Unseemly at the manger

Today the girls and I drove to New Castle to go to Nanny and Poppy's house to turn up their heat and their water heater and turn on the lights; Pat and Kieren went to the airport in Indianapolis to pick them up as they flew in from Denver (and boy, were their arms tired!)

We were passing through a neighborhood went Meelyn gave a hysterical little scream and burst into laughter. "Oh no!" she choked, wiping tears from her eyes. "Oh, that is just too awful!"

"What? Who? Where?" Aisling and I asked, calling out and swiveling our heads back and forth in the manner of owls. "Who? Who? Where?"

"That big plastic nativity scene back there, set up in that yard," gasped Meelyn, overcome with laughter. "It was just so wrong...."

Wrong? I thought. What could be so wrong about a plastic nativity scene in a yard? I mean, sure, they're not all that beautiful or anything, but the sentiment is there and those nativities are surely a lot better than that one house that has the driveway lined on either side with many gallon plastic milk jugs fitted out with colored lights. From the looks of that driveway, that family has singlehandedly been keeping the Indiana dairy farmers in business -- it sort of looks like a gaily lit landing strip for Santa's sleigh. But I couldn't see what could be wrong about a nativity scene.

"It was the figure of the Blessed Virgin," said Meelyn, weeping with mirth. "One of the three wise men figures had blown over and he was....he was.....nuzzling her neck."

"Oh, no...." I groaned. Aisling said, "I hope they notice when they get home from work, because that's just...ugh."

It was even worse when we drove back by later. The wind had picked up as we sat at Pop and Nan's talking and drinking tea, and the wise man -- creepy masher! -- had blown over a little further so that a appeared to be taking a lecherous look down the front of the Mary figure's modest white robe. It made my stomach clench up, although the silly awfulness of the tableau was not lost on me. I hope the homeowners noticed and got everyone sorted out. Yeeeesh.....!