"Bringing in the Sheep"

A few weeks ago I posted a bit about our church's Christmas pageant where the sweet girl played a sheep. In addition to the children dressed as sheep, the kids dressed as shepherds also had a soft, stuffed sheep that one of them carried.

The sheep belonged to us, though I'd forgotten that. My creative husband has a seemingly endless (or bottomless) supply of interesting props and costume pieces from his years in drama, and also just out of habit (if he's at a thrift store, he can't help himself...you just never know when you might *need* a toy castle or a pair of sparkly sunglasses or red suspenders or...you get the idea). At heart, he's a big kid and also something of a collector. He can think of a million uses for common, ordinary things that other people would never consider saving or keeping.

But I digress. The sheep was from our closet, even though I didn't remember it was ours, and after the peformance D. left it in my office at the church. He planned to pick it up later and wrap it and give it to the sweet girl, who loved it (but who also hadn't quite cottoned on to the fact that it belonged to our sheepfold...er....household).

With one thing and another, especially holiday travel, we forgot about it. So there it sat in my office, where various people noted and admired it. But finally, this week, D. decided it was time we went ahead and brought it home. When he and S. came to pick me up at work yesterday, he gave it to her. She was thrilled, and insisted on carrying it to the car and then once she got out of the car again at home. It was very funny to see her trundling up the sidewalk in her purple winter coat with the furry hood, this cumbersome (but cute) large stuffed sheep in her arms.

And even funnier when her Daddy (did I mention he's funny too?) began to sing a rousing rendition of "Bringing in the Sheep" to the tune of the old hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves." As in: "Bringing in the sheep, bringing in the sheep, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheep!" Even S., who didn't entirely get the joke, thought this was funny. We all giggled our way up the steps.

I really do love the wonderful guy I've been married to for almost fifteen years!