When is Jesus coming back?

When you become a parent, you are a changed person. It's true that some things in life will never be the same. Having a clean car, eating a family meal in a restaurant, going to the bathroom by yourself -- all challenges after having children.

The holidays have also changed for my husband and I. After we got married, it was several years before we even put up a tree. Why would we? We both were gone from the house 10-12 hours per day. A Christmas tree would have just been something for the cats to destroy while we were at work. A basic tree and a wreath on the door, and we were done.

But now.

Now, there are two little boys in the picture. Boys who ooh and aah at Christmas lights. Yes, even the baby, who tries hard to say "Christmas" (which comes out like "Hnfnifmuss" -- hard to spell.) Also, we are surrounded by neighbors who have children. They like to decorate their yards, even doing things up big for Halloween.

Because we don't want to look like scrooges or even the one house on the block that is comparable to Charlie Brown's pathetic little Christmas tree, this year, we decided to join our neighbors and put out some lawn ornaments.

We had a lot of deciding to do.

Large inflatables?



Outdoor Christmas trees?



Santa flamingos?



My husband is a bit of a traditionalist, and he wanted a nativity.

I refused to have the cheap plastic ubiquitous Holy Family in my front yard.



But the really nice nativities were several hundred dollars. Even thousands.



I kept shopping.

And one random day before Thanksgiving when I went to buy a water filter at Sears, I rounded the corner and found a beautiful display of Christmas trees and holiday lawn decorations. The Junebug was enthralled. The lights! The ornaments! The Winnie the Pooh! The Santa Claus! The wiry reindeer that move! Motion-detector bells that play Christmas songs!

And no nativity.

Later, I told my husband that I looked around the store and even asked a man who was stocking shelves in the area, "Does the store have a nativity set anywhere?"

"A what?"

"A nativity ... a Holy Family?"

The man gave me a blank look. Maybe English wasn't his first language.

"Do you have a Jesus? You know, a baby Jesus?"

"No, nothing like that," he said.

"Are you expecting for anything like that to come in the next few weeks?" I asked. It was before Thanksgiving, after all.

At this point, my husband interjected, "Wait, did you ask him when Jesus is coming back?!"

"No, I asked if Jesus was coming in," I clarified. And maybe I swatted him.

But all in his good time, Jesus did appear with his family.



Um, and so did Mickey Mouse (for the Junebug) and a penguin (for the Man-cub).



And a train for both of them.



And the Man-cub and Junebug love it all.

Happy holidays to you!