Raindeer Wannabe

                                                          REINDEER WANNABE



         “Come on, Grady. Put this on.  I have to see if I need to put a hem in it.”  Grady folded his arms and shook his head as Mom held out David’s bathrobe. 

         Mom repeated. ”Put this on,” and by the tone of her voice she was not requesting she was ordering.

         “I don’t want to be a shepherd again this year.  I don’t even want to be in the Christmas play. And David’s bathrobe is too big for me.”

         Mom put the bathrobe on him and tied one of my scarves around his waist. “Walk over there and turn around,” she said.

         It didn’t help that David and I were laughing.  Grady said it again, this time more emphatically.  “I don’t want to be a shepherd!  I want to be a reindeer.”

         “You can’t be a reindeer. There are no reindeer in the Bible.”

         “I don’t see why not.  I could wear my antlers -- “

         “Grady,  you are going to be a shepherd.  All you have to do is walk on the stage with the other shepherds and stand there.  Can you do that?”

         The sleeves hung over Grady’s hands.  He looked a stitch. And I couldn’t stop laughing. 

         Mom said “all the other shepherds will be wearing bathrobes.”

         I said “Because everybody knows shepherds take a lot of showers.”

         Mom gave me one of those looks, but it was too funny.  I couldn’t stop laughing.

         “Why are there no reindeer in the Bible?”

         Mom said, “Because reindeer live up north and everything in the Bible takes place in the Middle East.”

         “But they could put one in.”  Grady wasn’t giving up. “And they could say he came a long way just to see the Baby.”

         “Nice try,” said Mom.

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