Morning has dawned bright and dry.

My hostess brings me some more porridge oats and tells me they have eaten porridge too. I find that very strange. Donkeys do not ordinarily eat the same food stuff as humans. Must be a quaint local custom.

Today is going to be a quiet day as quite frankly my poor Mary is all in. I don’t know how many more miles we have to go but my hostess has read that it is about 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Mary and Joseph are sitting at the dining room table packing presents. Joseph is getting into a tangle with some sticky stuff used to keep the paper in place.

I watch how loving he is to his dear wife. You know they didn’t have the best start to married life. Mary told him she was going to have a baby and naturally enough he thought she had been unfaithful. And I can tell you there were a lot of mutterings and murmurings back in Nazareth but I knew the truth.

Being one smart donkey I must learn humility. I stand quietly and I prick up my big ears and I hear things so I know that an angel appeared to Mary and that she was going to give birth to a Son and that He would be called the Son of the Most High.

An angel also appeared to Joseph and told him not to be afraid because Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit and they were to give their new Son the name of Jesus. Wonderful.

Of course, this should be a time when my dear Lady should be taking things easy but you don’t ignore the Romans so we journey to Bethlehem.

I took a lot of heeing and hawing from my fellow donkeys who thought it very funny that I was carrying a heavily pregant woman on my back but I know that I am one very special and blessed donkey who is carrying the most precious gift the world has known or will know.