I  told Sister Mary Albert that I only wanted to be the Blessed Mother so I could hold baby Jesus and when Sister Emmanual Joseph chose Flora I couldn’t help it but I got mad and I didn’t mean to drop the African wise man and break him but I did and his hand broke off then Sister got mad at me and made me write I will not be disrespectful one hundred and twenty five times and said I had to be an angel with the second grade girls and that made it worse because everybody knows that all the first and second graders get to do is be angels and they wear tinsel halos and wings made out of coat hangers which hurt a lot and the feathers are only paper with glitter on and I didn’t really mind when I was in first and second grade but I don’t want to do it now and then Sister said she needs me to be the angel who says peace on earth and I said I wouldn’t and I didn’t want to be any kind of angel at all and anyway Sister Mary Albert said I could be Mary this year but Flora got it instead and she used to be my best friend and I couldn’t believe it when she smiled at me and said maybe next year and she wasn’t being nice and everybody knows that fourth graders are the shepherds so I’ll never get to be the Blessed Mother then when Jimmy Pochowski got to be Joseph it was even worse and I don’t really like Jimmy because he still calls me Fatty Catty and he is such a show off even if he is an altar server now but all my friends said Jimmy was going to be Joseph and me Mary and now its Flora and my Uncle Bert and Aunt Margaret were going to come to the play and we were going to go out to eat before and everything and I told Aunt Margaret on the phone what happened and she said that she thought I would make a good angel even though I do have red hair and freckles and I should be grateful Sister Joan isn’t there anymore or I would probably have to be a polar bear who was dying of global warming but I was still mad because I am only going to be a dumb angel with the second graders then I went to Mass and Father Florsheim who is the young priest who I like a lot said that it is Advent and Baby Jesus is always coming to us in ways we never expect and then Sister said if I didn’t want to be the angel who says peace on earth I could be the angel that flies down and gives baby Jesus to Mary and Father Florsheim was right Jesus did come to me in an unexpected way and I get to be close to him after all and then Flora told me she thought Jimmy Pochowski was stupid and she doesn’t like it when he has to put his arm around her and it was only a play and even if he was Joseph she didn’t love him except the way you’re supposed to love everybody even if you don’t like them and I don’t know why but it made me feel better I think.