I know the holiday memories are slipping from the blogs and people are posting New Year’s goals and whatnot, but we can finally post about Damon’s special gift of 2008 now because the recipient opened it today.

First, I have to mention that Damon likes to give handmade gifts, but because he is Damon, he likes to Go Big. He learned a few years ago he should just focus on one Damon-made gift per Christmas. Most of his gifts are divined to him early in the year, giving him a bigger window of time to make sure the gift does in fact Go Big. In fact, the 2008 recipient was revealed to Damon during the 2007 Christmas season… my mom (aka McMom, aka Vieja).

McMom started a certain Christmas tradition in 2003 or so. I’m not sure of the exact date because I wasn’t there. Her bookclub in Germany (and McMom will correct me if I’m wrong) had a Christmas party and read the first act of Dorothy L. Sayers radio play “The Man Born to Be King.” McMom enjoyed this so much, she had us do it Christmas of 2004 (Fuller’s first Christmas) and gave my sisters and I each our own copy of the full play.

Every Christmas since, she has hosted people in her home for a nice time of fellowship and reading the first act. And every year she has some difficulty gathering the scripts and dividing up the parts. Sometimes people have to double up on parts or even triple up, so it makes it even more difficult and messy. The scripts are old, dog eared, scribbled on, and sometimes confusing who is doing what.

Damon decided to help her out and came up with a way to use a lot of his gifts in making this gift. First, he created a software program that became a script generator. He scanned in the pages of the play (first act only) and divided up bits and bytes (there might be technical jargon I could interject here, but would you understand it?) into the various parts spoken in the script. Now, all McMom has to do is pop the DVD into her computer, click the boxes next to specific characters and a script will be generated with those parts highlighted. She can then print the script and hand it to her party guest, who will know exactly what part(s) he or she will be covering that festive evening.

BUT! That is not all!

No, Damon had to Go Big.

When my mom received her gift this morning, she didn’t just get a little DVD. No, what she got was this box:

And inside of the box was the makings of a playset.

Damon had created a stage with three backdrops for the three different scenes. And he created figures representing the the twenty characters who would appear on stage. They would appear on stage if it was a stage play, which is wasn’t, but that’s ok. McMom has grandchildren who can’t read yet, so this will give them something to do, right?

Here is an example of the stage, a backdrop, and two of the figures. You can see more detail by looking at even more pictures of the playset.

Damon put a lot of thought and photoshop into creating the figures. He was able to make ten double-sided play figures, arranged so the figures on the opposite sides are not on the stage at the same time. Damon had a little trouble with one character though- Zorastes. He is in the scene with the High Priest, and to solve the problem Damon got a bit literal: since Zorastes (a bit part) is accused of hiding behind the High Priest, he is on the back side of the figure of the High Priest.

When Damon sent the playset to McMom, he added an End User Agreement, which included this caveat:

The Manufacturer shall read the part of “the shepherd” and ONLY be required to read the part of “the shepherd” at all future readings of TMBTBK the Manufacturer is present for.

Apparently Damon has read the part of Herod enough times (three) and would like to be typecast as “the shepherd” from now on. The shepherd only has one line. And we think the part of Herod should be passed on to whomever my sister Austina decides to bring home for Christmas next year.

I know McMom really liked her gift, and I’m really proud Damon put so much thought and work into making it so cool.

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