For Christmas, Joey got me the Ox and Goat figurines for my Willow Tree Nativity scene.  I love Willow Tree Nativity scenes, and I actually have two (the big one and the little one, and half of the little one stays out all year).  I was so excited about the aforementioned Ox and Goat figurines, especially the Ox.

“He’s the coolest animal in my whole set,” I told Joey.

This is high praise considering the black sheep were my favorites up until this year.  I put them away during the year and only take them out at Christmas, so as to heighten my enjoyment of seeing them.

What.  It’s not that weird.

But seriously, the Ox’s horns are sharp.  I poked myself with them just to be sure, and they are definitely weapons.

So on Sunday I was sitting in church, right before the sermon, and I got to thinking.

With my Ox and Goat, do I now have more animals in my Nativity scene than people? I did some quick calculations on my bulletin and discovered that, nope, I sure don’t have more animals.  Especially not if I count baby Jesus twice.

I need three more animals to tie.

I know there’s a huge donkey or something for the big Nativity, but it costs like a million bucks so I’ll probably never get that.  Plus I have no place to keep him on my mantle, the big Mary and Joseph barely fit as it is.  But I was also pretty sure that the little Nativity had some extra stable animals you could purchase in a set, aside from the black sheep and camel that come with the Shepherd and Stable Animals pack.  (I told you, I have the whole set and I know their names.  I’m serious about this stuff.)

So I looked all over the interwebs.

I was sure I had seen them.

Apparently I was, like, wrong or something.  Dagnabbit.  The only animals that seem to come in an extra set are the Ox and Goat, which I received from my awesome Joey for Christmas.

I’ma have to do some more looking in stores, though, because I was almost sure there was another sheep set.

I remember when Mom got her new Nativity scene all those years ago (to replace the plaster ones we had where the heads fell off and we had to glue them back on, remember those?) and she’d leave it out all year.  I’d play with it and pretend I was Mary and Joseph, looking for a place to spend the night.  And I’d pretend I was the shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night.  I’d pretend I was the angel, bringing good tidings of great joy to those shepherds.  And, sometimes, I’d pretend that I was one of the stable animals that was keeping baby Jesus warm.  (I had a seriously active imagination growing up.)

When I have kids someday I want to have a Nativity scene that they can play with and use to imagine the Christmas story.  I love to have mine out all year, too, so I can look over at it and remember why we celebrate Christmas, because of Jesus – that baby born in a stable – and how He affects our lives all year…not just on December 25.

But I still hope there is another set of animals that wasn’t on the interwebs.  I know baby Jesus is the most important part (which is why I counted him twice) but…but the animals enhance the Nativity.  Seriously.  They do.