Homemade Blessing

I don't know if I've ever received a homemade gift.  Seriously.  I have been very blessed in my life, and never felt without anything.  Every Christmas and birthday is a happy memory.  My parents worked so hard, and I am grateful.  But they bought the toys and things they gave me, as I have for my children.  And others.  I might have mixed a tape or two in the day, but that's about as "homemade" as I've ever gotten.

Cory said his dad used to make him a lot of toys.  He remembers all of those handmade treasures so well.  And now, his dad made me something too.

I asked for this creche for Christmas.  Well, last year I had suggested it, and my mother in law thought maybe my father in law could make it.  I put it back on my list this year, thinking maybe he would.  He did.  When I got to my inlaws on Thanksgiving, I found what my father in law had put together.  He looked at the measurements of my nativity set, and made it just tall enough.  He didn't want to buy an entire bail of straw, so he scooped up some of what was laying on the ground around the hay bails at Bachmanns.  Don't tell.  Stolen hay in Jesus stable.  Heh. 

Here it is, completed:

It was exactly what I wanted.  No. More than I wanted.  Because he took the time to put this together for me.  It is the perfect gift.  I understand that now, and am grateful.