob the goat,
and a miniature donkey and his best bud, a miniature horse.


It was really hard to find a rideable donkey, however. And you know how Mary needs that lift to Bethlehem.

(Darling Kathryn as Mary... while Joseph was on a cocoa break. This is Brother Carlisle, a shepherd, filling in for the deadbeat step-dad. Just teasing, Alex... you were very gallant.)
I finally found Barney,
(I want to adopt Barney!)

(isn't he adorable??)
the mascot for Mustangs and MOHR in Dallas.
(a non-profit that matches rehabilitated mustangs with at-risk/troubled youth)

The most impressive part of our nativity just about gave me heart failure:
Nigel the camel.


He came to our nativity last year for the first time, and was a HUGE hit.
(no really, he's huge)
He is super friendly and loves kids.
However, in the past year, at the ripe old age of 14, he had the audacity to OUTGROW his trailer. His owners were in limbo between selling their old trailer and ordering a new one. We needed a trailer that was 7 feet 6 inches tall.
INSIDE height.
Everything was 7 feet 6 inches.
OUTSIDE height.
{ Oh dear. }
Several times we thought we had a ride for him.
Several times I almost peed my pants when we realized the trailer wasn't tall enough.
The last time, with the trailer we thought was a sure thing, that WASN'T
was the day before the first day of the live nativity.
I needed a paper bag to breathe into.
Molly, Nigel's "mom," just laughed.
The little people in my brain yelled,
"BREATHE, Tamara, BREATHE!"
I breathed, and everything was okay.
(Thanks Scott Short!!! You were our Christmas miracle!)


I learned (again) that when we're doing something that Heavenly Father wants us to do,
that he will help us do it if we give it our best shot.

Sing it!
♫ "I will go; I will do / the thing the Lord commands.
I know the Lord provides a way; he wants me to obey.
I will go; I will do / the thing the Lord commands.
I know the Lord provides a way; he wants me to obey."♫

The live nativity happened.
Thanks be to God!
Lots of people came to see.

(my Kizi and Calvin with the great Mary Baum)
Angels fraternized with shepherds.


Tommy and Maria brought their newborn to be our Jesus.

I took deep breaths, and spent time pondering in front of the manger scene.
(including before anyone was there...)

And soaked it all in.

The boy scouts and the animals (except for Nigel and Barney) spent the night Friday night.
My frozen tush recovered from 3+ hours of exposure two nights in a row.
I learned how many barnyard animals I can fit into my 2-horse trailer.
My trailer still has sheep poop in the tack room.
My kids were troupers.
(That's the correct spelling. I promise.)

And I loved the whole thing.

nativity displays

(dang, I missed getting a photo of the boatloads of homemade cookies, hot cocoa, and milk that were served in the cultural hall)

Isaiah

Samuel the Lamanite

Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem

shepherds in the fields by night

wise men

And my early Christmas present?

First there was no newspaper coverage. So I called the news line the first day of the nativity, and a reporter came out. Then the paper was going to do a tiny blurb in the West Salem edition. Instead it went out in the main paper on the front page of the Valley Living section... on Christmas Eve.
(*sniff!*)

West Salem church makes live nativity an annual event

About 1,400 people attend 2-night, 2-hour presentation

BY JUSTIN MUCH • STATESMAN JOURNAL • DECEMBER 24, 2010

Nigel is a perfect fit for the role he has played two years running in West Salem.

The 12-year-old camel was again a hit this year at the live nativity, presented by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, near the intersection of Eola Drive and Doaks Ferry Road NW.

Nigel's audience was 1,400 during the two-night, two-hour display. This was the second year of the event, which organizers hope to make an annual one.

"Last year was our first year, and we hoped we would have 600 attend," nativity coordinator Debbie Morrison said. "We ended up with 1,200, so we decided it was something worthwhile and we would do it again."

Morrison said attendance increased to about 780 Friday and 700 Saturday this year. Visitors to the free display were rewarded with the work of hundreds of members from this Polk County LDS stake, including about 40 people who took part in the actual nativity, performing roles as varied as Isaiah, Samuel Lamanite (an ancient prophet from the Book of Mormon in the Americas who prophesized the birth of Christ in Jerusalem), wise men, Joseph and Mary.

On Saturday evening there even was 3-week-old Sam Burton, son of Maria and Tom Burton of Dallas, playing baby Jesus.

Owned by Molly Shaefer, Nigel the camel hails from a farm between Salem and Silverton. He has grown considerably this past year, enough so that event animal coordinator Tamara Pugmire had to arrange an eleventh-hour ride for the star; he'd outgrown his trailer.

Given Nigel's role, the task of finding transportation was non-negotiable, and Pugmire came through.

"Last year was the first nativity Nigel had ever done," Morrison said. "He was such a friend to everyone — very friendly, very docile and very pleasant - it was almost as if he posed for everyone.

"Charming Nigel, the camel, spiced up the ambience of the production and captured everyone's heart," said Nona Springer, the LDS Monmouth Stake public-affairs director.

Other animal stars included Barnie, a donkey who has starred in the Rickreall Christmas Pageant, and Soda Pop, a lamb cared for by Mary Shurtleff of West Salem.

"She boards the lamb up the street, and she walked it down (to the nativity), and she was in her little striped shepherd girl costume," Morrison said. "She walked it around the scene, and he goes everywhere that Mary goes — literally. There's a nursery rhyme in there somewhere."

Visitors moved methodically around the exhibit, from Isaiah's writings through the manger scene, then were guided by a luminary-lined walkway back to the church, where cookies, hot chocolate, Christmas carols were offered.

The nativity visitation window was short, two hours on two nights, but plans are for more in coming years.

"We hope to have it ongoing," Morrison said, noting that the weekend before Christmas is deemed ideal to hold the annual event. "A live nativity helps you to slow down a little bit and to remember what Christmas really means."

jmuch@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6736