Baby Jesus in a manger crochet

 Is it OK to see baby Jesus on Christmas Eve?! Well here He is anyway?

 From this pattern as discussed before?

 I made the manger as per the pattern but then added a rim to make it more basket-like.
Then I sewed the straw- tan coloured raffia- in bunches across the top.
I doubled up the thiick long pipe-cleaners and made an M shape with a small hook at the end that diddn't have the benefit of the loop from doubling, so I could sew the ''legs'' to the basket.
Then I crocheted over the pipe-cleaner to hide it a bit.

 It took two rows to almost cover it all.

 These are the stitch markers I'm now using, I got these at I-knit when I was in London.
And the legs for the manger I made with stirrer sticks which did not work as well as the M pipe-cleaner ones... I glued these but they would not stand properly.

 I'm using a pack of these pipe-cleaners from ''trim-it'' : 30 cm long and thick.
And the film case top is the model for the card bases in the body part of the figures.

 Some smaller stitch markers from Amazon, these came from China.

 So here's Mary with baby Jesus, this before Sunday but I didn't think you should see this yet, after all he was to be born on Christmas Day?!

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY PEACEFUL, JOYFUL AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!