Her name was Karen. She was the young mother of two pre-school children: Laurel, her daughter, age 5, and Matthew, her son, age 2. Karen wanted the children to learn the real meaning of Christmas so early in December that year she brought home a small manger scene. All the figurines in the manger scene were made of wood, so they were pretty much indestructible.., and also easy for little hands to pick them up and move them around and place them in different positions.

The children loved the manger scene and they loved being able to touch the characters and hold them in their little hands and arrange and rearrange them in creative and child-like ways. As you would imagine, sometimes the little figurines would disappear... and later show up in the most fascinating places in the house.

And inte…