1/1/2022 Just finished my annual rereading of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Still funny but this year it brought a tear to my eye as I realized how much the Herdmans changed. As the narrator's mother said that there was good deep down in the Herdmans, I saw that she was right. They changed. When it was all over, they would not take back their ham nor take the candy canes and little Bibles but all Imogene wanted was a picture of Mary. The Herdmans made the Nativity story realistic--refugees from another land, poor, alone, no place to go. Kings who are tired from their journey. It was a new way to see this story. And it is always worth rereading every Christmas.