written by Janna Phelps
Involvement in this Christmas producion has become a Christmas tradition for my husband and I, and we have tried to pass that thought on to our children. Each year we find ourselves making props and because of the amount of time we spend on them, our home becomes the staging area for the projects.
There have been some years when my home has looked like bombed out Beirut because of all of the work we have going on. I know many people couldn’t handle that, and that is all right. This is what the Lord has asked of us and we do it happily!
This year is no exception. Right now I have 5 paper mache rocks in my living room. It is difficult to walk in there, but it won’t be for much longer. We are so excited to see how they turn out and to make them a part of the drama backdrop! The other thing we needed to get for the props was different grasses. What North Dakota lacks in trees, it makes up for in different prairie and wetland grasses. So, equipped with scissors, a small saw, and pruning shears, my husband and I set out to get some of the local flora.
It was in November, November 15 to be exact, and there was no snow on the ground. We figured we better not procrastinate anymore on the job at hand because the Lord wasn’t going to hold the snow back much longer.
It was a beautiful, grey day with a bite in the air; the kind of day that makes you anticipate a snowfall. Scott and I went out in the country about 2 miles from our home and began to cut off grasses, cattails, small bushes, berries and other interesting twigs and sticks. We loaded them into the trunk and brought them back to the house to sort through them and bind them together so they could dry. Now….if any of you have ever spent time in the country, you KNOW what cattails do when it turns cold, right? The tops that are brown in the summertime, turn fuzzy in the fall and winter, and those fuzzy things are little dandelion like parachutes.
My husband said we would take all of this in the house to sort and bundle, but I had a sneaking suspicion that this would best be done outside. I tested the cattails, and found them to be pretty well intact, so I didn’t say a word. We got everything inside and quickly set to the task of sorting and bundling them. Perhaps it was the warm air, but before we knew it…the cattails began to….molt! I tried to carefully, and gently to move the mass of weeds, but it was no use. The harder I tried to keep the fluff contained and to a minimum, the more fluff was in the air! The air was literally filled with cattail fluff! By the time I was done, I was covered from head to toe with it and so was all of my furniture! It felt like an invasion….of fluff busters! I quickly got my vacuum out and tried to get as much as possible up. I got most of it and then I had to run one of those lint rollers over my clothes to get the rest.
Later that day, as I was sitting at the table minding my own business I glanced up in time to notice…you guessed it! It was FLUFF floating by! By this point I had had about all the “fluff” I could handle. A couple of days later, as I was dusting, I found quite a bit on my wooden furniture. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry! I decided to laugh! After all….it was all for the cause!
Now, if you are in the area on December 12, please feel free to come to the cantata. It is always a great evening of song and drama, and our ladies always make a wonderful luncheon buffet to be enjoyed after the cantata.
Oh… Don’t worry ….You’ll find no fluff. I did not cook anything for it so you don’t have to worry about finding stray cattail fluff in your cheese ball!
Gotta run….my “fluffy” dust bunnies are calling me….
1 comment:
Ive worked through the fluff before. That was a good read, thank you for the laugh.
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