STABLE - a Christmas story

STABLE

“We have a son! I will teach him to be a good carpenter.”

“Are you sure? I know you promised but . . .”

“Hush, wife – I meant every word – now sleep.”

She lay back on the straw holding her son to her breast and slept until voices woke her.

“Find another shelter – my wife’s just had a baby.”

“We know; we were told to come – we’ll leave the flock outside.”

She moved her veil aside to show the child, and weathered faces worshipped while his baby hands bestowed blessings.

“You’ve seen him,” Joseph said, “Now leave us in peace.”

“We all wish for peace,” they said and departed, leaving a lamb behind – mother and baby snuggled into its warm fleece and were comforted.

Later, more visitors came, rivalling the star-shine with their gifts, and as Joseph hid the treasures from thieves his last doubts vanished - Mary’s story of an angel was true.

That night Mary woke weeping. “I had a dream,” she sobbed into Joseph’s arms and he said, only half in jest, “Not another one!”

“I dreamed he was sold for thirty pieces of silver.”

“Our son will be a simple carpenter, wife – who would sell him?”

                                                             *********************

There's no 100 word challenge this week, so I chose a story that I wrote a year ago in response to a different forum's challenge to write 200 words inspired by the word SILVER.

The photograph I have used is of the crib at Reina Sofia Airport in Tenerife, where I live.

Thank you for reading my blog, and for the lovely comments I have received over the year.

I WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL 2015.

SHOW & TELL - Santa Cruz

We were in Santa Cruz the other day to meet our sister-in-law off a cruise ship for lunch.
She can't walk very far, so we had a coffee first and looked at the trees in their knitted or crocheted jackets which I blogged about on 15th.
Then we walked around the town for a while and came across this really sad sight beside the church. All the lovely craft work - plaster village streets complete with doors balconies and roofs - that had been part of their Belen (crib) had simply been chucked out for the bin men.
"Surely you're not going to take that home?" the OH and the SIL asked me, and do you know what? I was tempted.

CRIBS AND KINGS - THE FINAL FIESTA

photo from www.newsinthesun.com

Today is January 6^th – Epiphany in the church calendar. To some people it is Twelfth Night – the day by which all Christmas decorations should be put away. Here in Tenerife it is Dia de los Reyes – Kings’ Day – when all good Spanish children receive gifts from the Three Kings, or a bag of coal – carbon del Rey – if they’ve been naughty.

Another Christmas tradition here is the making of a crib – un Belen – which can be anything from a plastic scene from a euro shop to an elaborate creation with life-size figures.

The one in the above photograph is mine. In 1980 I made the main figures at pottery class, then my children got in on the act. Mandy made the horse, Debs the cow, John the pig and Dan, who was two at the time, insisted on making a second infant Jesus. Even when my children are far away at Christmas, I have this crib to remind me of when they were young and always there.

In our shopping village, Las Galletas, I only just spotted this Belen in the window of the farmacia in time before they took it away. The detail is amazing.

An oxen-drawn cart and chickens . . 

. . . a village plaza with a bar in the background and a circular meeting-place, choristers mounting the steps  . .

. .  a market with ham and sausages, cheeses and potatoes for sale  . . 

. . .  flamenco dancers by the duck-pond welcoming Los Reyes on their camels . .

... and finally the inn with the Nativity scene in the cave stable beneath it - complete with Guardia Civil..

FELIZ REYES!