this takes the "take this bread as if it were my body" thing to a whole nother level...

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/plastic-baby-in-king-cake_us_58b433bde4b0780bac2b5fbb



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2018 05:56PM by anybody.

I used to have a plastic baby like that and think my family used it in the nativity scene we put up in the living room at christmas when I was a kid.

This past christmas, my wife decorated a bit more than usual and she set up her old nativity scene. She asked me where my plastic baby was so she could use it as Jesus. We looked and looked but couldn't find it...bummer because it's really old and I like antiques.

So we gave up looking and instead, I offered up my little "moai" Easter Island head that i got on a keychain at a Ron Jon surf shop instead. It fit the cradle in the manger just fine so we left it.

Everytime I passed by it for the next week or so, I would say "dear tiny, little, infant Easter Island baby Jesus...." in a southern accent like Ricky Bobby saying grace in Talladega Nights.

That's hilarious!

Jonny the Smoke Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I used to have a plastic baby like that and think
> my family used it in the nativity scene we put up
> in the living room at christmas when I was a kid.
>
> This past christmas, my wife decorated a bit more
> than usual and she set up her old nativity scene.
> She asked me where my plastic baby was so she
> could use it as Jesus. We looked and looked but
> couldn't find it...bummer because it's really old
> and I like antiques.
>
> So we gave up looking and instead, I offered up my
> little "moai" Easter Island head that i got on a
> keychain at a Ron Jon surf shop instead. It fit
> the cradle in the manger just fine so we left it.
>
> Everytime I passed by it for the next week or so,
> I would say "dear tiny, little, infant Easter
> Island baby Jesus...." in a southern accent like
> Ricky Bobby saying grace in Talladega Nights.


FOFLMAO. That's too funny!

I bet your 'moai" looked great. We have a carved wooden ' Moai' which hung on our Christmas tree this year...bought on Easter Island !!( Also bought one carved out of some kind of marble looking rock..I can't remember what the islander called it )

It did look great. Tiny, little, Easter Island baby Jesus, with his faux stone texture, color and long broad nose looks way more rugged and tough than tiny, little plastic baby Jesus.

I still want to find my tiny, little plastic baby Jesus though.

When I worked in Louisiana, The manager would buy the first King Cake of the season, and leave it in the staff's break room. After that, whoever got the baby would buy the King Cake for the following Tuesday. That's how it went, right up to Mardi Gras itself.

While we were not allowed to dress up for Mardi Gras in my office, we could hang green, gold and purple beads on our inboxes, for decoration during the season. It was fun.

As for the Mardi Gras parades, once was enough for me. The traffic was hideous, a lot of the drivers were drunk, and unless you stay at a hotel that is right on the parade route, it is next to impossible to find a bathroom.

Having grown up in SoCal and attended the Tournament of Roses Parade, I thought that the Mardi Gras parade floats were pretty blah.

Same as in Mexico on 3 Kings day.

If you get invited to the party, you WILL get the baby Jesus and you WILL pay for the cake. That's the cost of coming to the party. And you WILL be HAPPY to pay for the cake.

Good to know in advance - have some money!

I imagine it's French in origin. They have some very different Easter traditions, as David Sedaris tells it in this reading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5apZmwR9UI

Boy I wished i had a nickel for every time a baby jeezus jumped out of a baked item I was about to eat. It get irritating after a while.

King cakes are a regular thing here in the Southeast. Last year, our co-worker who got the baby was new to this whole tradition and asked what it meant. He's from PA and is Iranian. We told him that whoever got the baby was going to be adding a baby to his family in the next year. He seemed really disturbed by that news and disposed of poor Baby Jesus pretty quickly. We were really worried that we might have said something that was going to have a negative impact on his marriage. Luckily, nothing happened and the year is over. Not sure whether he cut into the cake this year or not.

Not that every Mexican wants you to pay for the cake.

My dear friend (who told me that) has given me many excellent tips about traveling in rural Mexico.

Tip lavishly and daily. This has paid off big time when I injured myself (my idiot friend shot his surfboard at my mouth) and the hotel staff brought me bandages and medicine for free. I also tipped hotel gardener and he helped me avoid someone.

If you don't want to buy anything, pay the beach vendors to tell you a story while you buy them a coke.

Bring white handkerchiefs.

Bring good pens to give out. They have children's toys.

Bring change.

Play "what's in your purse." The farmers market doesn't have change, and you don't want extra potatoes. Even if you can't make a deal, it's loads of fun to examine each others bags.

Buy oilcloth. The variety is vast. Recently I used this to cover a bale of hay for outdoor seating (using tent stakes) and it worked great! Comfy too.

Laugh at yourself.

Link about the tradition of a "king cake"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cake